Robertson Grant: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Robertson Grant: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 21 March 2012. Volume:678;Page:1155. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
: 
 That speech was from the Minister of Transport who has come up with one good idea and that is the changes to the give way rules which now mean we give way to the left. That is what happens. So Gerry Brownlee has finally come up with a good idea—to give way to the left on this side of the House. 
We need to be absolutely clear about what happened in Parliament today. We heard from the Prime Minister that if somebody writes a letter on ministerial letterhead asking for an intervention to give someone a comparative assessment of their health about their capacity to work on ACC letterhead that is just an error of judgment and it is not sufficient to breach the  
Cabinet Manual 
. That is what we heard from the Prime Minister today. The  
Cabinet Manual 
 may as well go in the recycling bin all around Wellington because this Prime Minister has decided that it does not matter—it does not count. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: It does matter. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: It matters more than that. You are right Ms Dalziel. It matters because it is what holds Ministers to account. New Zealanders deserve to know— 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: I seek leave to table a series of quotes by Helen Clark on the  
Cabinet Manual 
. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! What is the source of this document? 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: The source of this document is numerous quotes by the Rt Hon Helen Clark about how the  
Cabinet Manual 
 is just— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! The member knows that he has interrupted a member’s speech gratuitously and that is not on. The Leader of the House should know that. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: Thank you very much Mr Speaker. You are very sensitive on the other side of the House today Mr Brownlee. What we heard from John Key today is that writing a letter on ministerial letterhead to intervene in an individual ACC case does not meet Mr Key’s threshold of what is unacceptable for a Minister’s behaviour. 
The  
Cabinet Manual 
 could not be clearer Mr Brownlee. The  
Cabinet Manual 
 says that a Minister should be very careful not to use information they access in the course of their official activities in a way that might provide some special benefit to family members whanau or close associates. Bronwyn Pullar was a close associate of this Minister—we all know that—and now we have the situation where we have ministerial standards reaching an all-time low under this Government. This came from a Prime Minister who said he was going to increase standards. He said “I will take the action necessary if Ministers do not meet their standards.” Mr Key has failed that test today. Mr Key has said that the  
Cabinet Manual 
 the document that upholds constitutional accountability in our country is worthless to him. It is worthless to him. This is just a continuation from this Government—the actions of Dr Smith and the way John Key has responded—of this Government’s new slogan “Crony capitalism”. That is what we see from this Government. At every step of the way it is about cronyism. Take Steven Joyce and Skycity: “Let us make sure Skycity can have some more pokie machines through a deal by Steven Joyce.” 
Stephen McElrea who is on the board of New Zealand On Air is the chair of the Prime Minister’s electorate committee. We still have not heard from the Prime Minister as to what role he played in that appointment. What did he know about that appointment? We have cronyism from beginning to end with this Government. We saw it just the other day. I do not mind Dr Wayne Mapp. He is a cheery old fellow. But he has been appointed to the Law Commission without any proper process from this Government once again. Sometimes Mr Mallard thinks that he taught at a polytechnic but that is not fair. Wayne Mapp is a good person. He did not deserve to be put in the situation whereby he was appointed to the Law Commission with absolutely no process whatsoever. 
We know that right from the top in this Government cronyism is alive and well. We saw it most rightly in the MediaWorks debacle: a $43 million loan going to the company that Steven Joyce has long had links with then lo and behold that very company hosts the  
Prime Minister’s Hour 
. Cronyism was alive and well. The Prime Minister’s office was involved in writing communications for Radio Live so that the office could cover up its involvement in it. This is cronyism. Dr Nick Smith’s example is only one small part of a ministry that has gone beyond the standards that even we thought they would stoop to. [ 
Interruption 
] 
What was that from Jonathan Coleman? Dr Coleman of course knows all about this. His standards have been high right from the beginning right from the Mt Albert by-election on. He is now in this Cabinet which has reached a new low in standards of behaviour. We have a  
Cabinet Manual 
 that is created to protect New Zealanders’ interests so that they know that conflicts of interest will be managed. And today in this House the Prime Minister has said that that  
Cabinet Manual 
 means absolutely nothing. He has lowered the standards of behaviour of Ministers not increased them. From the beginning to the end of this administration we have seen cronyism. This Government is a total shambles.