O'Connor Damien: General Debates 
O'Connor Damien: General Debates 
[Volume:611;Page:8348] 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister for Racing) 
: 
 I have been in this House for about 10 years now. The first year I spent desperately trying to get on select committees; the last year I spent trying to get off them. But the last few months on the Local Government and Environment Committee have been very very disturbing. Nothing in Parliament is more disgraceful disappointing and ultimately self-defeating than members who use inaccurate slurs and accusations in a select committee or anywhere in this Parliament. I have witnessed something I would never have thought possible in this House—an unholy unlikely and ultimately unsustainable alliance between the National Party and the Green Party. Collusion collaboration and cooperation have been taking place on that select committee and I am most disturbed by that. 
Another strange partnership has taken place in Parliament in the last couple of months. Two men who are well known to Parliament—one is Nick Smith and the other is Nicky Hager—have formed an alliance. “Tricky Nicky I” and “Tricky Nicky II” have formed an alliance— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Reference to members of this House will be made by name and nothing else. 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: “Tricky Nick Smith I” and “Tricky Nicky Hager II”— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No the member is just being silly. He cannot refer in that way to any member or the obvious conclusion can come. However comments about people outside the House are matters of taste. 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: Thank you Mr Speaker. Those two people—who are well-known masters of manipulation well-known Oscars of omission and artists of inaccuracies—make wild claims because they are desperate to seek publicity in whatever form it might take. Nick Smith has been referring time and time again to a book put out by Nicky Hager that is full of inaccuracies. They both share the same paranoia over the Gisborne corn inquiry. 
I came onto that committee as a new member and was amazed at the way it operated: the chairperson is delivered a set of questions—from her research unit no doubt—and asks them one after the other on and on and on until she runs out of time. She then passes notes to Nick Smith who I presume reads the notes and will ask questions on and on and on. That unholy alliance is something I would not have thought to see in this House. 
I would like to refer to one other issue. In making a personal statement to the House yesterday Nick Smith might have got it wrong. He said he had disclosed to the select committee a possible conflict of interest. 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think our friend on his feet might be questioning a personal explanation. Mr O’Connor said that Nick Smith in his personal explanation got it wrong and in doing so Mr O’Connor was calling into question a personal explanation. I think he is going to do so again. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I think he had better leave that subject alone because of course I have received correspondence about it. I would prefer him to move onto something else. 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: Thank you Mr Speaker. The only sound reason I can think of for Nick Smith being so desperate for publicity is that he wants to run for the leadership of the National Party. National members are desperate. We would welcome Nick Smith as leader but they are absolutely desperate. I hope that party gets the  
New Zealand Herald 
. I hope its members read the editorial last Friday. It talks about confusing signals from a party that is struggling in the polls. It goes on to say: “ It is a lesson that appears to have bypassed National MP Nick Smith. So intent is he on scoring political points from the `Corngate’ inquiry that he seems unaware his activity is putting potholes in the path along which his party wants research and genetic modification to proceed.” 
I want to ask in this House: does the National Party support genetic engineering or does it not? Is the National Party prepared to sell out its principles and go into a coalition with the Green Party just to score cheap political points? Let us get on record some of the things that are clear.