Peters Winston: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 15 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17225. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]7.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) to theMinister of Justice: Does she maintain that it is not in the public interest to answer all questions regardingOravida?Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Justice): I have never made that statement.Rt Hon Winston Peters: How can she give that answer when it is crystal clear that her pre-arranged meeting with a senior Chinese customs official at the height of the botulism scare was not just dinner with close personal friends but a serious conflict of interest that she and the Prime Minister are trying to cover up?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: I can make that statement because it is the truth.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Well if that is the case why will she not give the name and position of the customs official when she arranged to meet the customs official at the very time that her husband’s company was having huge issues getting its product through customs and had enlisted her willing intervention?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: The member is quite wrong in his question. If he goes back and looks at previous questions he has asked of that nature he will see that I have corrected him.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Is it not the case that when she was told that joining her and her close personal friends at the dinner was a senior customs official it did not raise alarm bells because meeting this customs official was the whole reason for the dinner in the first place?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: The member is quite wrong. I have never said that there was any senior customs official and he knows it.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Why is the Minister now claiming that there is no connection with the senior customs official and does she not understand that her arranged meeting with that official was a serious conflict of interest and a corrupt abuse of her Cabinet position?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: No. The member is quite wrong again. He continues to state in his question matters that are incorrect. I would say to that member that if he is worrying about corruption I think he should consider a member of Parliament who asks questions in this House and written questions to help his girlfriend in her position with a major global company.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Does the Minister not understand that throwing out those sorts of allegations will not save her when she was moonlighting for her husband’s company that her DNA is all over this issue and that if she answers questions fully she would no longer get the Prime Minister’s defence and would be sacked for corruption?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: The only member of this House who should be sacked for corruption is that member who has asked the question.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! This is a point of order. It will be heard in silence.Rt Hon Winston Peters: That Minister is not within the Standing Orders attempting to answer that question that way. She has been asked a serious question on a very serious matter—as serious as this House has ever seen—and she is seeking now to deflect it by attacking the questioner.Mr SPEAKER: In my opinion the Minister addressed the question.Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: Before I hear any more I just want to clarify that the member is not in any way questioning the decision I have just made.Grant Robertson: No it is a different point of order. I am under the impression that in this House a member cannot accuse another member directly of being corrupt and that is what the Minister just did.Mr SPEAKER: No I have already ruled that the answer was addressing the question and I think on this occasion in light of the tone of the question it adequately addressed it.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: Again before I hear the member is he raising a fresh point of order?Rt Hon Winston Peters: I am raising a fresh point of order. The Minister made an allegation for which she has no evidence whatsoever and I want an apology.Mr SPEAKER: If the member is now saying that he took offence well on that basis if the member the Rt Hon Winston Peters was offended by that answer I ask the honourable Minister to stand and withdraw.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Well I withdraw—is it? I withdraw. But I am happy—Mr SPEAKER: Order! It is not helpful to do that. The withdrawal does help the order of the House.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: If the member is attempting to trifle with the Chair I will take a very dim view of that.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I am not trifling with the Chair Mr Speaker. That Minister did not apologise as required under the Standing Orders—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. [Interruption] The member will resume his seat. I did not ask the Minister to apologise; I asked her to withdraw the remark and she did so.