Williamson Maurice: General Debate 
Williamson Maurice: General Debate 
[Volume:633;Page:5217] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (National—Pakuranga) 
: 
 It is a very very sad time in the history of New Zealand politics. One of the things New Zealanders and New Zealand politicians used to be able to do was hold their heads up high when they went overseas to international forums where a lot of Governments that were incredibly corrupt would parade on the world stage. We could get up and say that the good thing about New Zealand politics was that there was no corruption—there was absolutely none. 
But in the last few months two separate issues have emerged which I think bring no credit on this House no credit on members of Parliament and most certainly no credit on this Government for the way it has handled them. The first concerns Mr Taito Phillip Field—a man who quite openly says he does not know how four of the houses he owned got painted. Now I ask members of this House today to put their hands up if they have ever arrived home walked in the front door and gone: “My God! Someone has painted our house for us! This is fantastic; this is as good as it gets. I hope the other three have been done!”. And then I ask if they have driven off down the road to find the houses painted have thought: “Oh and look at the tiling on that one!”—but have not known who did it. I say: “Hands up those who have had that happen to them!”. There is not a mutter not a murmur and not a hand up. 
I do not believe it can happen that way. If we find our houses have been painted it is probably because we had contracted a painter a contractor or someone to do it and that person would have scheduled when it would be done and how long it would take—and the owner would have paid the bill. We now know that Taito Phillip Field had all those Thais up in Samoa working for him—known now as an “orchestrated litany of Thais”. They were working for him up there in Samoa but he says he did not know what they were doing when they were up there. So again it is not just about the four houses in New Zealand. 
He magically went up to check his house in Samoa—about twice. He took Phil Goff and a number of other members including you I think Mr Assistant Speaker. He suddenly found that his house in Samoa had had that miraculous transformation his houses had had back here in New Zealand. It had been painted and tiled! All I want to say is that that is great for New Zealand because we should show the world how someone can get a house done up and not have to pay a cent for it. 
And what has happened? That member is still a member of this House. Helen Clark as leader of the Labour Party demanded Denis Marshall’s resignation when the Cave Creek platform fell even though that member could never have known that nails had been used instead of bolts. No Minister of Conservation could have known it but she said that it was such an offence he should go. 
Hon Member 
: Really? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Oh yes that is what she said and now she has a member of her own caucus behaving in what the general public think is the most despicable manner possible. Members should check what the Pacific Island papers are saying check what the Pacific Island radio stations are saying check what the  
Herald 
-DigiPoll is saying—and he is still there. 
Now Labour has done its trick. It has clouded the issue by trying to make out: “I know other members who took a box of Roses chocolates” or “I know other members who got some flowers.” 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: I took a beer. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Wayne Mapp took a beer. Oh well that is almost cause for resignation! Mr Mapp had a beer. If members think that that is the same as tilers working for months for no pay on four of someone’s properties and then painting those properties then something is wrong. But that is how Labour is dealing with it. 
It is the same with the funding issue. Labour has now tried to muddy the waters by using the Exclusive Brethren pamphlets. I need to tell members that I am not a Christian. I am not a member of any of the faiths that other members of our team are and I do not have a great deal of truck with what the Exclusive Brethren believe. But I will die in a ditch defending their right to hold that view and their right to express that view. This is a democracy. 
We hear from Helen Clark that we need to be sympathetic to minorities. We need to be sympathetic to Muslims. I agree; we need to be sympathetic to Hindus and to others. But suddenly we get to one other minority who she decides is not in the same category and we can put the boot into them as hard as we like. That minority is the evil dreadful disgraceful Exclusive Brethren—but it is wrong to have had that view on all the rest. So now we really get to the substance. Is Helen Clark saying that a group of individuals in New Zealand does not have the right to spend its own money? No she tries to make out that what it did was attributable to the National Party—and that will not work.