Robertson Grant: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: General Debate[Sitting date: 05 March 2014. Volume:696;Page:16341. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): There is a reason that theCabinet Manual has strict rules in place about the declaration of conflicts of interest. It is because New Zealand taxpayers expect that when Ministers go about their business particularly when they go overseas they will do so in a way that is fair that is good value for money and that will not in any way advantage them or anyone they know. It is my view and I believe it would be the view of most New Zealanders that Judith Collins taking a trip paid for by the taxpayer to the Shanghai office of a company in which her husband is one of only three directors going to that office having her photograph taken and having that photograph appear on the company’s website and that website saying she was endorsing their products constitutes a breach of theCabinet Manual. It constitutes a conflict of interest that John Key today says is no problem to him. Well I say to him to release that advice. Release that advice today because for most New Zealanders Judith Collins’ actions are a clear conflict of interest.It is not as if this visit to the Oravida office in Shanghai is Judith Collins’ only action in this regard. She also opened the Auckland office of Oravida in 2013. Her husbandwent on the board in 2012. Oravida is also the organisation that donated over $55000 to the National Party in 2011.Dr David Clark: How much?GRANT ROBERTSON: It was $55000. So Judith Collins knowing all of that goes to that office and promotes the products of that company. That is a conflict of interest. Judith Collins is not above the rules. She is not above the law. This National Government might be arrogant enough to think it is above the rules and above the law but it is not. New Zealanders want to know that when Ministers go overseas it is taxpayer money well spent. What they have seen here is a Minister prepared to flout what a conflict of interest is to most people.This company is not one that just Judith Collins has a deep involvement in; this company is also one that reaches far into the National Party. I will table at the end of this speech further information from the Oravida website that makes clear that when Oravida sponsored a group of business people from China to come to New Zealand in 2012 they met with Peter Goodfellow who was identified by Oravida on the website as the “National Party chairman” to discuss the exciting opportunity of extensively developing a foundation for bilateral collaborations. That is Peter Goodfellow as the president of the National Party meeting in that position—not in his role as a businessman apparently but as the president of the National Party—to help extend the relationship with this company Oravida. What I can also tell the House is that Mr Goodfellow’s company Sanford supplies fish products to Oravida. So we now have a situation where the president of the National Party—meeting in that position; giving an endorsement effectively to the relationship between that company and New Zealand—is also supplying products and benefiting from that.Here we have a company where a senior Cabinet Minister’s husband is on the board. He is going about his business as a director in a way that will benefit him and will benefit that company. The Minister goes to China appears in photographs has a statement that she is endorsing this company and opens its office. We have donations to the party. The National Party is in donkey deep with its cronies once again here and there are questions to answer for Judith Collins and John Key about whether they think it is acceptable to have this level of conflict of interest.Hon Annette King: What about Pansy Wong?GRANT ROBERTSON: This is Pansy Wong all over again.