Wong Pansy: Immigration Amendment Bill — Instructions to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Wong Pansy: Immigration Amendment Bill — Instructions to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:611;Page:8262] 
PANSY WONG (NZ National) 
: 
 The National Party supports this Supplementary Order Paper which demonstrates to the public the Opposition outrage at the abuse of the parliamentary process and lack of respect to other political parties shown by this arrogant Labour Government. We will support this Supplementary Order Paper in the interests of our country to uphold the intention of the immigration legislation. 
I cannot help but reflect on the irony of the short speech given by the Green Party member. That type of speech was given by the Hon Lianne Dalziel when she was the Labour spokesperson on immigration in Opposition. I well remember that she took every opportunity to lecture National Government members and other parliamentarians about the uncaring attitude they showed to refugee claimants and detainees. She also defended those people saying that of course they would destroy all their papers before they landed in New Zealand. She defended those refugee claimants and certainly opposed legislation such as she has brought into the House this afternoon—which reminds me how much the “Maharey principle” has been practised by the Labour Government. 
But in supporting this Supplementary Order Paper we do want to register our strong protest and outrage at the total lack of consultation. For 3 weeks the Minister of Immigration the Hon Lianne Dalziel sat on this issue and only bothered I presume to consult with political parties that are friendly to the Labour Government such as United Future or the Progressive party. This issue is so important and it affects the immigration integrity of New Zealand. The public would expect a responsible Government to ensure this legislation passed through this House to show respect for political Opposition parties such as National New Zealand First ACT and the Greens. We have demonstrated that we are reasonable in the interests of the country but the total lack of respect shown by the Labour Government to the Opposition parties demonstrates why we continue to have problems with legislation being rushed through this House and then amendments having to be done swiftly. 
The second issue I want to bring up during this debate is the abuse by the Labour Government of the parliamentary process. This bill which this Supplementary Order Paper is part of was introduced on 1 July and was considered under urgency together with the Immigration Amendment Bill (No 2) that was passed at the time. When this Immigration Amendment Bill was introduced we got a note from office of the Minister of Immigration that there would be a briefing at 4 p.m. When we turned up to the briefing the Minister went off to a press conference. Our questions could not be fully satisfied by the officials or the Associate Minister of Immigration. But half an hour later we were forced back into the House to debate the Immigration Amendment Bill. 
At the same time the other piece of immigration legislation was rushed through the House under urgency again because of the Minister’s incompetent leadership. The Immigration Service found itself facing a backlog of over 20000 immigration applications. Because of that rushed piece of legislation over 40000 people found their applications had lapsed with certain exceptions. Even today I continue to receive letters faxes and emails from those people who have been deprived of any reason. Their applications were accepted in good faith and the officials did not even bother to process them. 
This is not the first time we have seen this Minister not bothering to ensure that the Immigration Service is running properly effectively or efficiently; neither does she care about consulting other parties to make sure that amendments can be passed. I must also remind the public that this arrogant Labour Government has managed to conduct its affairs in such an appalling manner due to the unquestioning cooperation being given by United Future—a party that had championed itself as a party of reason and common sense and a party that wished to ensure that the proper process is observed in Parliament. 
United Future has in the last 2 months given its approval to the Government even though the Government has been abusing the parliamentary process. Of the few United Future supporters left I hope they will question their party’s mandate in what they have promised the public in regard to holding the Labour Government to proper procedures. 
I want to bring up my last point of highlighting the problem of this Labour Government in terms of adopting a culture of blame. Whenever there is something wrong or it has to correct something in a hurry the Government will refer to officials not telling it in time or making up stories. In this case the Minister actually blamed her own Cabinet—that it approved the Supplementary Order Paper only yesterday so therefore she could not consult the other parties. She also blamed the legislation itself for the fact that she had to introduce the Supplementary Order Paper. I want to warn the Government that the public are taking notice and know that this Labour Government no longer seems to want to take any responsibility for its actions. Whenever anything goes wrong it simply blames the officials the Opposition parties or other past events. I think it is about time the Labour Government stood up and took the blame for fiascos like today’surgent introduction of a Supplementary Order Paper. 
Motion agreed to.