Wagner Nicky: Appropriation (Parliamentary Expenditure Validation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
Wagner Nicky: Appropriation (Parliamentary Expenditure Validation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:634;Page:5870] 
NICKY WAGNER (National) 
: 
 I rise to oppose Part 2 of the Appropriation (Parliamentary Expenditure Validation) Bill. I want to make it quite clear to anyone listening to this debate just how significant this bill is. It is significant not so much in terms of the actual wording which is designed to look innocent enough but in what it says about Labour and how Labour views the political process how Labour thirsts for power and control at any cost and how Labour is even prepared to pass retrospective legislation to validate its misdeeds and its wrongful expenditure under Vote Parliamentary Service. 
As a new MP fresh from the real world of work kids respecting the law and paying my own way and who was not here during the last election I would like to think that I have an uncorrupted take on the issue. But coming into Parliament and watching this Labour – New Zealand First Government at work I have learnt a few lessons. 
Lesson 1: there is one rule for us and one rule for Labour. As National candidates it was drilled into us just how important it was not to overspend during the election campaign. We were told horror stories of MPs who had won on the night and who had lost their seats for the sake of overspending a few of their own dollars. We were all very very careful. And then the worst happened. Bob Clarkson was accused by Winston Peters of overspending and of buying the election. Mr Peters instituted a very nasty very stressful and very expensive court case which of course Bob Clarkson won. It was a classic case of Peters using bully-boy tactics while all along he and his Labour mates were rorting the system and using taxpayers’ money to underpin their own campaigns. Labour members believe that there is one rule for them and another for poor old honest Joes like Bob Clarkson. That is not the sort of behaviour the public of New Zealand wants or expects. 
Lesson 2: one who thinks one is all powerful can treat electoral officers with contempt. On 30 August David Henry the Chief Electoral Officer in his role of monitoring spending rang Mike Smith the general secretary of the New Zealand Labour Party and warned him that it was wrong for the Parliamentary Service to pay for the pledge card. David Henry said it did not matter who paid for it; it did not need to call specifically for the party vote to be considered electioneering. On 2 September David Henry clarified his warning in writing citing sections 221 and 214B of the Electoral Act 1993. On 6 September Mike Smith wrote back arguing the case but on 12 September David Henry wrote again asking Mr Smith if there was any reason why this matter should not be referred to the police for investigation of an illegal practice. 
 Forced to answer Mike Smith wrote a long letter arguing the case but he finally agreed to accommodate David Henry’s concern saying: “I would be happy to include the cost of the material in the return furnished by the New Zealand Labour Party.” So far so good; it was all sorted. David Henry had done his job. We should remember that this was on 14 September nearly 2 weeks after the issue was raised and days before the election itself. We can imagine David Henry’s surprise when he received a letter from Mike Smith on 5 October that stated: “I have now had the opportunity to reconsider the matter and I wish to advise that I withdraw my offer to have the amount expended on the material in question counted as an election expense.” So lesson two is that if one thinks one is all-powerful one can treat electoral officers with contempt. 
Labour agreed to the rules before the event then deliberately and cynically changed its mind when it thought it was too late for the officials to be able to do anything about it. The New Zealand public is lucky that it has a public servant of the calibre of the Auditor-General Kevin Brady who refuses to be cowed and bullied by Labour.