Hughes Darren: Urgent Debates — Heather Roy—Ministerial Resignation 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hughes Darren: Urgent Debates — Heather Roy—Ministerial Resignation 
[Sitting date: 18 August 2010. Volume:665;Page:13212. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Labour) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance 
. We have seen some extraordinary events in Parliament in just the last 24 hours as the Key Government starts to fall apart at the wheels. What has happened with the ACT Party is that a party with just five MPs which is taking the Government further and further to the right could not agree even on keeping its confidence and supply agreement with the Government intact. What did we get from the Prime Minister about that? Not a word—not a word. A Minister of the Crown has left office in our country and no one is allowed to know why. No one is allowed to have an explanation of what it is about. No one is being told how a confidence and supply agreement that led to a Government of New Zealand being formed is all of a sudden bereft and not being taken seriously at all. 
Several key points of constitutionality I think come into play. One of them should be of most concern to the Maori Party and to United Future because it seems that the Prime Minister can arbitrarily rewrite confidence and supply agreements after they have been signed at the time of a general election. I would have thought that it was a very serious thing indeed if a small party signed up to support a Government but did not know whether it would get the opportunity for the words in that document to be taken seriously as the coalition continued. 
I refer to the confidence and supply agreement that National signed with ACT which most curiously sets out something that I guess the Prime Minister would describe as being slightly aspirational. It states “The relationship between ACT and National will be based on good faith and no surprises.” Well I would have thought that it was a day of surprises yesterday in the office of Heather Roy as she turned up for work to be told that she was about to be knifed by her parliamentary colleagues that the ousting was going to be done in secret and that what was driving it and the reasons behind it were not to be communicated to the public. 
But today in the newspaper we were able to find out one of the reasons and it is a very serious point. Rodney Hide has sat in this Parliament for 14 years and he has sat in judgment over every other party and every other politician. He has sat here being holier than thou he has sat here as the “Perkbuster” and as the person who was going to be “Mr Transparency” “Mr Accountability” and “Mr Openness”. He has been a cut above most other parliamentarians and most other parties. But we have found out that in 18 short months after Rodney Hide’s long career as an Opposition member sitting outside the glasshouse and throwing rocks now that he is inside the engine room of the Government nearly every single decision he has taken has shown he is not up to the job of being a Minister let alone a party leader. He was the person who went around the country complaining that ministerial standards had slipped under previous Governments because not enough action was taken by Prime Ministers of the time. Yet he is the same person who went to a press conference yesterday and would not tell the public of New Zealand why he had taken measures to politically execute his deputy and what effect that would have on the executive Government of this country as a Minister was driven from office because of a tawdry backroom deal done by the ACT Party. 
What is really clear here is the question of accountability for Mr Hide because it seems that Mrs Roy in her role as the Associate Minister of Defence had significant concerns about the security of the paperwork and documentation in her office. The  
New Zealand Herald  
makes it very clear today that the Associate Minister was concerned that documents related to the defence portfolio were being taken without her permission from her desk in her ministerial office here in Parliament. It is very serious indeed for that to happen. Those documents are given to Ministers on the basis of confidentiality they are often classified documents and the former Minister Mrs Roy was quite rightly concerned at the extent to which the confidentiality of her papers was being abused by Rodney Hide. So what did she do about it? She went to Rodney Hide asked him about it and he bullied her. He tried to bully her— 
Hon Damien O’Connor 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I do not like to interrupt my colleague. I know that we are not allowed to point to the absence of a member in the House but I wonder whether pointing to the absence of a party is— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member will resume his seat. That is not a point of order. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: I am sure the research notes are being done right at the moment because the ACT Party will have to front up at some point as the party that put every other party to a higher test—its members saying that they would do better in Government than everyone else. They have sat there in this Parliament for 12 years in opposition to National and Labour Governments and have said they would bring a higher standard of ministerial accountability. But what we have seen of the behaviour of members of the ACT Party is deserving of Rodney Hide coming down to the House and telling us what has gone on because we are talking about the political career of a Minister of the Crown. 
I return to the point about the defence documents because it is one of the critical issues as to why apparently Mr Hide acted against his Minister. Mrs Roy went to him to raise her concerns about the fact that he had been sneaking papers from her desk—classified defence documents—that he was not entitled to receive. She checked that and Rodney Hide acted against her in that respect. When she was bullied by Mr Hide on that the matter was then raised by the Prime Minister. So the Prime Minister knew that in that office there were concerns about documents relating to the defence portfolio but yesterday when Mr Key was asked why Heather Roy had been removed from office he said he had no idea. We are expected to believe that John Key had no idea whatsoever why a Minister of his Government left office yesterday. It is of huge concern to the parliamentary Opposition and I believe to the public that the Prime Minister is prepared to argue that he had no idea why a Minister was forced to leave office. 
We were also told by way of the newspaper today that the new deputy leader of ACT Party John Boscawen lodged his challenge for the deputy leadership on 5 August. It is impossible to believe that from 5 August through to yesterday 17 August John Key was not advised of this challenge by the ACT Party. We know how close John Key is to Rodney Hide. We know that John Key is propping up the leadership of Rodney Hide at the present time because they are political soulmates in that respect. It is impossible to believe John Key’s assertion that from 5 August through until yesterday he had no idea that this was going on. 
It is even more impossible to believe accept or even understand that having heard about the coup if John Key was indeed aware of it he never thought in any of his conversations with Rodney Hide to ask why it was happening what was going on there and why the party was thinking of changing its deputy leader. If the ACT Party’s ministerial responsibilities were to be the responsibility of the ACT Party alone then why was Heather Roy’s name specifically written into the confidence and supply agreement? If as the Prime Minister Mr Key says it is simply a matter for support parties to decide whom they supply as Ministers why was it written down in black and white that Heather Roy and Rodney Hide would be the Ministers in this Government? John Key yesterday changed the political history of the collective responsibility of Cabinet and the  
Cabinet Manual 
 with the new term that he called “the implied concept of ministerial work”. So it does not matter now what is written in black and white as parties sign up to a Government and go to the Governor-General and say they have the numbers to run the country; we now work on the principle called the “implied concept” of the Key Government about who gets ministerial warrants. This is impossible to take seriously. It is impossible for there to be credibility on it at the point that that ministerial warrant was taken away by Mr Hide. 
Secondly if Mr Hide was so keen to move against Mrs Roy because he was so anxious to get his hands on those defence documents—the action that Mrs Roy so objected to—why when all the portfolios were redistributed yesterday did the ACT party decide to give up the defence portfolio? There was Rodney Hide going through the Minister’s desk checking out all the papers that he was not entitled to—[ 
Interruption 
] The deputy leader of the Labour Party made a very unkind suggestion! Rodney Hide went through Heather Roy’s papers and took her ministerial documents without her permission because apparently it was so important that he should be aware of what was happening in the defence portfolio yet the whole time Mr Hide was planning on giving up that portfolio as soon as he could get rid of Heather Roy. But the real reason we think—we do not know; we have to assume—that this Minister has been summarily dismissed behind closed doors in the ACT Party caucus room is that Mr Hide believed that she was being far too critical of his leadership. Well she will never be lonely in that particular respect. I say to Mrs Roy that she will not suffer alone in that regard. 
It is a bit rich of Mr Hide to sack a Minister to execute a Minister politically and to keep it a secret when he himself is on record as having gone around this country—when he thought he was off the record—criticising not just any Minister but the Prime Minister of New Zealand. We remember Rodney Hide telling a table of business people that the only problem his party had in its support of the National-led Government was that Mr Key “doesn’t do anything” and that although he was highly regarded “ACT did everything and we are hated”. So Rodney Hide went around the place criticising the Prime Minister up hill and down dale but that had no implication whatsoever on his ministerial role. The Hon Rodney Hide was protected in his job by John Key despite the overt criticism being made by Rodney Hide. Members should remember that that was the only occasion when Rodney Hide was caught out telling that particular story about John Key; we have no idea how many other functions around this country the Hon Rodney Hide has gone to criticising the Prime Minister behind his back. 
But as soon as Heather Roy raised some criticism of her leader Rodney Hide then he could not wait to put the knife into her and to politically execute her yesterday. Having overseen her political execution he fronted up to the media conference and simply said that caucus had made a decision and that it was a tough day for him. He said that people should feel sorry for him. He said that it might have been a tough day for Heather as well so people should feel sorry for her but he would not discuss what went on at caucus. Well I am sorry I tell Mr Hide but for over 12 years as an Opposition member of Parliament he has stood here and railed for higher standards in our Parliament higher standards in our Government and higher standards from our Ministers. But when that man is finally in the driving seat himself he does not have the fortitude to get on and deliver to the same standards that he has demanded from so many other people. That is why there is intense criticism not only of the way he acted in the time leading up to the events of yesterday but of the way he acted once he finally got rid of Heather Roy. He could not even show the leadership required to front up to the public and explain what had gone on. 
It seems unbelievable that a Minister can be dismissed from her portfolio without an explanation being given but that is what has happened here. Ministers have come and gone over the years on both sides of politics but there has always been an explanation from the Prime Minister or from the leader of the party about what has gone on. However it seems here that this has not been the case at all. When John Key would not back his own Minister he had an opportunity to tell the country why that was. 
Heather Roy tried to reach out to John Key on Monday night. She rang him and left a message on his voice mail. John Key would not call her back. But John Key was very quick to call Rodney Hide in December when the supposed coup was on to guarantee that if he were rolled as leader then the coalition deal was off. In fact the Government was so keen to prop up and protect Rodney Hide it even talked about having an early general election because it was so keen to have Rodney Hide stay in his job. So there was constant communication between the National Party and the ACT Party at the time when Rodney Hide was on the ropes but as soon as it was Heather Roy’s turn to be on the ropes John Key wanted nothing to do with it. In fact yesterday he said that he had no idea why she was voted out. It is absolutely unbelievable that that could be the truth. It is unbelievable that that could the case. What did Heather Roy say on the telephone to the Prime Minister? Why would the Prime Minister not come out and say that his Minister rang him tell us what she had to say and explain that he chose not to reply because it was an internal party matter? Yet after the dismissal yesterday he said that he would give her a call some time and tell her that she acted in a professional way and had done a good job as a Minister. 
Even after the December troubles Rodney Hide was running around the country telling people that Heather Roy was someone who was standing up for consumers and saying that it was about getting prices down for ordinary New Zealanders and households and about getting quality up. He even went as far as to say that the ACT Party stood for the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers—we were glad to get that clarification; we always thought it was something else—and that we had a Minister who was standing up for consumers. Rodney Hide was busy on the  
Q+A 
 programme promoting Heather Roy and saying what a good job she was doing yet yesterday he was prepared to oversee her political execution. The man who campaigned for transparency openness and accountability was not able to live up to his own standards that he has preached about. 
In Rodney Hide’s 18 months as a Minister he has done grubby deals with the National Party at the expense of the Maori Party and Maori representation on the Auckland super-city by threatening in an outrageous way to throw out his toys. Rodney Hide has campaigned with the National Party against his own deputy leader and he has gone around New Zealand criticising John Key because in Mr Hide’s heart of hearts he believes that no one is as good as he is. He believes that he is better than everyone else. Yet when the acid is being applied to him whether it is in relation to his parliamentary entitlements his ministerial leadership or his party leadership he is not living up to the expectations he puts on others which he has touted about himself for year on year. 
If a member is going to execute a political colleague—and Bill English knows what it is like to be on the receiving end of that—he or she should at least have the decency to front up and explain what the reason is. All we have from yesterday is the clarification that John Key will choose Rodney Hide over everyone else every time and that it is possible to do these grubby political deals behind closed doors. Ministers of the Crown pay a price for that. 
Finally we know that John Boscawen will be the new deputy leader of the ACT Party. That is good news for lamington bakers everywhere but it is not good news for the Parliament of New Zealand to see a Minister of the Crown executed in such a grubby fashion when she was the deputy leader of a support party of the Government. Rodney Hide should get up and explain to the country the sorts of things that he used to demand of others. He should apply the same litmus test to himself as he has applied to others. If he does not do that then he is not worthy of being called a political leader let alone a Minister of the Crown.