Tolley Anne: Urgent Debates — Hon John Banks—Ministerial ResignationText is subject to correctionTolley Anne: Urgent Debates — Hon John Banks—Ministerial Resignation[Sitting date: 17 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14026. Text is subject to correction.]Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Police):We are here today in this urgent debate on the resignation of the Hon John Banks as a Minister. As my colleague has said he has not been found guilty of anything. Many many New Zealanders are accused they stand trial and many many of them are not found to have broken the law. So in this House we owe a responsibility to our justice system to uphold that premise that New Zealanders are innocent until they are proven guilty. I just want to commend the Hon John Banks for doing the right thing and resigning as a Minister outside Cabinet in this Government.It is quite interesting. I thought it was interesting that the Hon Trevor Mallard stood and took a call in this debate because the same private individual took a private prosecution against the Hon Trevor Mallard accusing him of assault. Of course someone who has stood and lectured us on morality would have stood down as a Cabinet Minister himself you would have thought when that prosecution was brought against him.Hon Simon Bridges: Did he?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: Did he? In actual fact he did not. In actual fact he was excused from a Cabinet meeting in order to appear in court. That is the calibre of the person on that side of the House who is standing and talking about the integrity of being in Government and the requirements to be a Minister and the integrity required for that. Actually Trevor Mallard pleaded guilty and paid a fine. He did not get a criminal conviction—Hon Simon Bridges: And he spoke in the House on this.Hon ANNE TOLLEY: —and he talked in the House on this. But he did not stand down.I just want to comment on the fact that the Hon John Banks has a long record of service to this country both as the Mayor of Auckland and also as a member of Parliament in this House and in fact he is a fellow Minister of Police. In October 1990 he came to Parliament and was made Minister of Police. Within a month he was facing as Minister of Police the Aramoana massacre where a 33-year-old unemployed man shot and killed 13 people in that small township. I would hate to have been—and I am sure every member in this House would hate to have been—in the role of Minister of Police and have to face that. The first responder was a local sergeant Sergeant Stewart Guthrie and he was shot. I raise this only because I visited the Dunedin Central Police Station and commented to the Hon John Banks that that police station was built following the Aramoana massacre and as part of the entrance there is a memorial to that sergeant who was the first responder to that massacre. That as I understand it was at the instigation of the then Minister of Police the Hon John Banks.I just want to reiterate that we should not in this House take the opportunity to make cheap political points. It is sad when a member like Metiria Turei who consistently is nasty raises nasty personal attacks on individuals in this House sees fit to use an opportunity like this where we are discussing a particular Minister and the difficulties he is facing and then spews out a barrage of abuse at a whole range of other Ministers about her perceived faults in their behaviour. This House should uphold the fact that every person is innocent until they are proven guilty.