Cunliffe David: Urgent Debates — Hon Maurice Williamson—Ministerial ResignationText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: Urgent Debates — Hon Maurice Williamson—Ministerial Resignation[Sitting date: 06 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17495. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Leader of the Opposition): It seems the Minister of Finance did not want his full allocation of time. That is hardly surprising because he did not really defend the Minister who has lost his job the Hon Maurice Williamson at all. In fact National’s response to this very serious breach of ministerial standards has been to throw mud at the Green Party to ignore the substance of the allegations and to fail to excuse justify or defend even once the shocking lapse of ministerial standards that is now endemic in that National Cabinet. Maurice Williamson is just the latest Minister to be added to National’s roll of dishonour. There is still room for more to come and no doubt there will be more. But last week he joined the ranks of Pansy Wong Phil Heatley Nick Smith Peter Dunne and John Banks. It is a long list—long and growing.Mr Williamson’s resignation and the issues that led to it are very serious matters that question the independence of the New Zealand Police and its ability to conduct investigations without political interference. New Zealanders must have an assurance that Ministers in any Government will not cannot and must not use their positions either to favour some members of the community or to apply pressure to independent organisations like the Police. New Zealanders are stunned New Zealanders are shocked and New Zealanders are saddened that that could have occurred at all.The fact that it did occur tells us a lot about the culture within National and the disarray that this Government is coming into. It is the Prime Minister Mr Key who is directly and ultimately responsible for the growing culture of cronyism—cronyism and arrogance—on the part of this National Government. These are the lowest ministerial standards in a generation. It is a culture that says that the normal rules of conduct no longer need apply and that the rules of theCabinet Manual have become mere guidelines.It is now allowable for example for Ministers and their families to financially benefit from companies that Ministers have assisted in their ministerial capacity without a proper declaration of conflict of interest to either the Prime Minister or the public. Why is Judith Collins still a Minister? Those companies like the one represented by the donor to Mr Williamson have donated thousands—tens of thousands—of dollars to the National Party and that is now business as usual. For this National Government politics is no longer any kind of calling. It is simply a business—cash in cash out. Standards are down and Ministers are hanging on and the public is becoming disillusioned that this Government represents any more their hopes and dreams for a better future.The Prime Minister has led this culture of cronyism and entitlement not just by omission but by deliberate act himself like taking $55000 from the chairman of Oravida and then telling the public it was a donation to a charity. The National Party was the charity. He reinstated Peter Dunne to his ministerial role despite the almost certain truth that he leaked a classified Government Communications Security Bureau report. He relies upon the vote of John Banks who is currently on trial for taking large amounts of money and then covering it up. He excused the Minister of Justice after she overruled the Prime Minister for condoning the actions of Minister Williamson interfering in a police operational inquiry not to mention the fact that it was a domestic violence inquiry and that he was a wealthy foreign donor. In any intervention you would expect the Minister of Justice to be the first to apply the rule of law and the conventions of theCabinet Manual but she did not. She sought to overrule the Prime Minister. Why is she still in office?That same Minister of Justice is a trained lawyer. She is a lawyer who is trained to manage and identify conflicts of interest but she could not manage her own and she has most recently taken out her frustration through low personal attacks on individual members of the press gallery. These are the standards in John Key’s National Cabinet. These are the reasons New Zealanders are losing hope and losing faith that this Government can represent any more their aspirations for a better life for themselves and their children in this beautiful country of ours.It is proper for us to briefly recall the incidents that led to Mr Williamson’s resignation. He rang the Counties Manukau district commander in January regarding the investigation of MrDonghua Liu after his arrest in December 2013 on assault charges relating to a domestic incident. Mr Williamson told them to “ensure we are on solid ground as Mr Liu is investing a lot of money in New Zealand.” He did not say Mr Liu was investing a lot of money in the National Party but he was doing that as well. And since when in this great country of ours has the amount of money in someone’s bankaccount been able to determine their treatment under the law? That is not the New Zealand that our people want to see. That is not the country we want to build.Mr Williamson then said that it was not improper because he was not a friend of Liu. You might say they were just beach bach buddies. That contrasts with Ms Collins who was having dinner with friends whom she could not talk to but saying that they were friends after all. Mr Williamson however had helped Mr Liu get citizenship after it was initially declined. He held his citizenship ceremony in his electorate office the next day. He encouraged him to buy the holiday home next door. He saw the plans for it and he worked on it. How close is that to foreign money? It is way too close for New Zealanders. To take that and then interfere in a police investigation to try to get the man off a domestic violence charge—a plague that affects one-sixth of all women in New Zealand—it is no wonder that members of the National Party across the way are hanging their heads low.Denis O’Rourke: Disgraceful.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: It is disgraceful. It is not the New Zealand that New Zealanders want to build.Very very sadly this is not the first occasion. First there was Richard Worth. He resigned in 2009 after being caught out travelling to India and talking up aviation training in New Zealand all the while operating as the director of New Zealand Aviation Ltd and holding shares and directorships of an Indian trade group—yet more undisclosed conflicts of interest yet more cosy relationships with foreign money. It took a while but he eventually left. Then Pansy Wong got it wrong in 2010 on yet another taxpayer-funded trip to China. This time as a private individual she witnessed her husband’s business deals signed a contract using her ministerial title and promoted—Hon Gerry Brownlee: She was proved right.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: —here is one for Mr Brownlee—her husband’s hovercraft business and the interests of a local Chinese website. She was too close to foreign money. A culture of cronyism setting in. It all sounds very familiar does it not given Ms Collins’ current troubles?In March 2010 Phil Heatley was sacked for much less. He lost his position when it was revealed he had charged Ministerial Services for expenses he was not entitled to. Or there is Nick Smith sitting there who went—only to return—for writing a letter of support for his friend and National Party campaigner Bronwyn Pullar while he was a Minister on his ministerial letterhead. The Prime Minister described that as a lapse of judgment but in the light of Ms Collins one could feel sorry for that Minister because he was treated harshly by comparison.This goes to the culture within National. It is a culture of cronyism a culture of arrogance a culture of entitlement a culture that the rules that apply to all other New Zealanders no longer apply to the Government. There is an old rule in politics that when that rot sets in a Government goes out.