Smith Nick: Voting — Correction; General Debates 
Smith Nick: Voting — Correction; General Debates 
[Volume:608;Page:5704] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (NZ National—Nelson) 
: 
 Nothing could be more amusing than hearing a Labour member talking about this Government and Prime Minister keeping their word when example after example shows that we can do anything but trust the word of the Prime Minister. Time after time we see a lack of accountability. This Parliament is about accountability and whether it comes to the power crisis whether it comes to important issues like resource management law whether it comes to important issues about the goals and the economic goals that this country has this Prime Minister has been found time and time again to be what can at least be described as economical with the truth. 
What we found out is that the official papers continually contradict what the Prime Minister is telling the people of this country. There is a blame game going on. When they found out that the silly spiritual cultural and ancestral heritage provisions of the Resource Management Act were no good who was blamed? It was the select committee we were told that had got it wrong. It was the officials who had got it wrong; it was nothing to do with the Prime Minister! Then we found out that the Prime Minster had signed out a very specific instruction that those provisions be included. 
John Carter 
: She said she couldn’t remember. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: She said she could not remember. I have to say that that is not good enough. If the Prime Minister put her signature to a piece of paper instructing officials then she has to be held to account. I say that we cannot trust this Prime Minister’s signature and that is an indictment on the standards of this Parliament and this country. I simply ask this: can we judge the Prime Minster by the standards that she set herself? 
Jill Pettis 
: Eighteen percent and falling! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I say to Jill Pettis that when Helen Clark was the Leader of the Opposition what was the standard that she sought of Jenny Shipley? Oh she said: “They’re a bit tough now. Don’t want to be judged by the standards I set for Jenny Shipley!” Because it was simply Jenny Shipley’s oral word. Never was it found out that Jenny Shipley dishonoured her signature. Yet on five separate occasions we have now caught the Prime Minister out where her signature is not to be trusted. 
I ask members to take one of the most important issues that should be at the core of the Budget. The Prime Minister signed out a statement that said the goal of her Government was to get New Zealand into the top half of the OECD within 10 years. That is what her signature said. But she stood up in the House and said: “No it was nothing to do with me. Never did that—that was some official. That was someone else. Don’t blame me.” 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: “I wasn’t conscious.”! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: She said: “I wasn’t conscious.” but I say “Not good enough!” We then come to substantive issues. I say that one of the reasons that the people of New Zealand are treating with contempt the Government’s aim to try to get New Zealanders to save power is that the situation is everyone else’s fault! It is not Pete Hodgson’s fault; it is not the Prime Minister’s fault that they had a crisis in 2001; it is not their fault! I say to the people opposite that they have been in Government for 4 years—it is their fault. They must take responsibility. They must have accountability and that is what members on this side of the House ask. 
Now I turn to the issue of “corngate”. Right in the middle of the election campaign the Prime Minister says things—because she did not tell the truth. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: What? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Did the Prime Minister tell the truth I ask Mr Clayton Cosgrove when she said there were further tests? We got the official papers— 
Jill Pettis 
: We won you lost too bad! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Well it was lies you see I say to Jill Pettis. The Prime Minister told the people of New Zealand that there were further tests and we at the select committee have been searching through the papers looking for more tests. They do not exist. The Prime Minister of New Zealand in the middle of an election campaign was economical with the truth. I say to members opposite that they should stop telling porkies. Chris Carter is not prepared to take accountability for his decision to decline a new power station on the West Coast. He said it was the court when he got into a tight spot and was caught out. I say to members opposite that they should start telling the truth. When they get in a tight spot they should defend their decisions. They should not try to blame others because accountability in this Parliament matters.