Robertson Grant: Urgent Debates — Hon Maurice Williamson—Ministerial ResignationText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Urgent Debates — Hon Maurice Williamson—Ministerial Resignation[Sitting date: 06 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17505. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): Well that was extraordinary was it not?Jami-Lee Ross finished his speech by congratulating a Minister who rang the police to intervene in a case of an assault by a man upon a woman. That is whatJami-Lee Ross has just done. That is the standard of the National Party—to get up in this House and to defend a Minister of the Crown for going and intervening in a case about domestic violence. I think that the actions of Maurice Williamson were disgraceful. Maurice Williamson has been in this House for 27 years and he should have known better. What is interesting to me is that regarding the standards of behaviour of Ministers in this National Government John Key likes to crow and say “I’ve come down hard on this.” That is only when they are caught out. It is only when they are in a corner and he has to move. It is not a high standard; it is just when they have been caught out and then suddenly he says “Right let’s make sure this doesn’t happen. Let’s try to shut this issue down.” And consistently over the 6 years of this Government that is what has happened.They are not high ministerial standards. They are not the standards John Key told New Zealanders they would be getting under a National Government. What it describes is the kind of behaviour of a Government that thinks it is above the law and that the rules do not apply to it. The rules that apply to other New Zealanders do not apply to them. Maurice Williamson can pick up the phone and call the Counties Manukau superintendent—an interesting call to make I might add given that the Counties Manukau superintendent actually was not in charge of the case. So I am not quite sure why Maurice Williamson rang him. Perhaps it was because Maurice Williamson thought that that was somebody whom he could influence somebody he could use his ministerial power on to ask whether they were on solid ground because this person had given a lot of money to New Zealand.That is the second thing that marks this National Government out. It thinks it is above the rules and it is out to support the wealthy few. How unbelievable that someone would think that ringing the police to say this person had given a lot of money means anything at all. What it means is it speaks to the values of the National Party. It speaks to the values where money talks. This is all about the donations that the National Party receives from wealthy New Zealanders. Money talks. If you donate money you are in a different category and the rules do not apply to you. So the National Ministers think they are above the rules and they think that people who have money are above the rules. They will do anything to look after the wealthy few in this country and it is a disgrace.It is all about the donations that the National Party gets. Mr Liu donated $22000. In the case of Oravida with Judith Collins we now know that the National Party has received around $85000 from Oravida over the last few years. The relationshipsbetween the National Party and big business in this country are way too close. What New Zealanders want out of a Government I believe is that it will treat all citizens fairly—that it will give everybody a fair go and everybody an opportunity. But with the National Party be it an individual person or be it a business it is the money that matters; it is not the person who matters.Judith Collins is still a Minister; Maurice Williamson is not. How can that be? Yes Maurice Williamson crossed over a line and he deserved to go and he resigned. Judith Collins has consistently misled this Parliament misled New Zealanders and misled the Prime Minister about her activities in relation to Oravida. That is bad enough. Any other Minister would go. David Cunliffe mentioned today that Nick Smith went as a Minister over writing a letter of support on ministerial letterhead for someone he knew something he should not have done. Judith Collins on a taxpayer-funded trip to China orchestrated three events for her husband’s company Oravida. It was a trip about justice issues. She got rid of a justice event so she could go 30 kilometres away from the airport to visit the headquarters of that company for a photo opportunity—an opportunity that official documents show was to increase the profile of that company. That is a breach straight away of ministerial standards but in addition to that as we have rehearsed many times she also then orchestrated a dinner where the directors of Oravida and an unnamed Chinese border official were present.Let us be clear: that dinner was a meeting. It was a meeting that was pre-arranged 5 days before she left New Zealand. It was a meeting that worried and concerned the New Zealand Ambassador to China and the head of the North Asia division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade so much that even after Judith Collins changed it from being an official dinner to being a private dinner they still wanted to provide her with a briefing. Judith Collins gave it away in the House today did she not? She said that she told the New Zealand Ambassador the day after the dinner that nothing untoward occurred. Why would you need to tell the ambassador that nothing untoward occurred at a private dinner?Hon Phil Goff: Unless he was concerned.GRANT ROBERTSON: The ambassador was concerned that something untoward was going to occur. No doubt that is in the notes that he provided for her. She felt the need to say that nothing untoward had occurred. Ambassador Carl Worker in the information that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has released has actually quite clearly distanced himself from this dinner. So that is a Minister on a taxpayer-funded trip on justice issues who orchestrated three events—she also got the directors invited to another event in Beijing—while she should have been talking about justice issues. And she remains a Minister but Maurice Williamson has been sacked. That is double standards. It is not just low standards of ministerial behaviour with John Key; it is now double standards as well.This Government is accumulating the impression in the minds of many New Zealanders—and we have all heard it in the last week—that it is who you know that matters with the National Party it is how much money you have got that matters with the National Party and it is whether you have donated to the National Party that will get you influence that will get you inside the door. That is an affront to our democracy. That is against everything that New Zealanders believe about an egalitarian society where everybody gets a fair go. There is no fair go under this National Government. The way it has gone about its business be it with Skycity or be it with RioTinto or wherever it is indicates the kind of cronyism that it favours. But it is in these personal actions that we see the true colours of this National Government—the true colours of a Government that will always put money before people that will always favour thewealthy few and where the standards that John Key told us he would apply to his Ministers have dropped to an all time low.I want to refer briefly in that context to the actions of Judith Collins in relation to the press gallery because they fit very much within this. Maurice Williamson resigned. John Key said he should have resigned. Judith Collins was the person left defending Maurice Williamson the other day on Sunday. In doing so she drew into debate a member of the press gallery and that person’s family. That is one of the lowest things I have seen a Minister do among many low things in this term of Government. It is the kind of behaviour that again speaks to the fact that anything goes with the National Government if you are not one of its friends. It was petty it was vindictive and it was deliberate.The apology that Judith Collins has made was for a mistake. This was not a mistake. It was a deliberate act consistent with the way that the National Government is going about its business: “Let’s take out people who dissent from us. Let’s change the law so you can’t protest. Let’s change the law so that the Canterbury Regional Council isn’t elected. Let’s change the law so that students and staff aren’t on university councils. Let’s silence dissent.” It is bullying it is nasty it is vindictive and that is how this Government has ended up. It is a Government for the wealthy few that thinks it is above the rules and that has now no standards within its ministerial system. Maurice Williamson has resigned. That was the right thing to do. Judith Collins should follow. John Key should face up to the fact that his Government is now representative of the very wealthy few in this country and not all New Zealanders.