Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): Thank you very much Madam Chair. I'd like to use an actual example and I notice that we're lucky enough to have in the Chamber this evening our Minister of Defence the Hon Ron Mark who is also a past deputy leader of the New Zealand First Party and a man that I'm sure is not afraid to get to his feet and actually take a call on this. But I'm really addressing my remarks—I'm going to ask Minister Andrew Little to stand and give me an answer to the real example in our last Parliament that I'm going to give. It's an example of when I was a member of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. We had a petition brought to the committee that was extremely serious and it related to the repatriation of our veterans of our service people in Malaysia. This is something that previous Governments—both National Labour and Labour and New Zealand First Governments—had failed to act on. The committee made sure that we allowed the families to come and make submissions. I actually travelled around the country and met with families and listened to their stories and by the end of that as the chair of the committee I felt very strongly that actually we had to make a change. There had to be a change in policy and we should have been repatriating our defence personnel particularly those in Malaysia—particularly those buried in a gravesite where we couldn't guarantee that that gravesite at some time in the future whether it be 50 years or 100 years might not be disturbed. I thought it was important to bring them home but that was in direct contravention to my own party's policy on it.The policy and the Minister of Veterans' Affairs at the time the Hon Craig Foss—who was very good—was very clear and I was told very clearly that That is not Government policy. That will not be happening." So I was put in a quandary because of my own integrity—my own feelings on the matter—and that of the committee so we had cross-party agreement on this. The Labour members of the committee the National members of the committee the sole New Zealand First member of the committee and I want to acknowledge Dr Kennedy Graham the Greens' member of the committee—we all agreed that the right thing to do was to have a change of policy. Yep it was going to be tough. Yep we were going to have to try and work it out. But it was time to bring our veterans home. So we wrote a report. The report took a position against the Government which put me in a fairly precarious position because I was the chair of the committee and I was a National MP and I was taking a position against my own Minister. Believe me I was called up to the Minister's office. We had a discussion around it and actually at the end of the day the National Government decided "Do you know what? Although we've got some conflicting advice on this and although it is going to be difficult it is actually the right thing to do and we are going to do it." Now my question is this: while we've got the Minister of Defence in the House it is for him—or the Minister of Justice himself—to stand and take a call and tell me whether or not this bill is going to have a chilling effect on how members of Parliament are able to come to decisions like the one that was taken by the select committee. I can tell you now that although I'm very proud to be a member of a party that does not support this would never support it and will never implement it the fact of the matter is that if this bill had been passed then I'd be reflecting a lot more on the decisions that I was making because I'd be put at risk of actually being expelled from this Parliament and not being able to carry—well the Minister has a quizzical look on his face. Do you not understand the bill? Do you not understand Mr Mark what this bill is trying to do? This bill has put in place—your leader has got—CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Order! Order! Hon MARK MITCHELL: Sorry Madam Chair. The Rt Hon Winston Peters—you are handing all the power to him—Hon Ruth Dyson: Stop saying "you". Hon MARK MITCHELL: —to decide to—sorry what was that? Hon Ruth Dyson: Stop saying "you". Hon MARK MITCHELL: Excuse me Madam Chair. Are you the person in the Chair or is it the Hon Ruth Dyson because she seems to think that she's able to take on your role. But the reality of this—Hon Ruth Dyson: I'm helping you. CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): She does have a point. Hon MARK MITCHELL: Yeah. I just don't think you need the assistance that's all Madam Chair.CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): No I certainly don't. However I would like the member to acknowledge that you are bringing me into the debate.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Absolutely—I acknowledge that Madam Chair. So take a call Mr Mark—[Time expired]"