Collins Judith: General Debate 
Collins Judith: General Debate 
[Volume:650;Page:18707] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 That truly depressing contribution came from the man who has been completely obsessed with leaks ever since he was the chief strategist for the Welsh Labour Party and we all remember what happened to that party. I would really love to hear from him as to how there is a secret agenda if everyone knows the agenda because we have released 27 policies and the Labour Party has released none—none not one zero. That is how many Labour has released. 
The debates we are talking about this week are all about the heart of our democracy because the scandal we have seen unfolding before our eyes has all gone to the heart of our constitution and the heart of our democracy. It is no secret to people and it should be no secret that I used to respect Helen Clark once but now I know a lot more about her. 
Christopher Finlayson 
: That was an error of judgment. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: It was an error of judgment but a lot of other New Zealanders used to respect her too. They did not necessarily like her; they did not necessarily like what she stood for; but they did generally respect her. They used to say that they did not like what she had in terms of policy but that they respected her. Well I do not respect her now actually because I know now that she does not put her country first. I know that she does not even put her party first because if she did she would not put her party through this appalling situation. But I do know that she puts herself first. Helen Clark’s legacy for this country will not be about getting New Zealand into the top half of the OECD because New Zealand’s ranking has now got worse not better despite the best commodity prices for generations. Helen Clark’s legacy will not be about improving the health of New Zealanders because we know that despite a doubling of the health budget over 9 years ordinary New Zealanders still cannot get treatment. Almost daily we hear about elderly people being left on trolleys in corridors in emergency departments while the Government says “Everything is going great thanks very much.” 
We know that Helen Clark’s legacy will not be about better educational standards for our children because now we see that one in five New Zealand children leaves school with no qualifications. Many of those children do not even have proper literacy and numeracy skills. We certainly know it will not be about improved law and order because we know that under her Government gangs that used to be just groups of thugs with tattoos on their faces—tattoos that are spelt backwards—are now suited-up smart fully organised criminals. Under her watch on law and order gangs are now fully organised international criminals—thanks very much to Helen Clark and her legacy. 
What is her legacy apart from that? What we have is a flagrant disrespect and disregard for our constitution. The highest court in our land has been done away with by a majority vote in this Parliament. We have seen a flagrant misuse of taxpayer money. We have had a flagrant disregard for the rules of common decency—[ 
Interruption 
]—which is something the member opposite Trevor Mallard would have some trouble with too. And we have seen a flagrant disregard for the truth. We now know that the Prime Minister sat by in February when Winston Peters said: “No.” and that he did not know anything about this money. We now know that Helen Clark and the Labour Party knew all about Owen Glenn providing $100000 to Winston Peters’ legal fees because it was her president who put Mr Glenn together with Winston Peters—we know that. We also know that Mr Glenn told Helen Clark all about it in February and we know from Mr Glenn today that Helen Clark already knew about it when he told her. 
We now know that this Prime Minister has been more concerned about her position about her power and about her next position than about the standards of her Ministers. This Prime Minister has made a career out of cutting free people who became inconvenient. Do members remember her Crown driver and the great dash across the Timaru plains? Who was prosecuted? It was her Crown driver. What about the police officers who were helping her? Did she stand by them? No she did not. 
Hon Member 
: They had a whip-round. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: Oh that is right Government members had a whip-round to pay a few bucks towards their costs. That was appalling. This Prime Minister cut people like Dover Samuels free apparently because of swirling allegations. Whatever did happen to Dover Samuels under this Government and this Prime Minister? 
This Prime Minister has cut people free when they have become inconvenient. Now there is one other thing that she is going to cut free and that is this country. She cut free this country when it became inconvenient for her because she wants power and that is what it is all about. Our constitution has in fact been laid bare. Our constitution and the fact that it relies on conventions and that it relies on common decency has been left free. This Government cares more about power than it does about us.