Brownlee Gerry: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Brownlee Gerry: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:621;Page:16800] 
10.  
GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Why did she state that John Tamihere took an honourable course in resigning his ministerial portfolios last week? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Because I think he did. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Does she really believe that after taking a golden handshake he said he would not take then keeping it secret for 4 years then waiting 3 weeks before resigning his ministerial warrants—and only because he was caught—John Tamihere has acted honourably; if so why? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I repeat that I do believe he acted honourably. I have in front of me the member’s personal statement to the House last week which states: “I have resigned from Cabinet today because I did change my mind and accept a golden handshake and I did not tell my Prime Minister. Some see that as hypocrisy and I will do my time.” 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Did the Prime Minister hear the radio interview that Mr Tamihere gave after his resignation where he was asked why it took him so long to resign and he said: “There are two streams of advice you get. One is direct legal and accounting which is there a process in place to clear your name and you allow those procedures and processes to run. Then there’s the political side. It’s the cumulative weight of that that starts to bear. Bearing that cumulative weight became too much.”; did she give him the latter advice or was she quite happy for him to wait out the process? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: As I have consistently said a process was put in train and it is still in train and that process will continue because Mr Tamihere deserves the opportunity to put his case and endeavour to clear his name. 
Rodney Hide 
: Does she agree with John Tamihere that the honourable thing to do would be to resign from Parliament if his personal explanation was in any way found to be incorrect or does she think this is another one of those examples where people say one thing one day and do the other the next? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I would be surprised if the carefully prepared personal statement proved to be incorrect. If members after having examined the reports that come in think it is then they are free to go to the Privileges Committee with it. 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I realise that the Prime Minister has only to address my question but my question was specifically whether she agreed with the honourable John Tamihere that he should resign if his personal explanation was found in any way to be incorrect. For the Prime Minister to say whether she would be surprised to find that it was incorrect is not addressing the question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Well it was and it did. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Does the Prime Minister have an expectation that Mr Tamihere would resign from Parliament if matters raised and defended by him in his personal statement were subsequently proved to be untrue? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I think the member is getting a little ahead of himself. I will wait and see the outcome of the inquiries. Then the evidence will be out for all to see and judge. 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I ask you to consider this. We have been given a personal explanation which we have to accept as it is the member’s word. It is quite clear that the Prime Minister does not accept it because she is saying that she will wait and see whether it stacks up. I am not even certain whether if the personal explanation does not stack up the member has to resign. He himself has said he will resign if it does not stack up. We are in an impossible situation with this personal explanation. We have to accept it; the Prime Minister does not. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No. The member has not grasped the fact that whether Mr Tamihere should resign from Parliament is not a matter of ministerial responsibility.