Wilkinson Kate: General Debate 
Wilkinson Kate: General Debate 
[Volume:646;Page:15508] 
KATE WILKINSON (National) 
: 
 “We are making a difference for everyone.” Labour says. That is what this Labour-led Government claims. Actually it is making a difference—but for the wrong reasons. This Labour-led Government tells everyone else to obey the law but that it does not have to. This Labour-led Government passes a law that allows taxpayer money to be used for all but the most blatant election advertising. It passes a law that exempts the same material from the electoral spending caps then it spends hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on a pamphlet that is blatant election advertising. There is one rule for Labour and another rule for everyone else. In this country at least under a National-led Government no one should be above the law—not even Labour. Yes this Labour Government is making a difference for everyone. 
One would have thought Labour would go out of its way to ensure that in regard to the Electoral Finance Act it operated well above the law. But no the arrogance of this Labour-led Government is absolutely astounding. This Government has been criticised for cynically manipulating the loopholes of a system it set up in the first place and that is exactly what it has been doing. Yes this Labour-led Government is making a difference. It is setting a precedent that says it is OK for it to breach the law not once not twice nor even thrice—it goes on and on and on. It is OK for it to breach the law but not for anybody else to do so. 
Labour has the dubious distinction of being the first Government to breach its own law and then it tries to justify that. The Minister said even today that Labour seeks to obey the law. I say that is absolute rubbish. There was an $800000 pledge card. It was illegal; it broke the law. Labour passed retrospective law to try to fix that up. It rushed through an incompetent law and now it is the first to break it. Labour seeks to obey the law? Yeah right! The Minister in the press today was quoted as denying that the law was unclear. Actually that makes it worse. If she thinks this law is not as clear as mud then not only is she misguided but worse it suggests that the breach of the law—the inaugural breach of the Electoral Finance Act—was blatant. It was not a mistake at all. It was a deliberate flagrant arrogant breach of the law which can be regarded only with some considerable cynicism if not with absolute disbelief. Yes this Labour Government is making a difference all right. It has taken its own disdain for the law its own disregard for the law to levels not often seen before. 
Can we really be expected to believe that only one of Labour’s taxpayer-funded booklets  
We’re Making a Difference for Everyone 
 was handed out—only one; just one? And can members guess what? This unique collectable pamphlet fell coincidentally into the hands of National. No one else in the country has one. There is only one copy and National has it. 
This is an arrogant disdain for the law. It is a law that this Government wrote. This is an arrogant disregard for the law that this Government wrote. It is an absolute disgrace. It was bad enough that the Electoral Finance Bill was rushed through without any thought being given to the proper democratic process. That was bad enough. Now this Government—this Labour-led Government—has the absolute arrogance to think it is above the law. It is the first to breach that law. This is a law not for Labour but for every other New Zealander to comply with. I say again that no one is above the law—not the Labour-led Government; not the Minister—and it is time this Labour-led Government realised that. 
Labour members talk about the Government having a good record. They talk about good governance and they talk about making a difference. But the headlines state: “Criminal justice system in crisis”; “Court delays a national disgrace”. Yes this Labour-led Government is making a difference—“Court delays a national disgrace”. There are delays of up to 4 years; cases are being delayed for 4 years. That is what is happening in our courts today. We have a bill of rights that says people are entitled to be tried without undue delay yet some people have to wait 4 years. Two men in their 20s in Christchurch who were accused of assault were given a stay of proceedings 114 weeks after they were charged—a delay of 114 weeks. The average time for a trial committal date is 283 days and it is 305 days in the High Court. The number of delayed cases is getting worse and worse. That headline is right; the court delays in New Zealand are a national disgrace.