Jones Dail: Electoral (Vacancies) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
Jones Dail: Electoral (Vacancies) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:610;Page:7806] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 It is interesting to listen to the speech of that Labour member of Parliament. He talks about being mean-spirited and making all sorts of accusations about the way in which members of Opposition parties conduct themselves. Well that was one of the most mean-spirited irrelevant speeches I have heard in Parliament for a long time but it was the customary speech that we expect from Mr Cosgrove. As members on this side of the House know Ron Mark is on a roll and Mr Cosgrove had better look out in the South Island. 
New Zealand First made it very clear in the Committee stage that we do not want to be part of this bill. We sought an amendment to be excluded from the opportunities given in this bill. We do not want to be associated with the likes of Clayton Cosgrove. He can have the immunity if he likes. He can put it where he likes. New Zealand First does not want to be part of any of these Labour members of Parliament who want the protection of this bill and who want the right to swear allegiance to a foreign country. 
That is what Mr Cosgrove has just done. He has given himself the right to swear allegiance to a foreign country. Mr Worth the National Party member said that if he swears allegiance to a foreign country sack him as a member of Parliament. Mr Cosgrove wants the protection but Mr Worth does not. Clearly Mr Cosgrove does not understand the bill. He may be protecting somebody but he does not know who it is. 
The real shame about this legislation is that even the Minister in charge of the bill does not know whom he is protecting. He is not in the inner circle of the Labour Party. He does not know. Mr Barker has passed this bill through the House blindly. He does not know which member of this minority Labour Government is getting the protection under this bill but he has done his job as a willing lapdog of the Prime Minister Helen Clark. He has put this bill through the House and he has done as he was told. Some member of this minority Labour Government will benefit from it. We have asked time and time again who it is. 
New Zealand First asked to be excluded. We feel violated by this legislation. It is a violation of our rights as members of Parliament. We are violated by the Labour Party which has insisted we be made part of this dreadful treasonous traitorous type of legislation. We do not want any part of it. Labour can have it. But Labour has insisted that we become part of it. Why could it not just exclude New Zealand First or ACT or National? We are loyal New Zealanders. I do not really speak on behalf of ACT—we have very little in common—but we are first and foremost loyal New Zealanders. 
Rodney Hide 
: Unlike the Greens. 
DAIL JONES 
: Unlike the Greens and unlike the New Zealand Labour Party. The New Zealand Labour Party has established in this legislation that it is the Labour Party; it is not a New Zealand Labour Party. It will allow foreign people now to become foreign nationals after the passing of this legislation without being tossed out of this Parliament. 
This bill has three stages. There is 14 August 2002 to 10 June 2003. Clearly someone in the Labour Party lodged an application to become a foreign citizen or swore allegiance to a foreign country in that time because the next day—on 11 June in the second category—is the day on which Harry Duynhoven did that. From 12 June onwards to the passing of this bill anyone in this Parliament can swear allegiance to a foreign country and this Labour Party supports it. It is an absolute disgrace. New Zealand First feels violated that we have to be caught up in this disgraceful state of affairs. Words just about fail me. 
Mr Ron Mark of New Zealand First made the point during the Committee stage that we say to young New Zealanders: “You should obey the law. The law is there to be obeyed and if you disobey the law you get punished.” We look at our prisons where 55 percent of the people in prisons for violent crime are Maori. They have committed an offence they break the law and sometimes they go to prison. They have committed an offence invariably they put their hand up and away they go. Here we have a Labour member of Parliament who has committed an offence and he or she is not prepared to put his or her hand up—not prepared to nod in the way we would say in the criminal courts. And Miss “Turituria” here was very strong on the support of Maori and suchlike. 
Hon Tariana Turia 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Would you ask the honourable member to pronounce my name correctly? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: It is not a point of order but the member should do so. 
DAIL JONES 
: I am sorry. I am struggling and I will not use the name rather than mispronounce it. I apologise. The Labour member who has just interjected is very strong on looking after the youth of our country and the way in which young Maori should progress. What will she tell young Maori next time she is on the marae? What will she say when they say to her that there was a Labour member of Parliament who breached the law and she protected that Labour member of Parliament? She was not willing to let that Labour member of Parliament face up to his or her actions. She will sit here collect her ministerial salary live in the ministerial house use the ministerial car use the credit card and she will go on to the marae and talk to someone who has not got a bean. 
How can she tell that person what to do when she is so culpable in this breach of the Electoral Act? She has no standing and cannot possibly have any standing whatsoever with young Maori or any Maori bearing in mind what Labour is saying to young Maori generally: that the Labour Party supports the taking of foreign citizenship by members of Parliament and that those Labour members of Parliament who then take foreign citizenship will be the ones who will decide the foreshore and the seabed of New Zealand. What sort of a standard is that? Labour members of Parliament will decide the foreshore and seabed of New Zealand for Maori having already taken allegiance to a foreign country—some of them as Ministers and one of them is a Minister who flies a foreign flag in his office. Well what sort of a Labour Party is this? [ 
Interruption 
] 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: I think the member who interjects has an American passport. 
DAIL JONES 
: Well the member and I might both be able to claim American passports. I have only one passport. Since my adulthood I have only ever had one passport a New Zealand passport. It has not occurred to me to get another one. This bill does not apply to me. I do not want it to apply to me and we in New Zealand First have said that we do not want to be associated with this legislation but the Labour Party has insisted that we be part of this legislation. We made it clear that we wanted to support Harry Duynhoven from the very beginning and we were prepared to support Harry Duynhoven. We voted in the Committee stage to support Harry Duynhoven continuing as a member of Parliament. We could not get the Labour Party’s support for that amendment. They voted against it. There was an amendment in the Committee stage to support Harry Duynhoven continuing—being exempted from his action and being given an allowance to continue as an MP. We supported Harry Duynhoven we voted for the amendment in the Committee stage but the Labour Party opposed it. What is New Zealand First supposed to do? We said we would support him we did support him other members of this House supported him but the Labour Party voted against it. 
 What a funny state of affairs we are in! The Labour Party I believe is just using Harry Duynhoven as a front man. There is clearly somebody else there. This bill is not called the “Electoral (Vacancy) Amendment Bill”; it is called the Electoral (Vacancies) Amendment Bill. Two or more people are involved in this legislation not just one. We have asked time and time again: who is it? The Labour Party is condemned. This is an abominable piece of legislation. I regard it as being comparable to treason and traitorous behaviour. New Zealand First does not have anything to do with it.