Hide Rodney: General Debate 
Hide Rodney: General Debate 
[Volume:624;Page:19647] 
RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 Let me start by making this point very plain: I make no personal allegations against the Prime Minister Helen Clark. I have read and re-read like most members in this House John Tamihere’s interview and I do not think that he actually makes allegations against Helen Clark. But what he says is something that is very serious and it is something that New Zealanders need to know. It is this: that Helen Clark has surrounded herself with homosexuals with a homosexual agenda. That is what John Tamihere has said. He has said that Helen Clark’s advisers and key people are not representative of New Zealand. In fact John Tamihere goes on to say that they would not know what being a father was like. They would not know what it was like to go to sports. That is the point that John Tamihere has made. I do not think that John Tamihere has a problem with diversity; I think the issue is the uni-dimensional approach that Helen Clark her advisers and her Cabinet have taken. 
It is all very well for Helen Clark to stand up and say the interview is drivel. It is all very well for Helen Clark to stand up and say that John Tamihere had had too much to drink. It is all very well for Helen Clark to stand up and say that he was stressed. I notice that the gallery and the media say that they go with John Tamihere’s motivations. But what needs to be dealt with here are the facts of what John Tamihere is telling us about this Government. That is what is interesting about the article—not John Tamihere’s motivations and not Helen Clark’s spin but what John Tamihere was saying. I note that the  
New Zealand Herald 
 states that John Tamihere has been honest. I think that is the problem that Helen Clark and this Government are dealing with. John Tamihere has been honest about the fact that there is a very narrow lesbian cabal advising the Prime Minister that there is an overwhelming dominance of the union movement in this Government and that if one steps out of line one gets punished with close to fisticuffs. That is what John Tamihere said. We can see that because even the great brave John Tamihere is going to be brought back here whipped like a dog to give a “girlie-man” apology. That is what we are going to see from John Tamihere. 
But the issue is this: this is supposed to be a House of Representatives. It is important that we represent all New Zealanders. Whether they are lesbians gays brown black or yellow that is important. But it is wrong for a Government to represent just a very narrow segment of society and to run that agenda. That is the claim that John Tamihere is making against Helen Clark and this Government and that claim is not being responded to. That is the problem that the Government fronts. I ask this: when did Helen Clark last take a child to sports—to practice or to a game? 
Hon Annette King 
: When did you last take your wife? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Well I did that last Saturday and the Saturday before then. I tell Annette King that that is what I did and that John Tamihere makes a point because this Government does not know what it is to be a hard-working family with other concerns. What is the phrase that John Tamihere used? I tell Annette King that the Government has nothing to do but to plot plan trick and cheat the United Future party on my left. The United Future members are good Christian people who do not even realise that they are being cheated and tricked. But we know that Michael Cullen brags about it. He brags about it to John Tamihere and when John Tamihere raises it we have to accept his word do we not? He is an honourable member. 
No one from the Government has stood up and given a personal explanation that what John Tamihere said was false. No Minister has made a ministerial statement and the Prime Minister has not made a statement to this House that it was false. We have seen deep into the dark side of Helen Clark and this Government from the one person who would know: John Tamihere who has been in Government for 5 years and sitting around the Cabinet table for 2 years. He knows he had told us and the  
New Zealand Herald  
is right. It is an honest account.