SpeechHon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Minister of Justice): I think one thing that we can collectively agree on in this House this afternoon is that New Zealanders can expect to have high expectations of those that have been privileged to be put into this role and hold ministerial warrants. What we've had this week it's not an occasion that you want to rise in this House to speak to—the dismissal of one of your colleagues—but Minister Nash's actions they were serious. They were a fundamental breach of the Prime Minister's trust of Cabinet's trust and indeed of the Parliament's trust.The Cabinet Manual clearly expresses the nature and the role of collective responsibility. Indeed it goes so far as to say it underpins the system of our Cabinet Government. It reflects the democratic principle that the House expresses its confidence in the collective whole of Government rather than in individual Ministers and we've seen over the course of this week where that principle of collective responsibility and further that principle of confidentiality have been undermined.To that point the actions of the Prime Minister were swift. He acted within two hours of knowing of having that knowledge of that breach of those two fundamental Cabinet Manual responsibilities those actions of Stuart Nash. Swiftly thereafter he directed the Cabinet secretary to undertake a review of all of the former Minister's correspondence with donors to be able to assure the New Zealand public that yes you are entitled to have those high expectations and standards upon us and that he will ensure that whatever further steps need to be taken shall be done through that review.It's been an interesting afternoon in this House. Actually I started earlier this morning with the member opposite Christopher Bishop speaking probably as the last parliamentarians on the show that was Today FM with the host that was Tova O'Brien. We had a discussion about these issues that arose with respect to the former Minister. One of the words that arose that struck me this morning was when the member inferred that there was perhaps some conspiracy. We heard that again today in the deputy leader of the National Party during question time and allegations were put to this House around a conspiracy to cover.I find it so appalling that a substantive allegation such as that was made in a House such as this in absence of any evidence because what it does is it undermines the trust and confidence that New Zealanders should rightly have in this House. We have a series of events that the Prime Minister's office recorded that's been put out into the public domain because there simply is nothing to hide.In the course of that disclosure of all of the correspondence and the actions taken by those individuals to give New Zealanders the confidence of what happened we had a person who cannot and does not have the right or the privilege to speak in this House because they are a staff member—a person was named; she had to take responsibility for an error.The thing about this particular individual for those that have had the opportunity to work with her she's one of the most humble and honest people you'll ever have the chance to meet—a really good good person—and I hate that her name has been tarred in this House by allegations that she was somehow imbued within a conspiracy. It makes me disdain politics. I pray that New Zealanders see through the dog-whistling to a constituency that seeks to find conspiracy in anything and everything. Let's reflect all on our own individual actions. We make mistakes. Sometimes they carry more weight than others but we've all done it and at the end of the day we that are Ministers hold the warrant—we that are Ministers have the responsibility.In this instance it was Minister Nash that had the responsibility to own those actions for breaching that Cabinet Manual—not anybody else. As a consequence on finding out that information the Prime Minister dismissed him. That is a sad day no doubt for his family but it was the right thing to do and that is all that happened.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.