Carter John: Business of Select Committees — Appointments 
Carter John: Business of Select Committees — Appointments 
[Volume:614;Page:10557] 
JOHN CARTER (National—Northland) 
: 
 The point I was making when the House rose last Thursday was that the shame of this motion is that we have to debate it at all on the grounds that the Government does not trust its Maori members. The point I was making was that we already have committees that have been established—the Maori Affairs Committee for example. It is quite capable of dealing with this sort of legislation. We have the Primary Production Committee which is also quite capable of dealing with this sort of legislation. But we have to ask ourselves why the Government wants to set up a special committee and why it wants to put a guy like Russell Fairbrother in as the chairman. 
Edwin Perry 
: Who is he? 
JOHN CARTER 
: I think he is called Russell Fairbrother. He is from Napier or somewhere. Why is the Government not sharing it with somebody who is actually involved and knows? Is it because the Government thinks it will give the wrong impression to a sector of our community? Is the Government saying that the Maori members of its caucus are not capable of sitting down and thinking these things through in an unbiased way and ending up making a proper contribution to this Parliament and to the nation? If the Government does think that—and it is obvious to me that it does; it is not prepared to say the Maori members can have an unbiased view on this and indeed it thinks that they will be biased and bipartisan and therefore are not capable of making a contribution—we have to ask ourselves why then the Government supports the retention of the Maori seats at all. Why is it that the Government is prepared to take the cake and try to eat it as well? 
The point that really needs to be thought about in this Parliament as we debate it and thought about by the public is whether in fact the Government is actually trying to mislead the public as to what it is endeavouring to do. I would suggest to the Parliament particularly to the Labour Government— 
David Benson-Pope 
: Oh! 
JOHN CARTER 
: —and to the senior Government whip the junior Government whip and others—that doing what it is doing now is going to cost you at the next election because the public will see through this sort of thing. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! 
JOHN CARTER 
: I beg your pardon Mr Speaker; not you of course. The public will see through what the Government is trying to do and it will count against it at the next election. I just say that this party on this side of the House knows that the Government is splintered over this. We know that the Government cannot control its Maori members. It is worried that if it puts this matter into the Maori Affairs Committee it will have an outcome it does not want. So what has the Government done? It has manoeuvred to put in place a special select committee to look after all this sort of special legislation that quite properly should be the domain of the Maori Affairs Committee or the Primary Production Committee. 
It is just not good enough for this Government to say that it will set up a special committee and have it chaired by somebody who is an unknown. Quite honestly Russell Fairbrother has no pedigree as far as dealing with these sorts of things is concerned. What is his background? Who knows him actually when we come to think about it? We will have to find out I suppose as this committee is set up—because the Government is bound to want to pass this motion and set the committee up. But I think it is a great shame that we have to be dealing with this at all tonight. It will be a slight on the Government.