Mark Ron: Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Mark Ron: Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9931] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 There are 5 minutes to go and let us see whether we cannot make this brief. Members have just heard two of the members of the House who are most highly regarded for their legal backgrounds read their speeches directly out of the Auckland District Law Society issue No. 20. There was nothing original. It was all written by someone else and it was read out virtually word for word by Chris Finlayson and the doctor—Dr Richard Worth. 
Christopher Finlayson 
: Wrong as usual! 
RON MARK 
: Well we will take the  
Hansard 
 of the two members and compare them line by line paragraph by paragraph. At least Christopher Finlayson varied from the paragraph by paragraph summation from the Auckland District Law Society—some originality was injected. But Dr Worth? My golly what are we paying him for? Is it to come to this House and read out someone else’s work? Where is the originality where is the passion and where is the knowledge? What we simply have is a lazy man who is well known for going to Cairo and riding camels when he should be attending veterans’ day parades at El Alamein. That is what we have in Dr Worth. 
Who the heck are any of them to talk? Talk about punishing people for freedom of speech! Those members should talk to me about Brian Connell. National members should talk to me when they get on their high horses and espouse these principles about protecting democracy and freedom of speech. They should talk to me about Brian Connell. Brian Connell did nothing more than ask an honest question of a dishonest man and he got an honest answer. Every National Party man who sits in these seats today enjoying National’s rise in the polls gets that on the back of Brian Connell—let there be no mistake. But where is he? He is out in the wilderness. He has been banished for ever. He is in isolation—dismissed from his party and dismissed from his caucus because he dared to question the leader. Chris Finlayson and Dr Worth should not come into this House— 
Nathan Guy 
: Were you there? 
RON MARK 
: I expect more from the whip Nathan Guy. He is from the Manawatu. He is a renowned rugby player. He is a man who is talked highly of for his integrity. I tell Nathan not to sit there and spoil his reputation by defending that. That is an abomination on democracy. That is the worst example of how to treat someone who is “seditious” that I have ever seen in my 11—coming up to 12—years in this House. It is surpassed only by the way National dealt with one other man who was deemed to be seditious—Winston Peters. We know the reality of the National Party. That team can talk it up big over there but their track record stinks—stinks! New Zealand First will say this. We are suspicious of the Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill. We have yet to be convinced that there is a need for it. We know what has happened in the UK with mullahs and clerics and Muslims inciting sedition through seditious preaching. We need to be convinced that the laws as they exist are capable of dealing with those issues so we will wait and see. 
We will vote for this legislation to go to a select committee but we give no guarantees. Indeed here is the great irony. Every example given by the Auckland District Law Society and parroted by the previous two National speakers actually says that those people were charged for inciting violence rioting and threatening death. The only exception is the Maori people who are mentioned in here and they did not get sentenced; the court case did not resume. The Government of the day used other legislation—not this legislation—to improperly imprison Te Whiti Orongomai and Tohu Kakahi. It was not this legislation that did it; it was other legislation. To misrepresent the facts in such a way only reinforces I guess National members’ interesting comments. One must consider this when one looks at how they have treated Brian Connell—the seditious MP from Rakaia. 
Debate interrupted.