O'Connor SimonSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): The last speaker Willie Jackson asked a question of the House: when does it all stop? I'm happy to be able to stand and say to that member and to those opposite that it all stops when Ministers stop attacking their staff. It all stops when Ministers stop working inappropriately with their emails. It all stops when Prime Ministers take responsibility and show leadership. It all stops when the Labour Party does not hide from what happens in its camps. It all stops when the oral questions get properly answered—Rt Hon Winston Peters: Like the leak.SIMON O'CONNOR: —in this House Rt Hon Winston Peters. It all stops when written questions are answered. It all stops when a Government takes responsibility.The bullying and the abuse in this society which we've now seen in the Beehive in this Parliament and sadly in our community will stop when we take responsibility. All we have heard today from that side is a denial of responsibility. In fact it's been about wrapping all of the support and excuses around the people who have initiated the problems—in this case Meka Whaitiri and wider than that of course around Clare Curran in the indecisive actions of the Prime Minister; excuses after excuses. In fact we had the arrogance of one Government Minister talking about tikanga and the arrogance within that. Not that it is tikanga; but that it's not to be questioned. That is why we continue to have the problems in our society and the problem even around this debate is because people make excuses. They make excuses for those who abuse and those who bully.So to the previous speaker it will stop when we as Kiwis stop making excuses. It will stop when we stand behind the one person in this particular debate who has barely been mentioned: the victim. When will there be an apology to that person? Silence. I don't expect much to come forward. I can't speak for colleagues in this House who have made mistakes in the past—maybe they should have stood up and said sorry. But we are here today talking about very particular circumstances and not one sorry" has been mentioned. Instead it's been accusations of high horse behaviour by a number of people on this side. It's been somehow about mothering issues about gender issues about Māori issues—it's got nothing to do with that. It's got to do with the claim that someone was assaulted in their workplace.This is coming from a Labour Government—I'd better say sorry correctly a Labour-led Government—that talks very tough about employment rights. It talks very strongly about the rights of victims and bullying. We've had discussions in this House around domestic violence and I note the Greens haven't taken a call in this debate. They talk strongly there but it does not reflect in the actions that we see. So we are in this House today calling that to account fully aware that one of our colleagues a Minister—in fact several colleagues who are Ministers are taking this harshly and heavily. We acknowledge that. But of course we are all responsible for our actions and we are responsible to those who are hurt. So when will this end? It will end when we actually take account for our actions. One of the questions too was "We've got to show compassion and forgiveness." Absolutely. I'd be one of the first to say that but you know what comes before forgiveness and what comes before compassion? It's called contrition. It's called admitting you made a mistake. And when it comes to being representatives of the public it's when we stand up in public and we admit our fault and we say we were wrong and we say to the public in this the highest of public services "This is what I did. I seek your forgiveness. I seek that compassion." I've said it multiple times that when it comes to the word "compassion" it means to suffer with. You cannot suffer alongside someone—the perpetrator or the victim—if you're not prepared to understand. So we have a real problem here too in that we're being told throughout this debate that the Prime Minister does know what went on and then on the other hand being told that we don't know. Well we've ended up with the Minister being removed from her post for reasons which remain unclear but I predict will become clear but they won't become clear from this Labour-led Government this supposedly open and transparent Government; it will become clear just as the public will eventually find out but this will not stop until people take responsibility for their actions."