Ross Jami-Lee: Ombudsmen (Cost Recovery) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ross Jami-Lee: Ombudsmen (Cost Recovery) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 19 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5419. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) 
: 
 Given the shortness of this bill the Ombudsmen (Cost Recovery) Amendment Bill I am going to give a speech of appropriate length—a very short one indeed. I know that the Hon Shane Jones has put a lot of time a lot of effort and a lot of research into this vast piece of legislation. A colleague Mr Auchinvole has outlined the National Party’s reasons for why we will be voting against this bill. We think it is premature and we think it will have unintended fiscal consequences. 
But I do want to pick up on one point that the member was talking about. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: How about doing a bit of work over there? 
JAMI-LEE ROSS 
: I heard about the work that was being undertaken at the Green Parrot at 3 a.m. last night. I heard about it. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am not having that young pup get up and make an allegation like that. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Order! [ 
Interruption 
] Order! The member responded to an interjection that may or may not have been appropriate. I did not see that it was creating disorder in the House. I ask the member to continue. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am not asking you to see whether you can agree with me; I am asking you to listen to my complaint. He made an allegation that is totally false and baseless. I have got thousands of—well not thousands; I have got at least seven or eight—hotel witnesses who can back up what I am saying where I stayed and where I am accommodated I might add. That allegation he made about somebody being out at 3 a.m. is totally false and he should apologise. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: He did not name any individual at all; he just made a broad statement. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. With respect go and look at the  
Hansard 
. He pointed over here and mentioned “that member”. That is an indication and a sign that would be adequate in a court of law. I suggest that it would be adequate for you to now find that he is responsible for bringing the House into disrepute and for being unruly.  
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I am overruling the point of order. Jami-Lee Ross— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I have ruled on this Mr Peters. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: With respect you cannot make an allegation like that refer to a member and point to him in a way that in a court of law would be regarded as being satisfactory for identification make an allegation that someone was out at 3 a.m. when he was demonstrably not and then think I am going to take that. I am entitled to have that man apologise and I am asking that you rule properly and fairly in this case as I would back up any other member who being wrongly indicated or described in that way is entitled to have his record clear. 
Hon Chester Borrows 
: My recollection was that the member who is the subject of this point of order said that he had heard something. That can be uncontested. He either did or he did not and he made the assertion only that he had heard some news not that he was an eyewitness. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Can I respond to that. With respect if you make an allegation that you heard something that is you repeating it. If it was a crime then you are equally as guilty of spreading or introducing the defamation or the slander. As a former policeman that member should know that. You cannot say “I was misinformed that somebody is a paedophile.” for example. You cannot get away with that. He knows that. So I do not think that that statement by way of explanation was in any way meritorious at all. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I have heard enough thank you. I was listening very carefully to the member and I have a very clear recollection that he said “I heard about the work being done at the Green Parrot.” That is all he said. I am not upholding the point of order. 
JAMI-LEE ROSS 
: I have been informed by my whips that I should now hurry up so I shall just make the final point I was going to make: that I reject the assertions that this Government has been underfunding the Office of the Ombudsmen. In fact we have put an increased $1.3 million into its budget—an increase of 16 percent. When we have zero budgets being looked at across the board that is quite a significant increase. I think that is admirable and should be respected by the Opposition.