Sowry Roger: General Debates 
Sowry Roger: General Debates 
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Hon ROGER SOWRY (Deputy Leader—NZ National) 
: 
 The Minister of Health in her speech—which I am sure she would not want to be called a tirade; as my colleague says it was much more of a rant—was right in one thing. The police do decide who they will prosecute just as the police decided that they would not prosecute the Prime Minister the Rt Hon Helen Clark over her forgery. That was deemed not necessary to prosecute. Maybe that was because the Prime Minister of New Zealand refused to answer the police’s questions—Mr Ardern however did answer the questions put to him. Maybe that is why they stopped before prosecuting her. Maybe it was because the Prime Minister’s very good friend and witness Mr Chris Carter would not sign his own statement. Maybe that was why they decided not to prosecute the Prime Minister. We know that when the Prime Minister committed forgery—and we were told by her first of all that it was just one painting—the first lot of blame the Prime Minister put on was on the charity that asked her for the painting. She said that it put her under pressure and that that was why she did the painting. Then it came to light that in fact there was more than one painting. There were several paintings that the Prime Minister forged. There were several paintings that she did not paint and to which she put her own name. The police decided to turn a blind eye to that and the Opposition judges that standard against the standard that is being used now. It is just like the standard that the Prime Minister is using now when she goes— 
David Benson-Pope 
: The long arm of the law reaching out from the grave. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I ask whether you are going to allow a consistent line of interjections from Mr Benson-Pope. It happens every week in this debate. The Speaker sits there every week and lets it occur and I ask you whether you will at some point stop him. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: I thank the honourable member. It is a point well raised and I was considering it. I have to say that it is a robust debate and the level of interjection on the previous speaker was just as great but I will ask the members on my right to take it easy. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: The Prime Minister of course has different rules for herself as distinct from everybody else. No one else is allowed to question officials but the Prime Minister blamed the officials when she said first of all that she did not say that this country would get into the top half of the OECD. Then when it was proved that she did she blamed the officials. She blamed the officials when she said that she had no idea how “ancestral landscapes” got into the amendment to the Resource Management Act. Then of course when it became clear that it was by her own fair hand that the documentation was signed she blamed officials. She blamed officials when all the documents were not released for the “corngate” inquiry. When that became an issue it was nothing to do with her. There was just one document left out and all of a sudden the officials were blamed. 
This Prime Minister blames officials whenever it suits her but as soon as anyone else dares to raise anything to do with the public service they are deemed to be great big bullies. I say to the Prime Minister that we want the same standard for the Prime Minister as the rest of New Zealand has to face. The rest of New Zealand would have to front up to the police on an art forgery charge. The rest of New Zealand would have to front up if one of their staff members had his or her hand in the till as the Prime Minister has had on her staff recently with no prosecution being carried out. The rest of New Zealand would have to front up for that but this Prime Minister who is such a credit to herself and just a victim of her own success cannot understand how someone who is so successful and popular can even be criticised or questioned. She sees herself as being totally above the law. Any Government that is led by a Prime Minister who sees herself as being above the law is in its dying stages. That is why people like Mr Benson-Pope lie when they tell reporters as he did yesterday that they are not going to give an apology—yet he was giving an apology. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: The member will withdraw and apologise for that. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I did not say that he lied in the House but that outside the House he certainly did. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: Those words are not acceptable in this Chamber. Whether they refer to some incident outside the House is totally irrelevant. The member will withdraw and apologise. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: I withdraw. We know what Mr Benson-Pope does. We know the double-dealing he does. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: I asked for a withdrawal and an apology. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: I am sorry. I withdraw and apologise. We know what Mr Benson-Pope does. He says one thing to our whips but it is a different story to the media. Members can make their own judgments on what that is but we know what that is called.