Carter David: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — In Committee 
Carter David: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:622;Page:17927] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (National) 
: 
 I do rise to thank Rod Donald for his amazing amendment. I have to say “Well done!” to him for having been here for so long— 
Rod Donald 
: Eight long years. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: I know. He has had 8 long years here in Parliament and to have achieved two such significant milestones in a parliamentary career is something that the member must remember when he gives his valedictory speech in the not too distant future. 
I want to take the opportunity of asking the Minister of Finance to clarify two clauses for me. One is clause 216 which concerns gifts and was deleted by the select committee. Clause 216(1) stated that any gift or property that is gifted to a Crown entity may be accepted or disclaimed by the Crown entity. The reason I raise this as an issue is that I have discussed this with my colleague John Key who was on the select committee and I have looked at some of the material that John Key received from officials at the select committee. There appears to have been no discussion at all as to why clause 216 was ever included in the legislation and even more revealing there seems to have been no discussion or paper trail as to why it was subsequently excluded by the select committee process. 
The reason I raise this is that this deliberation by the select committee occurred at the same time that the honourable John Tamihere was embroiled in an absolute scandal regarding his receipt of gifts. I think at one stage he attempted to justify one of them to the New Zealand Parliament by saying it was not a gift but koha—a couple of hundred thousand dollars of koha as I remember. I just want the Minister—I know that he will be embarrassed by this and I do not mean to embarrass him too greatly right on the eve of Christmas—to take the opportunity to explain why clause 216 was ever included and why subsequently it came out during the select committee process. I want to know whether there was any paper trail to suggest that the reason was that the Government did not want any further embarrassment associated with John Tamihere and his rather inventive approach towards the gifts that seem to come his way even though he is inclined to say when he is a not a member of Parliament— 
Pansy Wong 
: What clause is it? 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Clause 216. My point is that the honourable John Tamihere said that in no circumstances would he accept the koha then subsequently once the papers had revealed that he was too fine and upstanding a gentleman to accept the koha lo and behold we find that the koha had been paid to him. 
My second question for the Minister refers to clause 220 “Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968 does not apply to Crown entities”. Again I have no idea why that particular clause is included. I am led to believe that it may be associated with the register of interests that Ministers are required to fill out which Michael Cullen is proposing that members of Parliament be required to fill out and which local government members are now also required to fill out. Again there appears to be one rule for most of the executive and one rule for John Tamihere as a member of the executive. Mark Peck is shaking his head but if I have been reading the newspapers correctly—and I congratulate the  
National Business Review 
 on running the story very well—members of the executive are required to file an annual register of interests. Mark Peck might not have realised that although he has been here for a long period of time and is shortly to leave this place having never been a member of the executive. However I do not wish to knock Mark too much because he is not a bad guy. My point is that everybody in the executive fills out the ministerial register of interests but John Tamihere did not. He defied the law. He did not want to reveal all his koha. Maybe we have found out about only one of them. Maybe there is a lot more to come when Mr White presents his report in the next day or two. But why was John Tamihere the only member of the executive who was exempt?