Peters Winston: Urgent Debates — David Parker—Resignation from Executive 
Peters Winston: Urgent Debates — David Parker—Resignation from Executive 
[Volume:630;Page:1985] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Minister of Foreign Affairs) 
: 
 I want to say to Mr Brownlee that unlike him I have spent some money in my career on things I believe in not once but countless times and I have counted it as an honourable and professional thing to do. Whereas Mr Brownlee has never spent 5 cents on any matter of principle ever other than himself I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on great causes—and most of them I have won. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I want to concede to Mr Peters that that is true: he has spent thousands of dollars on issues that he believes in—and what is more there are bar owners all around this country who would agree with him. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: No no. I ask the member to withdraw and apologise. That is a personal reflection under Standing Order 116. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I withdraw and apologise. I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Surely in fairness you would note that that same Standing Order should have been applied to Winston Peters when he started the nonsense lines in his speech earlier. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: If you can’t take it then don’t dish it out. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Can I just say to that honourable member that when a point of order is being heard that is done in silence. It is a courtesy to other members. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: The fact of the matter is that if that member of Parliament cannot take it he should not dish it out. He had hardly got back to his feet and dropped to his knees when he was exposed as the sham he is—the pretender to the throne of the National Party who is about to be deposed by his back bench. That is what will happen; I know that party. The leader of that party will be Tau Henare. The leader of that campaign will be people like Nick Smith. Members should watch them. They are up against a grindstone already. They just cannot wait. 
I think that what David Parker did today was a very honourable thing. It is far too infrequent in this House and in that respect it is almost unique. He said that he had made a mistake and that he wishes to pay the price for it. I think it is a terrible price frankly because one could come to the view as a lawyer that someone adjudged a bankrupt has no right to be involved in any management of a company at all. That is a simple legal principle—that anyone adjudged a bankrupt is not entitled to be associated with the management of a company. 
Rodney Hide 
: It’s easy to see why he’s been through some court cases. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: I have not finished but I could talk about Fiji of course—which is where that member went to take part in what was a totally corrupt investment programme. He was paid a whole week’s salary to stay in a bure—which included lodgings and food day and night—and never declared any of it. That is the truth. He will not answer any questions about the people who lost tens of thousands of dollars. And who was that for? It was for a man who is currently in jail in the United States. That is the kind of Shylock and charlatan he associates with. He is the same member who left his taxi book in a taxi one night and then claimed it was in a restaurant— 
Hon Member 
: In a restaurant? 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: No no he left it in a taxi. Members can imagine how that would happen. Then he claimed it was in a restaurant so I have to assume that the taxi was in a restaurant! But it was in a taxi and for a whole month the staff went home on the taxpayer. Did he say anything? No. Did he declare a loss? No. When he was found out he rushed to try to rectify it. But he still has not apologised for his attempt to cover up. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: This is a narrow debate. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: No no my point is this: by way of comparison David Parker’s course of action was more than honourable. 
Rodney Hide of course is the exact opposite in every respect. He is a man who leads a political party that has falsified its tenancy returns for the last 3 years in this Parliament. Is that true or false? Ah I know what the member is thinking. He is thinking he got away with it. I am sorry but that is tomorrow’s news and there will be more about that later. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Could I just bring members back to the debate. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: I want to tell David Parker that I hope he comes back as a Minister because I think he has ability. I think he has integrity and I think frankly that though the papers should have been filed and they should have been filed with a resolution that was unanimous one could easily have come to the opinion as a lawyer that a bankrupt individual in whom the official assignee had lost interest was not a requirement for that unanimity. It is not a great sin in that respect—not like the ones I have seen over there on the Opposition benches on so many occasions in my political career. 
Oh yes I saw those people cover up the wine-box inquiry. Day after day and month after month they tried to cover up hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud. Yet people like Mr Brownlee have the audacity to get up in this House and spout as though they are now somehow the paragons of virtue. Have members seen the likes of it? And there is not so much as a blush on his face. 
Darren Hughes 
: Poor old pensioner! 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Yes who on earth would believe the National Party when it comes to that? 
There is also the example of the man who went off to court and it was found that he had not told the truth. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Tell us about the baubles of office. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: National members seem to have trouble with the English language. Do they know what a bauble is? I want to tell them and I want to tell those in the ignorant press gallery as well. Let me tell people in the ignorant National Party and the literarily untrained press gallery that a bauble is a trinket not worth having—so of course we do not want those. Sometimes as the English say the malady of the ignorant is to be ignorant without knowing it. The joke is on both those groups of people.