Hayes John: Appropriation (Parliamentary Expenditure Validation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
Hayes John: Appropriation (Parliamentary Expenditure Validation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:634;Page:5898] 
JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa) 
: 
 Madam Chairperson it was impossible to hear your call or your comments. I say to the Committee this afternoon that the pledge card money that the Labour Government has stolen from the taxpayer simply represents the pollution of politics. 
Jill Pettis 
: Hallelujah brother! 
JOHN HAYES 
: I think it is time that Madam Pettis went back to Wanganui where the people voted her out. She should stop wasting their money because along with her party she has done nothing but tread water this year. It is time that the Labour Government’s mocking of the Auditor-General ceased and that instead the political establishment acknowledged the realities of our community. My phone has been going hot all of this week with calls from Dannevirke Eketahuna Porangahau Ngawi Greytown Martinborough and Masterton. The phone has been going red hot and people have been saying: “John ask the Governor-General to dissolve Parliament because the Labour Party and its supporting parties are thieves. They have stolen our money and we want to see the back of them.” 
Peter Brown 
: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. I do not mind what the member on his feet actually says but if he starts calling people thieves he is inviting trouble. I object I take offence at it and I ask him to withdraw and apologise. 
JOHN HAYES 
: Speaking to the point of order— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: No please be seated. As that member has taken offence at being called that will the member please withdraw and apologise. 
JOHN HAYES 
: I withdraw and apologise but I would just like to say to you— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: No please be seated. I remind the member that when a member is asked to withdraw and apologise he does that alone and nothing else. 
JOHN HAYES 
: I withdraw and apologise. The people of my electorate consider the governing party of this country to have stolen their money. Their view is backed up by the Auditor-General. In any  
Oxford Dictionary 
 taking someone else’s money is called theft and that is what has been going on here. So I call on the Labour Government to resign and allow a new election because that is what the people of my electorate want. 
I am reminded of the words of Oliver Cromwell when he addressed the Rump Parliament on 20 April 1653. He said—[ 
Interruption 
] I would like Mr Duynhoven to have the decency to listen to me. Oliver Cromwell said to his Parliament and I am repeating it here because it has major application today: “You have sat for too long for any good you have been doing … Depart I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God go!”. That is what my electorate is saying to the Labour Government—just what Oliver Cromwell said to Parliament in 1653. 
Of course our Prime Minister disagrees with this view. She claims that allegations of corruption are intolerable in a Western democracy. What my electorate is concerned about is the way in which Helen Clark and her administration have tried to shut down dissent: through shouting from the former member for Whanganui through intimidation and through vilification of their opponents. She has tried to put down the Auditor-General and she has tried to intimidate him. I congratulate him on standing his ground and I congratulate my colleagues on supporting him. Ultimately honesty will come through in this business. 
The Labour Government has tried to move the argument from issues around whether it took the money and spent it improperly; it has tried to blame the Exclusive Brethren. Hitler did that with the Jews and it was a very totalitarian policy to follow. I have to say sitting in this Chamber that there is a whiff of totalitarianism in the air and I will stand against it. Trying to silence the critics of this Government by shouting at them or by trying to portray them as illegitimate or illegal is in my view a very stupid thing to do. 
 There is huge resistance in my electorate to what this Government has done. People want the Government to be held accountable. They want an election now and they are completely flabbergasted at the action that we have been engaged in over the last 2 days. Parliament is being forced to pass retrospective legislation to allow an amount of $760000-odd to be justified. None of the people in my community if they break the law can go to a court or to a parliamentarian and ask that the law be changed because they made a mistake.