Brownlee Gerry: Urgent Debates — Member for TamakiMakaurau—Standing Down as Minister 
Brownlee Gerry: Urgent Debates — Member for TamakiMakaurau—Standing Down as Minister 
[Volume:621;Page:16245] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 The member who has just resumed his seat Peter Dunne is a person whom I have some respect for. Normally he is a man who offers this House very sensible suggestions about how we should progress issues but I think he has lost his way a little bit on this one. He is right to say that Mr Tamihere has the right to put his case and to have his side of the story heard. Mr Tamihere as a member of this House also has the right to come here the highest court in the land to tell this House what the facts are. Where is he? He is hiding in Henderson having been sent there by his own caucus because it knows that this is a huge embarrassment not only to it not only to him but also to this House. 
This man cannot return to Cabinet. He will be skating on thin ice if he ever comes back to this House because it is not credible and it lacks integrity for a member to say to the public in this country: “I will take this course of action with regard to my personal circumstances.” then do the opposite. In Mr Tamihere’s case he said that he would not take any golden handshake—the Prime Minister had said that none of her people would be taking golden handshakes—then for 2 years he sneaked around the back of that trust putting pressure on it to come up with the funds to pay him out. We know that the trust had to sell assets give up programmes and scrape to the very bottom of its resources in order to make that payment to John Tamihere. No Labour Party member can go out in the next election cycle or even the next day that he or she might visit his or her constituency and talk about Labour’s care for those at the bottom end of the social ladder in this country as long as John Tamihere remains in Labour’s caucus. Labour members know that. They know how brazen he is and what a huge problem it would be if he were to be around Parliament at the moment. 
Members should look at an article written by John Tamihere in today’s  
Dominion Post 
 in which he states: “We owe it as leaders to set some new potentials and standards for our young people coming through—”. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: That’s actually right. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: There is nothing wrong with that; it is quite right. He goes on: “to appeal to their promise and potential to lead by example and not become corrupted by the iwi chequebook.” Is it not extraordinary that he should make that statement just 5 days after this little allegation was laid against him in connection with an urban Maori authority an organisation that he has argued repeatedly should have the same respect as iwi? 
We know where the Labour Party is by the way in which Dr Cullen handled things in the House today. He went on the attack and had a go at just about every member in this House— 
Rodney Hide 
: And those outside. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: And some outside. Most of us who were supposed to be cowering at the end of his words were wondering what on earth he was talking about and what planet he was on because his allegations against others today had no connection to the situation that Mr Tamihere finds himself in. We know that the inquiry that has been set up to find out what is going on supposedly and to report to the Prime Minister— 
Rodney Hide 
: A whitewash. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: —will be exactly as it has been labelled by the Opposition—a whitewash. It is unfortunate that the Queen’s Counsel conducting the inquiry happens to be a Mr White; no disrespect to him is intended but this inquiry will be a whitewash. I ask myself this question: if there was not something seriously wrong here why was Mr Tamihere stood down? If there was not something seriously wrong here why did Mr Tamihere not front up to the highest court in the land and explain himself? If there was not a problem why did Mr Tamihere not come out last Friday and say: ”Here are the tax details. It’s all sorted.”? Why did he not say: “Here’s my ministerial declaration. It’s all in here—not a problem.”? 
I want to put this little suggestion to the House as well over the issue of the car that Mr Tamihere had in his possession well after he had left the Waipareira Trust. If it was a gift it should have been included in his ministerial interests statement. It was not if it was somehow some form of recompense or income offered to him as a director of Westland Ltd then he should have declared it as income and paid tax on it. He should have been able to come along to the House and hold up documents to show that he had done just that. 
But all of this is actually not the issue—Mr Dunne is right in that regard. The issue is that the Prime Minister said she would set new standards and require new levels of behaviour from her Ministers. Well this sort of thing has not been seen from a Minister in a National Government—not ever. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: Ha ha! 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: It surprises us that Dr Cullen should think that he can prove otherwise. Mr Tamihere is a man who has gone about this country proclaiming his interest in the well-being of some of the poorest and least advantaged in our communities then has shown that at the same time he is prepared to rip into their pockets take what little they have and ingratiate himself believing himself to be better than they ever could be. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: And lie about it. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Then he refuses to tell the truth about that fact. I want Labour members— 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. The comment made by the member—I have forgotten his name—from somewhere up north and also the comment made by the deputy leader of the National Party are out of order. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: They were out of order. A member cannot suggest that another member is not telling the truth. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I withdraw that comment and will rephrase it by saying that Mr Tamihere has refused to come to this House and put the record straight. He is happy to leave it to a Queen’s Counsel who has no statutory authority no capacity to subpoena information documents files etc. no capacity to subpoena witnesses and no capacity to cross-examine and who has the capacity only to investigate what Mr Tamihere himself will allow him to investigate and who then will report to the Prime Minister. 
There is no question in my mind that after the Government first saw this happening last Thursday it moved swiftly on Friday to get rid of Mr Tamihere. When things went a little bit quiet over the weekend it thought: “We can get through this. We can get him off this.” It thought it could come up with some weak inquiry this week and could paper over the cracks and Mr Tamihere would be back by Christmas sitting in Cabinet. Let me make this prediction: John Tamihere will never sit in Cabinet again in this country. What is more if the proper investigations are done—if all the information is made available to the public—he will not survive as a member of Parliament in this country either. I say to all those Labour members opposite who are about to leap up and defend him that they should think about what it will be like for them out on the traps telling those people whom Labour Party members like to think they represent the best that Mr Tamihere at all times had their interests in his sights. It is absolutely clear that Mr Tamihere had his own interests in his sights at all times. 
I want to suggest that it is unfortunate that Mr Winston Peters suggested in his contribution today that somehow the attack on John Tamihere is racially motivated. Let us be very clear: there would be no attack on John Tamihere if there were no problem. I also want to know why Lianne Dalziel was—