Williamson Maurice: Oaths Modernisation Bill — First Reading 
Williamson Maurice: Oaths Modernisation Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:625;Page:20725] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (National—Pakuranga) 
: 
 I come from I guess a more moderate view. I truly and openly declare that I believe that the nation will become a republic over time. I am very happy to admit that I think that while Queen Elizabeth II is on the throne we should pay the true homage we owe to her. She has been a great lady and I have no intention of rarking up that debate while she is on the throne. But her time will come to an end as it does for us all. 
It is at that point that I think New Zealanders will turn very quickly to saying that they do not want the firstborn male of a woman from a nation on the other side of the world which bears no resemblance to our Kiwi nation to be their head of State. That is my view. I think we will find another way. There is a lot of debate about whether we will have an elected appointed or—in the case of Helen Clark—self-appointed president of the nation but in the end I am very happy to say that a New Zealand republic will be the case. 
We may need to look at changing some of the wording of oaths because currently we refer to “Her Majesty Her heirs and successors” and of course that would change if it became “His”. I am sure that a lot of feminists especially those on the Labour side of the House must find it galling to think that three or four daughters in a row could be born and not one of them would qualify but that suddenly if a bloke is born he is in. I agree with the feminists. I think it is just a nuts system; it is part of an anachronism from the past. 
I ask the members of this House and I ask them to answer me honestly how many people stop them in the street run after them chase them try to grab the hem of their garments and say to them: “Mr Williamson!”—or whatever their particular name and electorate is such as Mr Gallagher from Hamilton West—“You’ve got to change the Oaths and Declarations Act of 1957!”. Honestly? How many times have they had to run through a supermarket door and hide out in the meat section while the crowds gather demanding that they give them an answer on the Oaths and Declarations Act? There has been not a mutter not a murmur and not a whisper from a single member in this Chamber. That is because the general public do not care. This is irrelevant. 
If this is the biggest issue this Parliament has to deal with we should just prorogue it tonight—close it down shut it up and walk. Because there are things about delivery of health care and delivery of education— 
Jill Pettis 
: I had someone from the JPs association saying this was good. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I want to tell the listening audience out there—and I am still talking to my devoted drive time audience in Auckland because it is only 10 past 9 and they will still be working their way home because of the roading system—that Jill Pettis the member for Whanganui heard from one person. So we now know how Labour sets its priorities—according to whether the senior Government whip gets a call from one person. Here is my challenge to all the Whanganui listeners tonight: “Call Jill Pettis with whatever your favourite issue is and you’ll have a bill in Parliament in no time because one person in Whanganui is the only person”—[ 
Interruption 
] Jill Pettis is the only taker I have had from this entire House tonight. I ask members to look at all those other Labour members. They are sitting over there embarrassed beyond belief that this House’s time is being taken up with a pathetic piece of legislation— 
Jill Pettis 
: Sit down you’ve finished. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: No no I will not sit down. Jill Pettis wants me to sit down. Actually is not Wednesday night that member’s night for elocution lessons? 
Jill Pettis 
: It is but I finished early. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Well she should be at those lessons. She desperately needs to pick them up. 
I want to say that what we have has served us well. One day it will change but it will change when we have quite a constitutional shift in the head of State and there is a long long way to go before we get there—a long long way. I am happy to can this debate now. I would sit down—take my chair right now—if the senior Government whip would say that we will move to one of the other items on the Order Paper. 
Let us look at the Order Paper and see what we think would be something worth debating. Let my colleagues help me on this. Goodness me when I look at the Order Paper I do not see very much worth moving to. 
Dr Richard Worth 
: No. 19! 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: No. 19 is the Conservation (Protection of Trout as a Non-commercial Species) Amendment Bill. No I do not think so. My colleague Richard Worth is from Epsom where trout is a big issue but most of us do not “trout on” as much as he does on these matters. I thought he would have pulled up the Lawyers and Conveyancers Bill quite quickly. In fact this whole Order Paper looks full of rubbish—absolute rubbish. But I want to make this clear to just the few people left with their crystal sets tuned in. We are sitting here going through a bill that is to amend the Oaths and Declarations Act 1957. 
Steve Chadwick 
: It is called tidying things up. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Oh well now Steve Chadwick has just leapt into the fray! 
Dr Richard Worth 
: Who was that? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: That was the member for— 
Dr Richard Worth 
: Taupo? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: No. 
Dr Richard Worth 
: Well wanting to be the member for Taupo? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Well whatever—I think she is a list MP. But her name is “Steve”. It is a “boy called Steve” and she says: “We’re wanting to tidy things up.” This is the tidy-mind syndrome. Do not members just love it? I can tell members that down at the Prospect pub in Howick every night everybody is saying: “Do you know what the Government has to do? It has to get in and tidy up the Oaths and Declarations Act because I am sick of how messy it is. Every time I go home at night after a few beers the missus and I sit down and we read through that Oaths and Declarations Act and we do not know what it means.” So Steve Chadwick has the affront and the gall—[ 
Interruption 
] We know that Jill Pettis had one person front her. 
Jill Pettis 
: He was a Tory! 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: OK even Tories can get things wrong and whoever this one person was he got it wrong. Steve Chadwick will always be a list MP if she is going to go out there with a tidy-mind syndrome about tidying up an Act that has no relevance and is of no value at all. 
I looked through the clauses and to be quite frank I do not think the average Kiwi five-eighth punters out in television land after reading some of this stuff—especially when they get to each clause and look at the Maori form of it—will have a clue. I mean how bad does political correctness have to get with some of this stuff? The one thing I find just amazing is our passports. Guess what we did with our passports some years ago? We made one whole page opposite the English page in Maori. Here is a question for members. Where does one use a passport? The answer is everywhere overseas—everywhere. So I thought right! When I arrived at Kai Tak Airport I went straight up to the little Chinaman there and said: “Excuse me pal how fluent are you in te reo?”. He looked at me and said: “We’ll put you in jail if you speak to us like that.” He did not have a clue what it was. We have this political correctness. Although I think the Maori language should be honoured in certain locations and in certain forms a passport is not it. 
It is a little bit like the two-page advertisement I saw for the new Commissioner of Inland Revenue. There was one whole page in English and one whole page in Maori. If a person can be skilled enough talented enough and qualified enough to be the Commissioner of Inland Revenue but cannot speak English that person should not be getting the job no matter how good he or she is. I know that the Government has even had to wheel the interpreter in here so he can pick up on some of this. But I say to him: “Rest easy you will not need it.” With every one of these oaths and declarations and so on we have gone to lunatic lengths. 
This bill will be seen by the public as political correctness gone mad. That is coming from someone who truly believes that one day this nation will be a republic. But it will not be a republic under terms and conditions of the feminist hard-core left socialists who have decided that it will be their view and nobody else’s—and no list member called “Steve” is ever going to tell me that a tidy-mind syndrome is how we should run the Government of this nation.