Carter John: Points of Order — Member’s withdrawal from Chamber ; Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises 
Carter John: Points of Order — Member’s withdrawal from Chamber ; Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises 
[Volume:609;Page:6217] 
JOHN CARTER (NZ National—Northland) 
: 
 I want to take the opportunity to talk in this debate because there are some things that do need to be discussed— 
Hon Paul Swain 
: So much for researching your speech. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Well I have probably done as much research on it as the Minister of Maori Affairs has done on some of the questions he has got wrong. In fact I have probably done more research on this speech than he supposedly did on reading the report he said he had read several times. 
Rodney Hide 
: The Minister of Maori Affairs is a Crown entity. 
JOHN CARTER 
: I am not sure whether one could regard him as a Crown entity. I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I just want to get this right. This is a fixed-time debate and no one else rose for the call. National is set down to have two calls but I do not want our second call to go to me because we are scheduled to have the last speaking slot on the list. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: I am sure it will not. The member has the call. 
Dail Jones 
: Mr Speaker can you confirm for me that we are now up to the fifteenth speaker in the debate? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: I could probably confirm that for you but it is not relevant. 
Dail Jones 
: It may not be relevant to you Mr Speaker but it is to us. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: We are on the fifteenth call. 
Dail Jones 
: New Zealand First has the seventeenth call. Hopefully I have been able to assist Mr Carter in the meantime. 
David Benson-Pope 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would also like some clarification of the point that Mr Carter has raised if I may. His assessment in my view was quite correct. Ms Turia’s call was call 14. She spoke for a short time and sat down. Mr Carter took the call and I would assume given that there is an agreed roster that reflects the proportionality of the House that that is the equivalent of call 19—the one that the party would otherwise have had. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: I thank the member for that. I actually thought the debate had come to an end because no one wanted to take the call. Mr Carter took the initiative. The next call would have been an ACT call. Its members were unable to take it. The following one was to be a Labour call. Mr Carter was the member who was alert. 
JOHN CARTER 
: I raise a further point of order Mr Speaker. I would like to have some clarification. I understand that Mr Hide has already taken a call but there was a 5-minute slot. So basically there is a bit of spare time and I just want clarification that that is the time I am filling. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: That is the slot the member is filling. 
JOHN CARTER 
: So the next speaker who follows me is likely to be a Labour speaker. I will get back to the debate. I want to take just 2 or 3 short minutes to take up the spare time that has been allocated in this debate to talk about some of the events that have happened in respect of State-owned enterprises. 
One of the things that worries me about this debate is the standards that are being set. We have seen issues around incorrect information being given when questions have been asked of State-owned enterprises. Indeed we have had to bring State-owned enterprises before the Privileges Committee for example. That worries me when we tie that in with some of the answers we now see being incorrectly given by Ministers in this House who then have to come back to correct them. I must say that the standards that are being set by this Government are not to be accepted. 
I would have thought that David Benson-Pope the senior Government whip who certainly does a good job would want his colleagues to set a good standard. I imagine that quite often he goes home disappointed with what he sees; in fact he probably does so every day. I know he will be out there insisting that they get on and do the job— 
Rodney Hide 
: No. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Well maybe he is not but I would like to think he would be. I would like to think David Benson-Pope is out there saying the standards the Government is setting are not good enough that the Government expects its Ministers and its State-owned enterprises to perform much better than they are that the Government expects Ministers to give the correct answers when they are asked questions and that Government members are not prepared to be made fools of like they have been. I wonder whether the senior Government whip is giving that message to his Ministers and to his caucus. If he is not then he is not doing his job properly because that message certainly needs to be given to the Government.