Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): If there's anything that just came through really clearly from Melissa Lee the previous speaker it was that she clearly had no grasp with the factual narrative because if she had have she would have realised that at the very first opportunity the Minister colloquially known as the first citizen of the provinces made the declaration of a perceived conflict of interest at the earliest possible opportunity. In 2014 the factual narrative goes—just to assist some of those members in the Opposition—that the Minister who was at that point a Labour member of Parliament met with the Manea group. Due to his gravitas they approached him to be the chair which he declined. Now coming to 2017 he became the Minister responsible for the regional economic development fund. He was then presented with a proposal from Manea. He turned to the Cabinet Office for guidance. The first thing that the Minister did at that point was declare the perceived conflict of interest. Now I turn to the good practice guide that was published by the Controller and Auditor-General. Now what they say is that In a small country like ours conflicts of interest in our working lives are natural and unavoidable." A small country like ours—New Zealand. Not some other country; here in New Zealand. "The existence of a conflict of interest does not necessarily mean that someone has done something wrong and it need not cause problems. It just needs to be identified and managed properly." So what happened? What happened was that the Minister the first citizen of the provinces—and as the junior citizen of the provinces I'm very proud of the way that he managed that conflict—turned to the Cabinet Office. He made the declaration. He then informed and he gave off his vote to other Ministers—not even of his own party might I add—and they managed that application. Now what is really interesting is that if you listened to the speeches from every person from the Opposition including the person that called for this debate—who could barely make up his time when it came to giving his offerings because he had to turn to saying how sad mad and bad it was that particular regions weren't getting funding for their provinces. What is that? That's got nothing to do with the Minister for Regional Economic Development. That has everything to do with the fact that the Opposition knows that the Provincial Growth Fund is having an immeasurable impact in the provinces and in the regions so much so that the provinces are rightly saying that they were left behind for nine long years by the guys that they'd been voting for for so long. What are they doing? They are withdrawing their support and your polls are showing it absolutely. So it's a little bit rich as well. We turn and we listen to the Leader of the Opposition. Just yesterday on Morning Report he goes on and he says "Oh that Jones' behaviour was serious and wrong." and then he goes on to say "And you know Jones he says 'Oh it's sweet as bro. It's sweet as bro. We just go about and we just grant all the applications because it's sweet as bro.' ". What a horrible articulation of the way that the Hon Shane Jones conducts himself. I have never ever heard the Hon Shane Jones speak in that way and I'm very disappointed to hear a Leader of the Opposition articulate our fine articulate Māori Minister in charge of the regional growth fund to be characterised in that way. That's my first point. My second point is that he said that it was serious and wrong that there is this egregious conflict of interest. Now let's turn to I don't know—in his time in Government there was this little issue of a wee company called Oravida and his other mate who's on—what is it? Six percent or 7 percent is she riding at about now? Judith Collins. Now there—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! Order! Come back to the matter at hand. Thank you. KIRITAPU ALLAN: Sure thing—sure thing. But I do think it's rich that when we had these egregious actual conflicts of interest under the previous administration—when they need to they bark at every passing car because they're trying to get attention. This debate is well in the interests of justice it's fine—like let's all have this constitutional dialogue. But the substance of the debate and the issues that are giving call to this debate are absolutely egregious and I'm really proud to support our Minister for Regional Economic Development and the way that he's conducted himself alongside the other Ministers responsible for the regional economic development fund. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I didn't realise this was a split call but I guess it is."