Peters Winston: Urgent Debates — Accident Compensation Corporation—Release of Personal Information 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Peters Winston: Urgent Debates — Accident Compensation Corporation—Release of Personal Information 
[Sitting date: 20 March 2012. Volume:678;Page:1079. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 Over a matter of a few days it has become crystal clear to New Zealand First and the people of this country that this is a Government of National Party people by National Party people for National Party people and the Privacy Commissioner conducting the review will not get at the facts because this has long gone past a matter of privacy or confidentiality. 
An unseemly controversy has exploded into the light of day with all the usual National Party suspects: Nick Smith John Key and Michelle Boag—always Michelle Boag the former National Party president put in all sorts of Government-appointed jobs: the Broadcasting Commission; you name it; the whole lot. And blow me down who comes as the confidante at court to help this woman? It is Michelle Boag. There they are with their fingerprints their footprints and their DNA all over it. And there is the victim by some strange coincidence a National Party activist and apparatchik Bronwyn Pullar who tried to get some kind of deal from ACC. All of a sudden they have a marvellous memory on the part of Michelle Boag as to what was not said. But not much has been told to us about what was said at the meeting—just what was not said. That has got a ring to it if you are conducting any sort of investigative work that there is something amiss here. 
Nick Smith you know wrote a letter of support for the victim to ACC. I wonder how many other ACC people have written to him over the years when he was the Minister asking him to do something about what they would think was their plight—being unfairly treated by this outfit that is called ACC. You might say “Well what is wrong with that?”. And the answer is nothing if you are a member of Parliament or a local body councillor or a lawyer or somebody who is a social worker. But what is wrong is that he was the Minister for ACC. And is Mr Key paying any attention as to how serious this is? Oh no one rule for the rest of the politicians in this House and a different rule for the so-called noblesse oblige—although they have not got any characteristics of nobility. One rule for the noblesse oblige and a different rule for everybody else. They think themselves to be a special class above the law and above ordinary scrutiny. This means that the Minister for ACC leaned on ACC to push the case of another National Party member to get some payments. And just in case that was not enough they pulled out a former president of the National Party just to give it a run to see what greater pressure they could exert as well. 
Hon Member 
: Disgusting. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: It is disgusting but it is typical. 
Who knows there may have been some merit in the case of Ms Pullar but it was not Nick Smith’s place to push this case. He has been around a long time. You can tell that by looking at him. He did not arrive here yesterday— 
Paul Goldsmith 
: Not as long as you. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: We all know that. We all know that. What a rapier-like wit that man from Epsom has got. What a rapier-like wit. I might have been around here longer than Nick Smith but it does not look like it does it—not when you look at Nick? Here is the point: there may have been some merit in Ms Pullar’s case but it was not Nick Smith’s place to push her issue. It was a distinct conflict of interest. It was the case of a National Cabinet Minister doing a favour for a member and a formerly highly placed member of his own political party. But that has got a ring about it has it not: the cronyism the sleaze and the jobs for the boys—and the girls. In every appointment line your own people up—position them. It was the case of a National Minister doing a favour for a member of his own political party. For this he should have been sacked immediately from Cabinet when it was known by Mr Key that he had done that. 
It is no use coming along and saying “I made a serious error of judgment.” Where is the accountability? Where is the ministerial responsibility? If it was on that basis half the Cabinet would be gone tomorrow because they are making serious errors of judgment every day. They are too inexperienced. Look at them. They have been here only 5 minutes and by some raffle they have got themselves a Cabinet post. I know that there are far more capable guys on the backbench but apparently they have not been browning enough for the guys at the top. I know that there are more capable guys in the back here but they have not been chosen because they are not all total yes-men like the one who is hiding behind that white paper over there right now. It was a distinct conflict of interest doing a favour for one of his mates in his party. Mr Smith should be sacked now that that detail is out and that is not going to be what the Privacy Commissioner is charged with finding—because it is not a privacy matter now; it is a separate political matter of a grave breach of the  
Cabinet Manual 
. He should be gone and that is the fact of this matter here now. 
But the plot thickens. It turns out that John Key the Prime Minister knew the National Party activist. He talked to her on not one occasion but a number of times apparently—a number of times apparently. And so did the former National Party president Michelle Boag. So this is the case: in July 2011 Nick Smith wrote a reference letter for Bronwyn Pullar a former National Party official whilst he was Minister for ACC. But here is the real point: he was saying that a critical aspect of ACC’s judgment must have been wrong because in his opinion although he is not a medical doctor she was in every way sound and fit before the accident and that there was no cause for her current condition other than the accident. He was putting his reputation on the line as Dr Smith on ministerial letterhead just to make sure that people did not think there was a lot—because there are a lot of Dr Smiths around in this country. They wanted to make sure they got the real Dr Smith the Minister for ACC. 
This letter was used to support Ms Pullar’s case for ACC compensation after a cycling accident. In December 2011 Ms Pullar held a meeting with ACC at which her friend former National Party president Michelle Boag was her support person. That is amazing is it not? You would not go into your local town and get a lawyer someone qualified of course. No no you get the former National Party apparatchik and president Michelle Boag— 
Andrew Little 
: The well-known social worker. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: —the well-known social worker who trucked into this Parliament two leaders first Don Brash and then John Key from overseas to depose a guy called Neeson backstabbing him in his west Auckland electorate to get the job in the first place. Michelle organised that. So she is no bit player. Oh no she is the person behind the whole scheme in the first place. 
By the way Ms Pullar was accidentally sent information about 6700 other ACC claimants. Well that is a privacy matter but it has gone a long way beyond that. And we do not want to have another snow job from the National Party—another snow job from the National Party where you can say “Well this commissioner who was charged with limited terms of reference has made this decision about confidentiality but no one addressed the question of the propriety of the Hon Dr Nick Smith being involved.” That data that was leaked identified some as making sensitive claims for injuries resulting from rape or other forms of sexual assault. So there it is: a scandal from within the Government caused by the Government that holds itself up as being cleaner than the driven snow. It is always cleaner than driven snow. All its mates downtown in the commercial market know that is not true of course but it always poses as being that. It is a shabby little case involving blackmail sex and a Minister with a conflict of interest and he should go now.