Peters Winston: Supreme Court Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Peters Winston: Supreme Court Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:612;Page:8992] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 Can I just say for a start that I heard John Tamihere’s comment that the Privy Council was for the rich. Of course people who have never practised law or who have had their certificate of practice withdrawn or who have jumped before they were pushed—as he was—would come to that view. He said that he does not lie and defraud people. [ 
Interruption 
] No I do not but he does. Forging and uttering are serious criminal offences—as is being five times drunk-in-charge. That is a serious criminal background. If Mr Tamihere wants to say what he said about me he should say it here then go outside the House and say it again—whereupon he will find himself in the courts so fast that his feet will not touch the ground. 
The first thing I want to say is that if that is true how come I went to the Privy Council against the rich and famous against people who were given knighthoods by the Labour Party—the Fay Richwhite and European Pacific connection—because they gave the Labour Party millions of dollars in 1987? It was payback time and they lost—“We won; eat that!”. 
The second thing I want to say is that this bill should not be titled the Supreme Court Bill; it should be called the “Whakama (Kia Kaha te Republic) Bill” or the “Whakama (Up the Public Even Though It Is Bad for Maori Interests) Bill or the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Bill”. This bill should be called the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Bill”. Here we have seven Maori members in seven Maori seats. There has to be a multiple franchise they say—since 1867—because they represent like no others in this Parliament the narrow particular Maori voice. 
Dail Jones 
: That’s what they say. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Well we are still waiting to hear it. They represent unlike anybody else the peculiar particular special Maori voice in this Parliament. So let us hear it. There is not a sound not a murmur not a syllable not a mutter from them—total silence. They have been amongst their leadership around all the iwi and no one in Maoridom supports this bill. And what do those narrow particular special-interest groups in this House represented by the Maori seats say? There is utter silence from them—not a syllable not a sound not a mutter not a murmur. Back in the time of Pomare in the time of Buck and Ngata no one ever asked the question: “What good are the Maori seats?” because then Maori had a special voice and everyone respected it. It was profound and strong and it was great for this country. So where is the Maori voice today from Labour? It is gone. Not a word— 
Hon Georgina te Heuheu 
: Silence. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Totally whakama! They are too tired or too shy to speak for their people. As for the claim of the Prime Minister and Margaret Wilson that they have a mandate for this bill because it was in their manifesto I ask whether Labour won the last election. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: No. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Dramatically they failed. Did the Progressives after seven name changes help them win an election? No. They were still a minority. Members should listen and learn. Is this promise in the Green manifesto? No it is not. If it were in the manifesto it might give Green members the colour of right to say they have some sort of mandate but they do not. Nandor Tanczos said that they the Greens would listen to the voice of Maori but then he thought that getting rid of drug charges in respect of marijuana—the Clean Slate Bill—was more important. Out there in Maoridom any Maori thinking of voting for the Greens should think long and hard about first the destruction of Maoridom through marijuana and secondly the compromise he made with Helen Clark to pass this bill. 
The Minister in the chair Margaret Wilson has no mandate whatsoever. She will be gone from New Zealand politics at the end of the next election—of that I am sure. She will be a list member and no list member will make it—not from that party. It is the ultimate in arrogance for members ever to think they are in terms of what they do so popular that they can leave their stamp on this country regardless and let others pay the price and pick up the consequences. Well we make it very clear that—short title or no short title—when we are back in Government we will repeal this legislation. If we are to have constitutional change in this country it will be done by people who have the authority of the people of this country.