Cosgrove Clayton: General Debates 
Cosgrove Clayton: General Debates 
[Volume:613;Page:9960] 
CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 Over the last couple of months and weeks this Parliament has witnessed some incredible activities that give us an insight into the modus operandi of the ACT party. I want to look at its form. First there was Richard Prebble and the Pipitea Street fiasco which involved an electorate office owned by Mr Prebble’s trust and used by him. Secondly Mr Prebble’s own electorate staff who were supposed to be doing constituent work were doing political work. There is a word for that but I will not use it. 
Then we come to Rodney Hide. That is the man who attended the well-known shonky Investors International conference in Fiji. 
Rodney Hide 
: Same old speech. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I know he does not like me reminding him of it. The conference was run by a convicted US fraudster the chief executive officer and owner Rudolph van Lin who attended the conference with Mr Hide. Yet to this day 4 years later Mr Hide refuses to answer some simple questions—questions about who paid his air fares who paid his accommodation who assisted him to get there and who invited him. To this day he will not say how he got involved with the organisation. I have asked him how it is that he came back and was told it was a shonky conference a scam conference but then did nothing to assist the hundreds of Kiwis who lost millions of dollars. The great scam-buster did nothing. 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. This member is chairing a Finance and Expenditure Committee that for 2½ years has been sitting on an investigation and he is doing nothing. The idea that he will stand up here not spare my name and not do his job is a disgrace. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is not a point of order. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: While we are on that point Mr Hide is the member of Parliament—and he is right there as a member of a current fraud inquiry live before the Finance and Expenditure Committee—who bitterly opposed the committee’s inquiry into a scam. He did nothing when he came back from the conference. He was told that the conference was a scam and a shonky deal. He did not do anything to assist the Serious Fraud Office the police or the Securities Commission. In this House I tabled an affidavit from a family who lost in excess of $400 million because they invested— 
Rodney Hide 
: $400 million? 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: —$400000—because they heard so-called people of credibility like him speaking at a conference. Subsequently when Investors International did over hundreds of Kiwis what did the member do? Did he go out and help those people? Oh no! He sent the boys around—he sent the lawyers in. That is the mark of that person. Even now we know that at that conference everyone except Mr Hide got paid. We know Dave Henderson his best mate got paid. We know that Dolf de Roos his other best mate got paid. But of course Mr Hide—as he said—did not get paid. 
Then we come to Donna Awatere Huata—the sort of female version of Michael Jackson; the makeover queen in this Parliament. But one cannot actually make over the dubious activities she is now charged with. She is a disgrace in this Parliament but she is not the only one. The ACT party is a disgrace because it was the party that selected her twice. Even though she had received Pipi Foundation money previously they subsequently selected her twice. She should resign from Parliament but she will not do it because as with all ACT members it is the dollar she would lose that is most important to her. 
Then we come to Alister Taylor who is we are told accused of not publishing and supplying books to good people who paid in advance on both sides of the Tasman. We know he has a labyrinth of companies. We know he changed company names from Who’s Who New Zealand in 1990 to New Zealand Who’s Who Aotearoa Ltd in September 1991 which metamorphosed into Roger Jamieson Ltd on 30 June 1997. Then the day after that happened he set up another company on 1 July 1997 called New Zealand’s Who’s Who Publications Ltd. My question is: why all the similar names? Why set up all those companies? 
Then we have another so-called company. In this year’s invitation for the New Zealand Who’s Who Aotearoa an invitation was received in the name of New Zealand Who’s Who Publications 2004 Ltd—except when one checks with the companies office and the companies register the company does not exist. Is that misleading? Is that against the Fair Trading Act or the Companies Act? Should there be an inquiry? Of course we know that Ms Coddington is the ACT spokesperson in respect of the Fair Trading Act and the Companies Act. I believe that is a disgrace. The gang of four—Richard Prebble Donna Awatere-Huata Deborah Coddington and Rodney Hide—are on 4 percent.