Brownlee Gerry: General Debate 
Brownlee Gerry: General Debate 
[Volume:648;Page:17333] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) 
: 
 What a sad sight it was to see the Prime Minister stand in the House today and take no fewer than eight questions from other members asking her to extol the virtues of the Rt Hon Winston Peters in his capacity as Minister of Foreign Affairs for this country. What a sad day it is when the Prime Minister simply casts aside one of the documents that make up the constitution of New Zealand—the  
Cabinet Manual 
—and says “it is not a rule book; it is just a guide”. No one will forget that after the last election it was the Rt Hon Winston Peters who instigated the changes to the  
Cabinet Manual 
 that would enable him to take the position he has today. This is a man who touts himself as being one of the great parliamentarians of our age—a man who never hesitates to take an opportunity in this House to explain to other members how long he has been here how much he knows about the place and how much he claims to respect the institution of Parliament. Yet his very behaviour not only after the last election but now as has been revealed in the last few days in the acceptance of a donation from Mr Owen Glenn which was not disclosed shows his utter and complete contempt for the parliamentary process that operates in New Zealand. 
To have the Prime Minister spending her days working out how she can answer such a barrage of questions requiring complimentary statements about Mr Peters shows what a dreadful state the Government has got itself into. Everyone knows when they go outside of this place that New Zealanders are generally finding life a little difficult at the moment; that New Zealanders from one end of the country to the other are questioning just how secure they are as they go about their daily activities only to pick up the morning newspaper to see more violent assaults more murders more crime and all those other things that threaten the security of families in this country. The Prime Minister sitting in the top office of the Beehive is spending her mornings working out how she will say ever more complimentary things about the Rt Hon Winston Peters. 
Let us think for just a minute about what the issue is here. The issue is that under our system Ministers are supposed to stay completely free of any influence whatsoever—completely free of any influence from those who might be advantaged by any particular law change or other such. This country has for about 25 years now progressively moved to a situation whereby the separation between the Government and the governance and running of various activities that are part of being in Government have been separated from Ministers so that there can be no question about the way in which a Minister delivers in a policy area for which he or she is responsible. 
This donation which has been acknowledged by Winston Peters has exposed the raw underbelly of New Zealand politics and some of the weaknesses that can be in the system. One of the great protections has always been the  
Cabinet Manual 
 which allows the Prime Minister to demand a certain standard of behaviour from members of the executive. Today the Prime Minister cast that aside and simply said: “It is not a book that sets down rules; it is simply a guide.” So the behaviour of members of Parliament who become members of the executive is not prescribed in any rule it would seem but is simply found in a guide. The Prime Minister is the only person who can alter the  
Cabinet Manual 
 and the Prime Minister has discretion about what sort of behaviour is acceptable. 
That is the nub of the problem we have. Mr Peters spent months and months saying he never received a donation—only apparently to find out last Friday that yes he had. Then he went out and said: “But it wasn’t for me”. But it was! When someone gets a legal bill it is his or her responsibility to pay it. For Winston Peters to say that he did not know where that money came from is completely and utterly unbelievable. It is irresponsible and what is worse he is destroying the credibility of this Parliament by continuing to stick to that line.