Flavell Te Ururoa: Appropriation (Continuation of Interim Meaning of Funding for Parliamentary Purposes) Bill — Third Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Appropriation (Continuation of Interim Meaning of Funding for Parliamentary Purposes) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:643;Page:13244] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou e te Whare. A week ago today the Maori Party’s view on the Appropriation (Continuation of Interim Meaning of Funding for Parliamentary Purposes) Bill was clearly set out by Dr Pita Sharples. As with anything we in the Maori Party are involved with particularly in regard to issues in this House we take this issue very seriously as indeed we do the serious business of humour. 
Last year we received a notice that we had committed a crime. The crime was advertising and publicity expenditure deemed outside appropriation for the 3 months prior to the general election of 17 September 2005 and here is the notice. As there is no word for “guilt” in te reo Maori we could only acknowledge this and say: “Ae i raro i nga ture Paremata i he matou.”—that we were wrong. The Maori Party did not make up excuses. We did not seek legal advice on how to convince others that our wrong was in fact a right. “Fair enough” we thought and we fessed up and paid up. The crime was centred on an advertisement in a local paper and it was for the amount of $53.66 including GST. 
On 16 August 2006 we dipped into our Maori Party and staff kai kitty and duly paid in cash the amount of $53.70 for which we received a letter of receipt. [ 
Interruption 
] Thank you. This letter of receipt which was received on 17 August 2006 was headed “Receipt of illegal election advertising expenses” and it stated: “we confirm receipt of funds representing the refund of illegal election expenditure as outlined in the Auditor general’s report. Please find attached your tax receipt for $53.70. This represents $47.73 plus GST. Regards …” blah-blah-blah. 
When we discussed this crime of expenditure outside of appropriations we thought we might invoke what is normal for the Office of Treaty Settlements and this House in settling Treaty claims. We thought 2 percent of $53.70 would be a satisfactory amount in repaying the debt which would bring the compensation payment to about $1.07. We chose not to do so as we were not prepared for the outcry that would surely and rightly have followed. We imagined the headlines of “Maori Party refuses to pay in full”. So we decided to pay the paltry sum of $53.70. We decided that it did not really warrant that sort of headline so we paid in full. We congratulate the Hon Jim Anderton and his Progressive party on being the only political party in this House that did not act illegally. Most other parties have paid but there are still one or two that to date have failed to put their hands in their pockets. The interest on their debts must be building I am sure. 
What has disappointed us most is that first some people still believe that Kevin Brady the Auditor-General was wrong; and secondly even worse this House has passed retrospective legislation to make legitimate that which was illegal. We sure know how to look after ourselves and we have a wonderful ability to rationalise our behaviour. 
The question we in the Maori Party have is about the letter that refers to the refund of illegal election advertising expenses and whether the other parties have received a letter headed just like it. I wonder why it is that we in the Maori Party have not received a letter to say that all is now forgiven and that it has all been made legal and above board. As we have stated previously although this bill is portrayed as merely being a rollover of existing legislation to 2009 and although pledges have been given that what happened in 2005 will not happen again what the Maori Party knows only too well as students of history and of power is that the ends will always justify the means for those who crave power. History has shown that some people will do almost anything to retain their positions. The funny thing that I have found interesting in the debate thus far is that both major parties seem to blame each other yet they both tested the rules to the limit and were found wanting. 
Much reference has been made in this House to Nicky Hager’s book  
The Hollow Men 
 as we have debated this bill and its mate the Electoral Finance Bill which we will be debating before the House winds up for the year. Both of these bills have rightly been linked but it is the book  
The Hollow Men 
 that I want to make reference to. The book alludes to the notion of what is referred to as “wedge politics” the politics of division and fear; the politics whereby one group is cynically set up to be feared. It is a type of politics that has again been seen on our television screens and in our newspapers and this time around it has also been directly experienced by the men women and children of Ruatoki and Tuhoe. It is a sort of politics that utilises a technique called dog whistling which refers to the notion that certain messages will be transmitted and heard by a specific set of the audience. They are subliminal racialising messages that politicians use and that are the last words to be remembered by the listener. 
In the last few weeks we have been subjected to wedge politics and dog whistling straight out of  
The Hollow Men 
 which provided a damning account of gross manipulation of the public in the interests of power. By way of example I ask members to think back if they will to the press conference of Monday morning 15 October when the nation was advised of terrorist training camps in Tuhoe of Molotov cocktails of napalm bombs of military-style weapons and of threats to the lives of the Rt Hon Helen Clark the honourable John Key and the President of the United States George W Bush. When leave to lay charges under the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 was denied the Prime Minister went on the offensive stating that those arrested were still facing very serious firearms charges. All of this happened while the issue was sub judice and while much effort was being made in this House to ensure that members of the Maori Party did not break the sub judice laws in debates. It was then announced that the Hon Parekura Horomia was also a target of assassination. 
Increasingly more and more people are coming to believe that the police raids of recent weeks have been a cynically orchestrated campaign by and for the Labour Government based on the very thing that drove Dr Brash that was practised by Mr John Howard in Australia and that has its origins in Karl Rove the brain of Mr George Bush. The irony is that this divisive and destructive form of politics when published by Nicky Hager was the object of considerable criticism by the Rt Hon Prime Minister and her colleagues who railed on Don Brash following his Orewa speech. But over these last 4 weeks the Prime Minister and her colleagues have been indulging in exactly the same behaviour for exactly the same purposes and it would seem for exactly the same kind of populist result with Labour improving in the latest Fairfax media Nielsen poll this past weekend. 
It would seem that racism despite technically being an illegal practice remains as something to successfully draw on when ratings are down. Don Brash did it to spectacular effect in the year before the last election. Could it be that the Labour Government is following suit? What sort of games will be played out before the next election? I have used this example to make the point that when it comes to power any means will justify the ends. The financial cost of such behaviour will be borne by the people as we in this House set about appropriating money for parliamentary purposes. The cost of wedge politics is always paid by the innocent. This time it was paid by the people young and old of Ruatoki and Tuhoe and those who have dared to challenge it. The question is who will be next.