Mark Ron: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Mark Ron: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:638;Page:8893] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I am not too sure. I have sat and listened to much of this debate and I have wondered about the direction we are going in. I have to say that probably the most common-sense speech I have heard in this Chamber tonight came from Heather Roy in the ACT party. I wonder on occasion about how it must have felt to be that little boy who was watching the parade go by and who was brave enough to stand up to say that the emperor had no clothes on. I know that that story was recounted last night but it is a very appropriate story to use right now because that is what I see. 
I hear a lot of fine words about leadership and demonstrating leadership but it occurred to me that only one person was on the top of Mount Everest—there were not 121; there was one. Leadership is not often demonstrated by the masses. [ 
Interruption 
] Well there were two on the top of Mount Everest. There was Tenzing as well—in fact he was the first one up there. But there certainly were not 50 billion up there. There were not 2 million or 4 million or 121 were there? I say to Nandor that it was a very small minority. 
Rodney Hide 
: That’s just like the ACT party. 
RON MARK 
: Just like the ACT party right now. 
Sometimes every now and then one gets the feeling that the lemmings are following each other over the cliff and into the abyss because they are all hailing the leading lemming and saying: “That lemming knows where we’re going and that lemming knows what we should be doing and we are the lemmings who all aspire to be Ministers in future so we will follow that lead lemming because we want to be Ministers and we certainly don’t want to be out of touch with our leader.” This amendment which I will vote for and which will provide for a review is as much about having a review of the Key amendment and the entire legislation as it is about anything else. 
I supported Chester Borrows’ amendment. 
Rodney Hide 
: It was a good amendment. 
RON MARK 
: I thought it was a great amendment. I thought it at least gave the policemen and policewomen out there who were charged with the responsibility of maintaining security and peace on our streets some guidelines they could work within. 
This Key amendment was designed around popularity and proving oneself as prime ministerial material which Labour will regret. I have already had reports come in to me that Labour has just lost the next election. I spoke to a couple of Labour members over the dinner break and I spoke to a couple of National members. Let me assure the Committee and let it be on the record that there are Labour MPs who are gutted. There are Labour MPs who believe that this has just cost them the election because they have just handed John Key the lead seat. They have just allowed John Key to demonstrate to the entire population that he is a statesman and that he is able to knit together the grand coalition which demonstrates quite clearly— 
Russell Fairbrother 
: You don’t believe that. 
RON MARK 
: Mr Fairbrother is the man who said that a murderer was a subject of colonisation after he had rammed down a lady who was jogging in the streets. 
Russell Fairbrother 
: You don’t believe that. 
RON MARK 
: I do believe that. Sadly I believe that John Key has just trumped Labour beautifully and Labour has allowed it to happen. The beauty and the sadness is that Labour MPs inside their own caucus fought for an amendment some time ago and other Labour members like Steve Chadwick said that no the bill would not be touched or amended in any way shape or form. Well guess what? I say to Steve that the bill has just been amended. That makes the bill no different from the existing legislation which pleases me. 
So I will vote for this amendment but I will not vote for the bill itself because it is a nonsense to pass a law that contains within it a clause that says that the law should not be enforced. I have just watched Mr Howard Broad on TV. The red blushes on his neck his cheek and his forehead said it all. When he said that this amendment had just lowered the threshold and that it would be up to the courts to determine what is inconsequential that proved to me what I feared to be the case: it will now require some New Zealanders to be charged by the police for their cases to be tested in court and for the judiciary now to decide what is consequential and what is inconsequential. That proved to me right there and then on TV3 that this amendment is a nonsense. 
I will vote for this amendment so as to have a review. I will not vote for the bill. I look forward to the review and if that means that I am the only one standing out there on my own alongside Rodney Hide Heather Roy and Gordon Copeland then let that be put on the record—because we are not lemmings. 
The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 102 in the name of the Hon David Benson-Pope to add new clause 6 be agreed to.