Henare Tau: General Debate 
Henare Tau: General Debate 
[Volume:641;Page:11147] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 Charles Chauvel was away 5 days drank 40 glasses of champagne and had five meetings and he stands in the House and justifies what was essentially a junket. In all my time as a member of Parliament for this House the Maori Affairs Committee has put in numerous requests to go overseas and every time those requests have been turned down. Then we hear the justification. Maybe the real justification was that we cannot trust some fellas to go overseas but we can trust these other guys to go overseas—all three Labour MPs—off to the great state of Melbourne in Australia. They had five meetings—that is all—in 5 days. That works out to be one or two meetings a day counting the meetings that the member did not even get to. He said there were 13 meetings in 5 days. That is not good enough. I say shame on that member—shame shame shame. 
Let us get back to the Prime Minister. Why is it that the Prime Minister cannot tell the same story 2 days in a row? She tells one story on 1 day and then makes up another story on the next day. Members know who will get it in the backside—it is the Minister of Justice. He will have to fall on his sword because of the stuff-up of Michael Cullen and Helen Clark. 
Then I hear on this morning’s news a terrifying piece of news. My former colleague the Hon Brian Donnelly the only one with street cred the only sane one in New Zealand First has decided to jump ship to make a dash for the door—[ 
Interruption 
] Absolutely I know what it is like trying to get out of New Zealand First by crikey and I thank the Lord that I did and that I took the opportunity while I was still alive. But this former Minister is off to the sun— 
Simon Power 
: A fine member! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: He is a fine member. He is off to the sunny Cook Islands. 
But that raises a couple of interesting issues about other important appointments that this Government may see fit to make in the next while. The Rt Hon Winston Peters may very well be the next ambassador to China although I do not think the Chinese people will take too kindly to that appointment considering Mr Peters’ reported comments on the Chinese cuisine including that it involves the eating of dogs as he was wont to say a couple of years ago. 
Then New Zealand First has the temerity to have somebody stand in the House and question the Minister of Immigration about new immigrants when that guy asking the question is an immigrant as well! For goodness’ sake talk about someone pulling the ladder up once he has got into Godzone! Talk about— 
Simon Power 
: Pull up the drawbridge! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Pull it up. The member is saying: “Pull the drawbridge up no more immigrants because I have got to live in Godzone. [ 
Interruption 
] Exactly and what about Ron Mark? He could be the ambassador to Oman. He has been there before; maybe he would like to go back there. Poor old Pita Paraone there is nowhere for him other than Te Puni Kokiri in Whangarei. 
I want to say this though. The Labour Party used to pride itself on the fact that it distanced itself from the war in Iraq. That is all we ever heard from Labour Party members—how they would not get into the fight in Iraq. But now we hear that our own carrier the one that the Government bailed out to the tune of $180 million and that the Government is now an 80 percent shareholder of has been carrying Australian troops all the way to Kuwait to fight in a war that Labour members said they would never have any part of. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.