Mackey Moana: General Debate 
Mackey Moana: General Debate 
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MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 I do not know which electorate the previous speaker Hekia Parata has been campaigning in but that is certainly not the message that we have been getting on the streets in Mana at all. I would like to start by joining my parliamentary colleagues in recording the passing of Sir Archie Taiaroa. He was truly a great leader. Many people have been shocked since his sudden illness on the weekend and his death is truly a loss for our country. I would also like to put on the record my commiserations to his whanau on the loss of a truly great New Zealand leader. 
I think many New Zealanders today after question time will be asking themselves what it will take for Prime Minister John Key to lose confidence in his Minister Rodney Hide. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: What more could he do? 
MOANA MACKEY 
: What more could Mr Hide possibly do to lose the confidence of the Prime Minister? Today the Prime Minister said in question time that he believed that Mr Hide was acting ethically. Mr Hide covered up a heinous crime committed by one of his own MPs and gave that member the law and order portfolio. It is a true slap in the face to the victims of Mr Garrett’s crime and it has caused great pain to the victims of that crime. 
How can the Prime Minister stand in this House and say that behaviour is ethical? How can he defend that behaviour? 
Paul Quinn 
: Helen did; she who must be obeyed. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: Apparently Mr Quinn thinks that signing a painting for charity is the same thing as stealing a dead baby’s identity. Well I tell the member that is it not. 
Paul Quinn 
: No Taito Phillip Field. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: I tell Mr Quinn that Taito Phillip Field is in prison. If Mr Quinn and Prime Minister John Key think it is OK to have a Minister in their Government who covered up the identity theft of a dead baby then this is a sad day for the Parliament of New Zealand. This Prime Minister promised higher standards would be set by Ministers. He said his executive would be different from previous ones but what has happened has been nothing short of a disgrace. Mr Hide should be relieved of his ministerial portfolios. 
This is not an isolated incident. We can look back at a pattern of behaviour from Minister Rodney Hide and this behaviour has been raised in the House many times. He went on TV and encouraged people to break the law but that was OK with Mr Key. He charged people $45 to come and hear him speak in his capacity as the Minister of Local Government but it was OK with Mr Key for a Minister to charge the people of New Zealand who pay the Minister’s salary to hear him speak. Mr Key thought that was all right. Mr Hide then went to a function and bad-mouthed Mr Key saying he does not do anything and has no principles. That was also all right with Mr Key; he forgave that. The great perk-buster Mr Rodney Hide then took his partner on a taxpayer-funded trip round the world for which he then had to pay money back but that was all right with Mr Key. Mr Hide breached  
Cabinet Manual 
 rules by endorsing a company when he was a Minister but that was all right with Mr Key. Mr Hide was all right when David Garrett was accused of sexually harassing a female staff member. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: And there’s more of that to come out too. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: There may be more of that; I do not know whether that is the case. But apparently that was also all right with Mr Key. That behaviour was considered to be appropriate and ethical for a Minister. 
When Mr Garrett made some particularly repugnant comments on sterilisation Mr Key thought it was all right that Mr Hide defended Mr Garrett in that case. There was the appalling treatment of Heather Roy the bullying of one of Mr Hide’s own colleagues. That was all right with Mr Key. He thought that Mr Hide did a good job of handling that as well. There was the way that Mr Hide has handled the Auckland super-city legislation. It was anti-democratic not to give Aucklanders the right to decide on how their local government would be run. Apparently that was all right with Mr Key. 
But the worst thing of all is that Mr Key is defending a Minister who has covered up the identity theft of a dead child. Well the Labour Party says Mr Key is now the only person who is defending Mr Hide. Mr Key is the only person who thinks that Mr Hide deserves to keep his Cabinet position.