Dyson Ruth: General Debate 
Dyson Ruth: General Debate 
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Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) 
: 
 I begin my contribution to the general debate this afternoon by acknowledging with considerable sadness the passing of Sir Archie Taiaroa and I extend my sincere condolences to his family his friends his colleagues and his admirers throughout the country. He is one of the few people of whom we can say that he truly has left our country in a better state for his being a citizen of it. I want to pay the highest possible tribute to him. I know that many colleagues will be paying their respects in person to his family. I will not have that opportunity but it is a rare privilege to be able to do that in this House. 
The last few days have been quite extraordinary in terms of this Parliament. I think that the Prime Minister John Key is the last remaining New Zealander who is prepared to stand up for Rodney Hide for the ACT Party and for David Garrett. Rodney Hide came into this House a lot larger and a lot louder than he is now saying that he was going to stop the perk-busting of politicians. He was not a politician. He was elected as a new breed of people in this Parliament and he was going to stamp out perk-busting. Not long after that he was exposed not just as a person not able to stop perk-busting but as a perk-taker himself. As long as it was done under the radar and as long as people did not know about it he said that was all right. I recall John Key saying nothing about that at that time. He did not stand up for him but certainly did not give him any penalty or punishment. 
David Garrett came into this House with even stronger principles if one looked at it from the outside without any knowledge. He has now broken every single principle that he has ever campaigned on and he did not campaign quietly. He railed against people having name suppression—absolutely railed against it. Yet he had his own name suppressed. There is a word for that. He is being charged of hypocrisy by people up and down this country. That is the charge that is in front of David Garrett at the moment. He campaigned for openness and transparency and at the very same time he was denying the truth about his own life to the public of New Zealand. He rallied against criminals and their excuses. He said that there is no excuse for any bad behaviour but suddenly he has found a huge number of excuses for his own behaviour his own deceit and his own hypocrisy. 
Rodney Hide the leader of the ACT Party knew about David Garrett’s actions before he came into this Parliament. But he did not worry about it because he never knew that those actions would become public. At the very same time and this is the worst aspect of this disgraceful behaviour the family of the dead baby whose identity was stolen by David Garrett had to watch him deceive the country about openness and transparency about never giving criminals any excuses and about his “three strikes and you’re out” position. They were not able to ever raise the disgust that they felt knowing that he had stolen the identity of their dead baby and was now parading up and down the country with exactly the opposite view because Mr Garrett had been given name suppression—something that he opposed for other people. So for that family this Parliament should hang its head in shame. Rodney Hide should personally visit them and apologise for his support of David Garrett when he knew the facts of the situation. This behaviour cannot be passed off as a youthful prank. It was a considered theft of a dead baby’s identity. I do not think that very many other actions can be held in such low regard. I do not understand why John Key is backing Rodney Hide. He is the last-standing New Zealander to defend him.