Smith Nick: Standards and Conformance Bill — In Committee 
Smith Nick: Standards and Conformance Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:634;Page:5401] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 I am not at all surprised this evening that the Government has chosen not to take a single call on a bill to do with standards. If we think about it it is not at all surprising. If we look at this Government which Helen Clark promised would set new high standards and the shemozzles we have seen since I am not surprised that not a single member of the Labour Government would want to participate in a debate on standards. We could talk about the standards that Labour has set around immigration law for instance and Mr Phillip Field. [ 
Interruption 
] Lianne Dalziel the Minister in the chair has finally popped up with a word in defence of Phillip Field. She is an ex-trade unionist. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Tell us about the bill. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: The bill is about standards. I would like the Minister in the chair to talk about standards. I think it could be quite interesting to hear from this Government about standards. We could hear about standards of ministerial conduct. We could hear about standards of parliamentary conduct. We have seen appalling examples of standards from everybody in the Government—from the Prime Minister down—in respect of this bill. 
This Government says in this classic Labour bill: “Do as we say not as we do.” Government members want to have a Standards Council in order to preach to others about what should be the standard but they do not want any standards applied to themselves. We had the extraordinary exhibition from the Prime Minister today that showed that the Government would not accept even the standard of the Solicitor-General or the Auditor-General. I ask the Minister why we are going to all this effort to pass laws about standards in respect of laboratories and petroleum all because we want to have an independent standard-setting process. We have one of those—it is called the Auditor-General. What happens when the Auditor-General says that the Government has breached the law? Labour members say that it is nothing to do with them and that the Auditor-General is wrong. 
Hon Chris Carter 
: Tell us about the $16 million. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I just challenge Mr Carter to talk about— 
Hon Chris Carter 
: Oh tell us about the court case. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: One minute the member wants me to refer to the bill on standards and the next minute he wants me to talk about building standards. I have a simple question for Chris Carter. Can he tell me whether houses in New Zealand—he is an ex-Minister in this area—should be built according to standards set by Standards New Zealand or whether we should defer to the Department of Building and Housing? Can the Minister in the chair tell us? I have here a press release from the Certified Builders Association which wants to know what standard applies. Can Mr Carter—a Minister of the Crown the previous Minister for Building Issues and the Minister of Housing—tell us? Can the Minister answer the question? 
Hon Chris Carter 
: I’ve never been in court. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I have to say to the member that I stand by my record of standing up for causes and I will continue to do that with courage—something that that member never does. But can he simply answer the question? What happens with Labour members is that they just want to change the law retrospectively if they get it wrong. Is that what Mr Carter will do with regard to breaking the law— 
Hon Chris Carter 
: I didn’t break the law. Did you Dr Smith? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Actually the Solicitor-General says that Mr Carter did break the law. Mr Carter is subject to a court case for breaching the law over the pledge card. What is his answer on that? 
Lindsay Tisch 
: No standards. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: He has no standards. I simply ask the Minister in the chair and Mr Carter how Labour members can preach about standards to other New Zealanders when they blatantly ignore the law and ignore the standard-setting authorities around Parliament—the Chief Electoral Officer the Solicitor-General and the Auditor-General. We simply say that it is hypocritical of the Government to advance law on standards when it ignores the standards set for others.