Macindoe TimHon TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): Thank you Madam Chair. Ordinarily the Minister of Foreign Affair's appearance at this year's Estimates hearing before the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee would've been considered the worst of the season by any Minister but the tourism Minister managed to take that title from him. Nevertheless the rambling cantankerous and unconvincing presentation and answers to questions by Mr Peters when he presented as the Minister of Foreign Affairs was the worst performance I have heard at that sort of event in my 10 years in this House. He appeared unfamiliar with the text of his own introductory remarks which he delivered in a halting and at times incoherent fashion and he quickly became abusive when he was asked legitimate questions on important topics for which he should have been better prepared.Although he has spent 25 years pretending to put New Zealanders first he took a long time arguing that a New Zealand landlord whose only mistake had been to let her property to a foreign diplomat could not expect to be paid the considerable sum that she is owed in unpaid rent because the diplomat was protected by immunity. When my colleague the Hon Todd McClay pointed out that there are exceptions to that policy his response was effectively Too bad that's the way it is." He then told us that "I used to charge $500 an hour for this sort of advice but I'm giving it to you for free."Hon Christopher Finlayson: What—as a conveyancer in Howick and a failed Russell McVeagh lawyer?Hon TIM MACINDOE: Ha ha! You're probably quite right Mr Finlayson—and I'm sure that the landlord was really deeply touched by his humility and understanding.I wasn't surprised that he chose to abuse me and my National colleagues as my line of questioning was asking him to explain his many flip-flops and inconsistent positions on policy matters but it was notable that he also managed either obliquely or overtly to insult all of our nation's teachers Senator Penny Wong of Australia Fonterra and frankly the intelligence of everyone who was witnessing his performance.Although in May following the release of a compelling report Mr Peters accepted the international condemnation of Russia that surrounded the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014 which saw 298 innocent people killed he did not resile from his statement during a TV3 interview two months earlier that there was no evidence of Russian involvement in that atrocity. Rather than admit that he had been wrong in March which caused New Zealand international embarrassment at the time as Senator Penny Wong had pointed out from the other side of the Tasman Mr Peters was instead dismissive of Senator Wong's qualifications and refused to concede that his earlier statement had been so ill-informed.In his opening remarks Mr Peters spoke of the launch of New Zealand's trade talks with the European Union the New Zealand - China free-trade agreement upgrade and the imminent ratification of the PACER-Plus agreement but he made no mention of his enthusiasm for a trade deal with Russia so I questioned him about that. And rather than explain why he had been so determined to see New Zealand resume negotiations towards a free-trade agreement with Russia which only he could have been responsible for negotiating into the current Government's coalition agreement he chose to split hairs in that usual fashion that he adopts when he finds questions inconvenient. So I asked him again: what progress have he and the trade Minister made towards the resumption of free-trade negotiations with the Customs Union of which Russia is the dominant economy and does he believe that our international allies and Five Eyes partners support such a stance at a time when there is so much concern about Russia's foreign policy and involvement in issues such as the Salisbury Novichok incident the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17 the chemical weapons outrages perpetrated by Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria Russia's suspected interference in the United States 2016 presidential election and so on?I asked Mr Peters why the Government had changed its original press release on the Salisbury nerve attack which he denied had happened but I'm holding here a copy of the two versions which quite clearly show that he misled the committee with that answer.Given the recent publicity about the deluded and obnoxious individuals who were banned recently from using an Auckland Council venue to promote their intentionally offensive attitudes it's interesting to note that just a few weeks ago supporters of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation were permitted to hold a rally to promote their anti-Semitic and anti-democratic views at that most public of Auckland Council venues Aotea Square and no one in the Government or the council expressed any concern about that at all.My colleague Chris Penk the member for Helensville asked him a sincere and respectful supplementary question to my questions on that to which Mr Peters replied "Don't get into a shit fight you can't win son." Even by Mr Peters' standards that was a puerile response and I wonder what message he intended to send to the many New Zealanders and foreign observers who share the concern that Mr Penk and I and many others have on that issue. I never cease to wonder at the fact that Parliament's oldest current member is also its most childish."