Woodhouse Michael: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWoodhouse Michael: General Debate[Sitting date: 18 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18624. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (Minister of Immigration):I ask the previous speaker Ms Moroney who said that we in this Parliament should be focusing on the things that matter where on earth was that speech a month ago when the Labour Party spent 2 weeks railing against sideshows? If there was a textbook for beginning MPs the very first teaching in that textbook would be this I suggest: if one is going to throw stones be very careful to ensure that one is not standing in a glasshouse. I have run that gauntlet in those 2-week periods. I have been accused of all manner of things and I have responded with an absolutely straight bat declaring everything listening to people on immigration policy without fear or favour and without any knowledge of donations. So it absolutely amazed me when I heard today that the Labour Party has not been quite as consistent with the solid ground that it wanted us to be on as it should.Apparently the Labour Party has been receiving donations from a Mr Donghua Liu not that anybody from the Electoral Commission would know because it apparently has not been declared. So I ask the House whether that failure is imposture or incompetence because either way for a party that aspires to lead this country whatever the answer is it is not a good look. And it is certainly not a good look for a Leader of the Opposition who has spent not only the last week but this morning denying unequivocally having had anything to do with Mr Liu—“Do you recall ever meeting him?” “I don’t recall ever meeting him.” “Do you have anything to do with the granting of his permanent residency?”. I have to say I do not normally disagree with the Deputy Prime Minister but when he said that Mr Cunliffe said: “I don’t remember.” actually Mr Cunliffe said: “No I did not.” It was not as if he could not remember. He said: “No I did not.”Imposture or incompetence? Either way this fellow aspires to lead this country and what we have is a man who would change his register of pecuniary interests—no he will pay the money back before he discloses who supported him in his leadership campaign. He stands in this House and says that Martians are more likely to come here than a boat from Indonesia and then he dog whistles on immigration policy but does not say what he would do to reduce the number of migrants in this country. That is not the behaviour of somebody who should aspire to lead this country.But do you know what? He is not alone. Five months before Mr Cunliffe advocated on behalf of Mr Liu his ministerial colleague Chris Carter—who was not the constituent MP for Mr Liu it appears; so why he would who knows—wrote a letter to Immigration New Zealand saying this: “Look I know things are a bit slow at Immigration at the moment but Mr Liu has put $3 million in a bank account”—I hope it was not the Labour Party’s bank account—“and is keen to purchase a particular building for redevelopment. I would be grateful for any consideration that could be given to expediting this application.” That was Mr Chris Carter on behalf of Mr Donghua Liu.But here is where it gets really murky. What on earth was the Hon Rick Barker doing—a Minister of the Crown on holiday in China? He did not have a ministerial responsibility for economic development. He was not responsible for immigration. He was not responsible for trade and he went and visited a concrete factory. He took time out of his own holiday to visit a concrete factory for a person he claimed not to know and cannot recall. Well I can tell you there appears to me to be a lot of Labour Party members and former members who are very very forgetful.Remember about that consistency—about not throwing stones if you are standing in a glasshouse? Which was the party that accused this side of being a little forgetful? Well I am sorry but it must be contagious in this House because those members appear to me to be a heck of a lot more forgetful or are they forgetful? I think the public is entitled to ask how forgetful Labour Party members really are. With the benefit of hindsight they seem to remember things only when they are publicly disclosed. This party this Government has played a straight bat on every single disclosure it was meant to make. When it comes to the ballot box—Hon Annette King: Whose great-uncle was it?Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: My grandfather’s first cousin. That has been absolutely cleared up. Clark knows it; Curran knows it—stop telling fibs. The public has a right to know the truth and they will make it known at the ballot box.