Henare Tau: General Debate 
Henare Tau: General Debate 
[Volume:634;Page:5435] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 If it smells like a rat and looks like a rat it most probably is a rat. If it smells like corruption and looks like corruption it absolutely is corruption. Mr Maharey said that Labour played by the rules. No Labour members did not do so. They stole from the public. They stole money from the taxpayer and used it to try to get re-elected and everybody in this country knows about it. They thieved and stole and that is corruption. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: The member cannot say that. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Members in this House have previously taken exception to the word “corruption”. It has been ruled out of order. In this case the member has repeated the word and said that National played by the rules. I wonder whether he means to include the destruction of election hoardings in that description. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: The member knows he cannot use that word. He will withdraw and apologise. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: I withdraw and apologise. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. This is a point of conjecture. On Thursday when the same issue came up Speaker Wilson said she would not rule out the word “corruption”. Previously Madam Assistant Speaker you and Assistant Speaker Ross Robertson have ruled out the word. Speaker Wilson said on Thursday that the word “corruption” could be used and now we are getting a different interpretation. I am not challenging your ruling; I am just saying that there is a difference in interpretation and that my colleague Tau Henare used the word on the basis that Speaker Wilson allowed it to be used last Thursday. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: A member cannot call a member or a party corrupt. That is the difference. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Well if that is the case then maybe the organisers of the Labour Party such as Mike Williams etc. are the corrupt ones. Yes all of those people are the corrupt ones. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. You have just ruled not 1 minute ago that it is out of order for someone to call an individual or a party corrupt. The member responded by naming individuals and alleging they were corrupt. That is clearly out of order and would be defamatory if said outside the House. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: A member cannot use that term for a member of Parliament or a party. He did not actually do that. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: I mentioned Mike Williams because he is the so-called president of the Labour Party. What about all his mates in the union? 
Let me tell members what the Service and Food Workers Union did. It stole $240000 from its members without telling them and gave it to the Labour Party so that the Labour Party could use it. 
Hon Member 
: You’re making it up. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Making it up am I? The member should just read the last  
Investigate 
 magazine to see how the union stole $240000 from its members and gave it to the Labour Party. If that is not corruption I do not know what is. 
I shall go through the events. In June 2003 the Auditor-General invited every party to meet with him to discuss election funding. What happened? The Labour Party leader Helen Clark and Michael Cullen actually refused to meet with him because they knew that what they were doing was absolutely wrong and absolutely against the law—and it will come out. Dianne Yates moaned on about somebody cutting off the authorisation on her sign during the election campaign. Maybe the face should have been cut off it as well. In July 2005 the Auditor-General wrote to everybody in order to reiterate the election spending rules. And what happened? The Labour Party broke the rules and no manner of spin by Labour members in this House will let them get away with it. 
Dianne Yates 
: Party-hopper. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Absolutely! I am a party-hopper. So was Winston Churchill but that is another story. 
What we are talking about here is the dirty sleazy tactics of a Government in trouble. It would have been easy for Helen Clark—for “Hele Baba and the 49 thieves”—to front up and say: “OK if the Auditor-General says we’ve done wrong we’ll pay it back.” But oh no not only does the Auditor-General believe that Labour Party members did wrong in their sleazy dirty manner but those members front up to this House and say they are not going to pay the money back even if he tells them to. And that leads this nation down the path of all the people out there—the ones whom we purport to represent and the ones whom this House purports to represent— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. You have established in previous rulings that it is against the Standing Orders to refer to a political party as being corrupt. The member has taken variations on that theme by referring to the president of our party in those terms. He has used a pejorative descriptor of our parliamentary party and has used the words “dirty” and “sleazy”. I put it to you Madam Assistant Speaker that those words connote the same meaning as the word you have previously ruled out and I seek your considered ruling on whether they are acceptable parliamentary terms. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Speaking to the point of order I point out that the word “corruption” has been ruled out by you Madam Assistant Speaker and I accept that unreservedly. The words “sleazy” and “dirty” have been used in this House not only today but also yesterday. They were also used last week and the week before that. Are you now going to rule the words “sleazy” and “dirty” out as well? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: No I am not. But I say to the member that any words can be ruled out if they are liable to bring disorder to the House. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Those members are sleazy. They are dirty. That is what we see here and that is what the public sees. In 2 years’ time that lot of sleazy dirty people over there who try to use taxpayers’ money to get re-elected will be turfed out on their ears. And why? It will be for one reason only: they did not play by the rules. Maharey gets up in this House and has the audacity to say they played by the rules even though the Auditor-General said they did not. The Labour Party spin machine has been out there working overtime because those members do not have the money to pay back the taxpayers. Labour is broke and its members are morally broke as well.