Peters Winston: Urgent Debates — Justice Minister—Compliance withCabinet ManualText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Urgent Debates — Justice Minister—Compliance withCabinet Manual[Sitting date: 12 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16569. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First):There is a raw irony about the events surrounding Judith Collins because on 31 October last year she was in China to give a speech to the China Executive Leadership Academy in Pudong. There she gave a very lofty speech about a matter that is dear to all of our hearts and hitherto had been to hers. She said in that speech that she was there to contribute to a culture of openness and transparency. She went on to say: “[The] law provides mechanisms for the public to find out what different branches of the Government are doing. We believe that this builds trust and confidence in our system.” She was talking about the glory of New Zealand’s political system and no doubt her role in it. Then what do we then find on the Oravida website? The translation is as clear as daylight that here is a Minister who is over there not on a justice and ACC trip which are her portfolios—no she is on a trade trip engaged in a family operation and she was not merely as she tried to blithely say having a cup of tea on the way to the airport.Hon Members: With milk.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: With milk. And she said: “What’s wrong with milk? I like milk.” Apparently she likes scampi as well. She left that part out. That was the Sanford connection. Sanford is owned by whom? Why the National Party president’s family. Just like Skycity it is tawdry and ugly. It is terrible venal behaviour. [Interruption] I know Gerry loves it because Gerry was once for about 5 weeks a director with Goodfellow on the new Christchurch casino. Yes Gerry wants us to forget that but there was Gerry taking a job as a director—he and Goodfellow—on the new Christchurch casino proposal. How venal is that?Andrew Williams: Donkey-deep.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Donkey-deep is the word for it. It is John Key - deep in fact. Can I just say that this is what Mr Key said—earlier this week he said that the Collins case differed from that of his former Minister Richard Worth because there was no personal gain involved in Judith Collins’ visit to Oravida. That is demonstrably false. There was every personal benefit involved and that is why she had the Ambassador to China the consul-general from New Zealand in Shanghai border officials and taxpayers’ money all involved in promoting her husband’s business. If you read that website and the Chinese translation into English you will see how much she was involved. In fact it went on to say that she tasted Oravida’s fresh milk and the New Zealand scampi and could not stop praising these products.Judith Collins instructed that she is expecting to continue the cooperation exchange between Oravida and New Zealand. She is on a trade trip now is she not? And based on this that is to develop bi-mutual relationships further. She is in there donkey-deep and yet the National Party members have of course got their heads down. They should be ashamed of themselves. How glad I am that I left that party. How glad I am that I left that party because I can go to bed at night feeling good about myself and not have to walk down the street and be ashamed and when the voters talk to me cough and splutter and change the subject like Gerry does. No siree.Then John Key said this: he made it clear that if the Cabinet Office advice suggested a problem he would take action. That is what he said. The Cabinet Office advice was given not with knowledge of the Chinese translated into English. No it was with just a few sentences of English. Do not tell me that Cabinet officials are so bad now that when asked to investigate something they did not walk downtown to get a Chinese interpreter to find out what they were investigating. Mr Key is now caught red-handed—totally red-handed. Look here we go—here we go. He refuses to release the Cabinet Office advice on this matter when the advice was never checked against the Chinese translation. Then he went out and told all the journalists that it was. He simply failed to tell the truth and so did Judith Collins.Here is the real issue though—there is a smell growing on this and it will intensify each day. The thing is there is more to come. There always is. There always is.Hon Annette King: There’s more.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: There is always more. The public has now lost confidence in the Minister of Justice because more and more is being revealed of her business connections and associates. By the way his name is Wong-Tung—Wong-Tung. It is Wong-Tung not Wung-Tong as other people have been saying it. It seems like Wong-Tung did “wong”. The reality is there is an old saying that Caesar’s wife must be above reproach—Paul Foster-Bell: Disgusting.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No it is not disgusting sunshine. That member there was a former foreign affairs official and he knows full well that you cannot as a foreign affairs official be involving yourself in trying to advance a venal politician’s interest. No Mr Foster-Bell I can see why Whangarei did not want you because they have got some standards up there. I know because I come from there. He stood there and he got beaten as a sitting MP in Parliament.Denis O’Rourke: Tell him Winston.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I am telling him. The meaning is very clear about Caesar’s wife. Of those who are granted the privileges of power and position we also require accountability. Judith Collins has twisted and turned as the whole sorry sordid saga has emerged. As each layer has been peeled back the more rotten ugly and disgraceful the whole business looks. Imagine if any of us over here had done that. National members would be screaming blue murder. In fact I recall when we did not do that and they were still lying and screaming blue murder. As Mike Williams pointed out over the weekend in one of the Sunday papers—and I am very grateful to him for finally telling the truth—we have had plenty of this dodgy stuff from this National Government.Hon Trevor Mallard: We voted the right way.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: You did and I am very grateful to the Labour Party for actually seeing the truth. Mike Williams is probably the reason why and I am grateful to him. But there are the National Party members over there prepared to malign defame and traduce someone else’s reputation without facts. They are sitting there using their majority. Today one of theirs was found to be worsening in her attitude towards honesty and they want to cover it up. There is plenty of dodgy stuff like that—Skycity for example. There is also the Antoine’s Restaurant meal. National has got the effrontery to attack other members of Parliament in this House and it raised $105000 at a restaurant in Auckland where Mr Key spoke and charged each attendee $5000.Andrew Williams: Just up the street from his house.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Just up the street from his house.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Read the Electoral Act.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Pardon?Hon Gerry Brownlee: Read the Electoral Act.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I have read the Electoral Act and so has the National Party. It is just a deceitful device where sometimes—Hon Gerry Brownlee: Oh the law is a device?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh no Mr Brownlee. I know that you sold $5000-plate dinners and never even turned up to eat the dinner. It is just a device—we know that. It is like the Waitematā Trust. Again that is a heinous device that National used for darn years and then it has the effrontery to challenge other parties on their trusts. What a disgrace National is. The members look in the mirror every time they make an allegation.The Prime Minister is on record as having stood in this House and saying this. I asked him about decision-making responsibility and he said: “As Prime Minister I have responsibility for protecting the integrity of the decision-making process of executive Government and maintaining public trust in the executive. I have always expected and demanded that my Ministers act lawfully and in a way that upholds and is seen to uphold the highest ethical standards.” Well Mr Key here is the day of truth. This is the moment when New Zealand gets to see whether he stands by his words or whether they are just hot air—empty and meaningless. He says: “Personally I’ve been of the view that transparency is a good thing. As Prime Minister I’ve tried to lead that charge.” When he was asked about that he said: “Yes I stand by that statement which was made in the context of discussing reform of MPs’ remuneration travel privileges and transparency around expenses.” Here is the expense account of $36000-plus associated in part with a familial connection with a business and the National Party has the effrontery and audacity to think it can get away with it.Well the campaign has started and National is off to a shocking start. I want to say to those backbenchers in the National Party hiding now and probably watching TV—all those backbenchers whose knees are starting to knock—that you could stop the rot now by saying that you will not put up with this. There has to be the same accountability that was demanded of Pansy Wong and Richard Worth. They were far more innocent in this context than this senior Minister who used to be in the Law Society and who was one of the first to go out and give her views about other MPs’ behaviour from a legal point of view. Now she has been hoisted with her own legal haughty petard. This is a day of reckoning for Mr Key and hitherto he has dramatically failed.