Cunliffe David: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cunliffe David: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 21 March 2012. Volume:678;Page:1164. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 Today we learnt that the number of New Zealanders leaving permanently for Australia has reached a new high—1000 a week—and that excluded the Minister of Local Government or the former Minister. We take no pleasure in the resignation of Dr Nick Smith who made a contribution to restraining some of his more slash-and-burn colleagues from their tendencies. I want to wish him and his family well for the future. But the fact is his resignation was necessary from the day that he wrote on ministerial letterhead a letter that could have been perceived only as inappropriate influence for a friend of his who was also a friend of the Prime Minister and a friend of the former president of the National Party. Unfortunately the responsibility for that must rest with the Prime Minister John Key. 
John Key said he would be “principled and transparent” and would “expect high standards from Ministers” except that has never been true. Pansy Wong was allowed to continue in her portfolio weeks after evidence of her and her husband’s joint use of ministerial privileges for family business was in the public domain. Richard Worth paid the price but not before sadly becoming an object of ridicule in this House and in the media. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! I apologise for interrupting the honourable member. I confess I let Hone Harawira get away with reading a fair part of his contribution in this general debate but he is a much newer member than the Hon David Cunliffe. The Hon David Cunliffe is a very experienced front-bench member and does not need to read a speech in the general debate. I invite the member to join the debate rather than read a speech. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: With great pleasure. Murray McCully has made a habit of sending official information from his private email address and no one understands why and John Key has done nothing. Bill English was allowed to rent his family trust’s home from the taxpayer at an awfully inflated sum—double that of a normal member of Parliament—and John Key did nothing. Rodney Hide took a taxpayer-funded junket with his girlfriend right round the world which included a family wedding and a holiday in Hawaii and John Key did nothing. 
How about this one: David Carter sought briefings on ministerial business from a company he owned shares in and had to back down only after being sued for it by the Auckland Jewish congregation and John Key did nothing. And Paula Bennett savagely breached the Privacy Act to attack New Zealanders who had dared to question her policies and John Key did nothing. 
But John Key has done some things. He has said the following which we call the Key doctrine: “If you are going to sack Ministers for … an error of judgment … you’d be sacking a lot of ministers.” I call this the Key doctrine. 
Well here are some errors of judgment from the Minister whom John Key cannot tell whether he is a bird a plane or Superman: Steven Joyce. Steven Joyce negotiated in secret with Telecom New Zealand to write down the law by $400 million to $600 million according to the Ministry of Economic Development for the broadband roll-out and John Key cheered him on. Steven Joyce deferred $43 million of spectrum licence fees from principally a company that he himself used to own and run. It is the same company that gave John Key a free hour—the  
Prime Minister’s Hour 
—just before the election. Of course John Key did nothing. 
Steven Joyce is negotiating in secret with New Zealand’s largest casino for between 500 and 1000 extra pokie machines. That would entirely pay off a convention centre in less than 5 years and John Key thinks that is a good way of doing business. 
John Key set the standard in negotiating down the law to suit Warner Bros. It seemed like a good idea at the time but it was a precedent New Zealand cannot afford. And John Key set the standard. 
The standard of appointing his own electorate chairman Stephen McElrea to be deputy chair of New Zealand On Air puts political control over the use of taxpayers’ funds like the time he allegedly stymied the bio series of the Government of Helen Clark. That is political control over taxpayer funds. It is a direct appointment by the Prime Minister of his own political henchman and he thinks that is appropriate. 
Is it any wonder that this Government has had the most rapid onset of “second-term-itis” in New Zealand political history? The most rapid onset. And now Murray McCully has become synonymous with political bravery being a quisling for his own reforms.