Auchinvole Chris: Appropriation (Parliamentary Expenditure Validation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
Auchinvole Chris: Appropriation (Parliamentary Expenditure Validation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:634;Page:5854] 
CHRIS AUCHINVOLE (National) 
: 
 Part 1 of this bill is very much cobbled-together legislation. I delved into it wondering what on earth prompted it. We have seen Labour suddenly burst forth with validating legislation. Was it really just Treasury having a word in the ear of the Minister of Finance to which immediately he gave an electrifying response straightaway with no delay? Such a response must have impressed Treasury—such a change from considering commentaries from Treasury as an expulsion of wind which is what that Minister has done previously. But no Treasury has stated that we must have validating legislation so the Minister of Finance has rushed a bill into the House and called for urgency to put it through. 
I think however along with most of the population there is far more to that than this. So what is it that is driving Labour? Is it a sudden sense of guilt? Dover Samuels’ speech today would leave any 8-year-old child with an impression of that. Is there a sudden realisation that Labour’s action is in some way unethical? Well that would be right but Labour has the order of correcting it wrong. This is one of the major problems that this Government has: it does not understand—from the Prime Minister down in my view—how to right things when it gets them wrong. The public are increasingly aware of that. 
Members should think of it this way. In this case Labour is seeking absolution without any of the prior conditions of acknowledging what has gone before. Perhaps in an abstract sort of way Labour feels that giving itself absolution is in itself sufficient acknowledgment that it has done something wrong without having to acknowledge really that it has. My Catholic friends have spoken to me on occasions about the process of ethical restoration. For over 2000 years Catholics have used a formula and this is how it works. First there is recognition of transgression; an awareness that they have done something wrong. Next is the process of confession to the transgression—the righting of the wrong; an act of contrition—which is then followed by an absolution. 
None of that has happened here. Oh no! Self-forgiveness self-absolution and no contrition no confession. They have done nothing wrong. They have cast a stain on the soul of the body politic and they seek to ignore that fact and legislate their way out of it. Clearly not only do they see themselves as above the law but as an earlier speaker suggested they have given themselves papal grandeur. I think it could be taken further. I would go further and say they have raised themselves to the height of previously unimaginable deity—getting to heaven for this Labour Government would merely be a stepping stone such is the cavalier way its members are behaving. 
I will be told no doubt that this Government is proud of its secular profile and ethical response to problems. But it gets worse. The Government’s sycophants the New Zealand First Party members are the bête noire of my friend—or perhaps he is their bête noire. It gets even worse because they do not even see the need to forgive themselves. This represents an awful enormity—a shocking level of denial complicity and guilt. 
Other speakers far more experienced than I have declared this to be an illegitimate Government on the basis of what has gone on. I fully agree with that. The illegitimate partner United Future is creating a presence of denial in a priggish self-congratulatory oratory. Thank goodness for the honesty of the Maori Party. It is more my style of doing things. Mind you as a Scotsman I can imagine the level of internecine argument that has occurred within their caucus over who should contribute how much towards the $45. How much should the co-leaders shoulder? One can imagine the wrangling the tears the torment the raffles the cake stalls and the appeal to members. 
The question is also a matter of leadership. It gives me sadness to find that the leadership of the present Government is so much at fault in this poor brand of trying to solve the problem. There is a total lack of responsible leadership. But let us take it away from any emotional or political aspect. Let us look at it purely from a commercial point of view. The whole thing flows into other areas as it always does. A debt is a debt. For those of us who have commercial experience there is always associated vocabulary and behaviour.