Smith Lockwood: Address in Reply 
Smith Lockwood: Address in Reply 
[Volume:628;Page:377] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 Mr Deputy Speaker I extend to you my congratulations on your election to the position. It is richly deserved. 
On 17 September this year the people of New Zealand voted. One of the things that has always been really important to me is that when I vote I believe I am voting for someone who is going to govern my country. The sad reality of the election this year was that the people of New Zealand voted but they did not choose who was going to govern this country. No one person in New Zealand decided who was going to govern this country. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: Who was that? Tell us. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: That one person was the Rt Hon Winston Peters. Because the team in this House led by Helen Clark’s Labour Party had behind it 57 seats and the team led by Don Brash and the National Party had behind it 57 seats the Rt Hon Winston Peters had the choice to go with either side. The people of New Zealand sadly did not have the chance to elect their Government. That power fell to one person: Winston Peters. 
The people of New Zealand should not forget that as we watch the shambles of this Government unfolding before us. The first thing that happened was that Winston Peters said that Helen Clark had offered him the role of Minister of Foreign Affairs—and of course someone has to do it. What did Helen Clark say? Helen Clark said that Winston Peters had asked for the foreign affairs role. They cannot both be telling the truth. Either Helen Clark or Winston Peters is not telling the truth and the people of New Zealand ought to be highly suspicious of this cobbled-together Government when the very first things that are uttered cannot be the truth. Either Helen Clark or Winston Peters cannot be telling the truth because those two statements are incompatible. 
I am not totally surprised by the cobbling together of this shambolic Government because we all know that it is Winston Peters’ swansong. He has just booted in the guts his loyal New Zealand First members. Ron Mark and Pita Paraone are loyal men who deserve better treatment. Brian Donnelly deserved a ministerial role if New Zealand First was going to go into Government. But no Winston Peters just booted them in the guts because it is his swansong and Winston wanted to have a swansong that would give him the chance to do other things. Of course we also know that Helen Clark had her particular ambitions too that had nothing to do with the future of this country. Helen desperately wanted a third term— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Please use members’ full names. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: I beg your pardon Mr Deputy Speaker. Ms Helen Clark desperately wanted a third term in this Parliament and the two blind ambitions met in the middle. The Rt Hon Winston Peters—or the “bauble man” as some call him—wanted a swansong and Ms Helen Clark desperately wanted a third term in Government. How convenient! 
What has been the reality of this “Clark-Peters Government” in practice? Well the first thing is that Mr Winston Peters in foreign affairs wants to repair our relationship with the United States of America. What did Helen Clark say? She said there was nothing wrong with our relationship with the United States of America. Well they seem to have a difference of view there. Then Mr Winston Peters said: “I’m going to ask Australia to help us repair our relationship with the United States of America.” Helen Clark said that New Zealand was not going to ask Australia to help us repair our relationship with anyone. She said that we were capable of standing on our own feet in foreign affairs. It is little wonder that Alexander Downer Australia’s Foreign Minister had to ask the Hon Phil Goff now Minister of Trade who on earth was in charge of foreign policy in New Zealand under this shambolic Government. I know Alexander Downer pretty well he is a pretty smart bloke but it is little wonder he had to ask who the hell was running the ship in New Zealand when it comes to foreign affairs. The sad thing is that the world—at least that bit of the world that actually takes much notice of New Zealand—just had confirmed to it further that New Zealand has lost the plot. The respect that New Zealand once had around the world again just dropped another notch or two. 
It is not just the Rt Hon Winston Peters who is caught in this mess; of course the Hon Peter Dunne the leader of United Future got sucked into these shonky arrangements as well. Just like Mr Winston Peters he is meant to support the Labour Government on issues in his area of portfolio responsibility. What happened the other day on a Radio New Zealand  
Checkpoint 
 interview? The interviewer—Mary Wilson I think it was if I look at the transcript—asked Peter Dunne: “… you do want the carbon tax scrapped?”. What did the Hon Peter Dunne say? He said: “Well our view is that the carbon tax is unworkable”. The support agreement is that the Hon Peter Dunne in his portfolio area of revenue and taxation matters speaks for the Government and he said: “… our view is that the carbon tax is unworkable”. Is that the Government’s position now because Peter Dunne is meant to speak for the Government on tax matters? Is it? Will Rick Barker confirm that? Will Damien O’Connor confirm that that is the Labour Government’s position? Because their Minister of Revenue has told New Zealanders that that is the position. Or is it not? 
Under this shambolic Government no one knows what on earth what different Ministers say means. I suspect that it is so shambolic that supply agreements do not mean anything; that Peter Dunne was probably speaking as Peter Dunne leader of United Future because immediately Michael Cullen the Minister of Finance said: “Well if that goes so too will the adjustments to the income tax thresholds.” and Peter Dunne said: “Whoops we can’t have that.” We can see the shambles. It is an absolute shambles under this new cobbled-together “Clark-Peters Government” and it is a sad thing for New Zealand because the people of New Zealand did not vote for this Government. This Government was chosen by Winston Peters. 
In my concluding moments I want to refer to something else and that is the appalling standards that have developed under this Labour-led Government. We all know that it goes back to the days when Helen Clark was happy to commit fraud over a painting. We all know she put the knife in the back of a Commissioner of Police that she screwed him by talking secretly to the media behind his back. We know she let her drivers take the flak when they carried her at speed halfway across the South Island. 
Those low standards have been carried on by the Hon Taito Phillip Field who has brought this Labour Government to a new low level. It is just staggering when we look at what he has done. In February this year he asked the Associate Minister of Immigration for special direction to grant work permits to a Thai couple Sunan Siriwan and his wife Luck who had actually claimed refugee status had failed and had stayed illegally in New Zealand. Mr Field then flew them to Samoa and got them to do tiling work on his holiday home in Samoa under a work permit obtained by his wife. 
The then Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Phil Goff visited the home of Phillip Field in Samoa with officials and Samoan police. What did Phil Goff say to the then Associate Minister of Immigration Damien O’Connor about the appropriateness of what Taito Phillip Field was doing? Phil Goff should have known that that was outrageous and that it was bringing immigration in New Zealand to a new low level. What did Phil Goff do? This Parliament deserves to know because Phil Goff visited Paul Swain visited Ross Robertson visited and so did officials and the Samoan police. So it is not as if they were just casual visits. What did Mr Goff tell the then Associate Minister of Immigration about the appropriateness of what Taito Phillip Field was doing? A bad odour is now surrounding this Labour-led Government.