McCully Murray: General Debate 
McCully Murray: General Debate 
[Volume:648;Page:17134] 
Hon MURRAY McCULLY (National—East Coast Bays) 
: 
 Members of the New Zealand public who are listening to this broadcast from Parliament will be intrigued to know that the last address they just heard was from a man who holds a warrant in this Government that makes him responsible for the conduct of New Zealand’s relationships with other countries. It is a very important task in this Parliament and today we have heard him bring all of the attention to that portfolio which has become his characteristic. I say to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and to other members of the Government who have contributed to this debate that I have sat here and listened to it and asked myself one simple question: what planet are these people on? They imagine that there are people out there who are pulling up to the petrol bowser putting the nozzle into their tank and then when they see the dial tick over to $100 they are saying: “Those nasty people at Crosby/Textor are making me pay more for my petrol.” Those members imagine that people are going into the supermarket to buy their block of cheese and saying: “I wish those people at Crosby/Textor didn’t make me pay so much for my block of cheese.” 
Those members over there who have the warrants the new BMWs the chauffeurs and the flash houses have lost the plot. The people who are paid handsomely to discharge the affairs of State in this country can do no better than throw stupid inaccurate insults in the direction of the Leader of the Opposition and his colleagues. Quite frankly the public see right past it. I have a message today for the Minister of Foreign Affairs and his colleagues in the Government. If they think the next few weeks leading up to the election will be a good roll around in the political gutter with the members of the National Party I have news for them. They will be very very lonely. The Leader of the Opposition has made it clear that he will not buy into that sort of campaign. He will not have a roll around in the political gutter with the Prime Minister who demeaned herself and demeaned her office at question time in this House today. John Key is better than that. John Key has made it clear that he will front a campaign that is about the opportunities that this country has over the next few years. He will not be diverted by the grubs and the people on the other side of the House like the Minister of Foreign Affairs who cannot seem to focus on the issues at hand. 
In the couple of minutes I have left I want to endorse some comments made by my friend and colleague the National Party spokesperson on defence. We have a serious situation now in the New Zealand Defence Force. A senior officer has been brought back to New Zealand from New York and held here without undertaking any duties for many months in the expectation that he was to be put on court martial for the abuse of UN housing allowances. The Defence Force decided in the week ahead of the court martial to abandon that charge and bring some different matter before the Court Martial. But the fact of the matter is that for 8 or 9 months that has been the matter at hand. For those 8 or 9 months every single senior member of the New Zealand Defence Force must have known that the charge that was levelled against that officer was a charge in which all of them were complicit. Someone very senior in the New Zealand Defence Force decided in 2001 to knowingly try to rort the United Nations housing allowance. Someone very senior since that time has decided to continue the practice of rorting the United Nations housing allowance. Someone very senior has sanctioned and probably ordered officers—at least five of them—to fill in a declaration to the United Nations saying they were not getting any benefit from the New Zealand Government because that was a condition of the United Nations housing allowance being received. At least five officers were ordered by their superiors to lie in a declaration to the United Nations. It could hardly be more serious. 
But it is more serious. Behind that question of our relationship with the United Nations and the integrity of our conduct lies an even more important matter. This is the New Zealand Army we are talking about. These are people we send out to the trouble spots of the world to places where they take risks with themselves. These people are entitled to know that they will be backed to the hilt by those who sit in command over them not be stabbed in the back by those who sit in command over them. Lieutenant General Mateparae has some very serious questions to answer. Who knew about the receipt of these housing allowances under these suspect circumstances? Who gave the original order to knowingly try to rort the UN arrangements? Who renewed the decision to rort those arrangements when the change of command took place? Who else knew and was complicit in that process? What did the Minister know and when did he know it? These are important questions because these people need to be held to account. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.