Robertson Grant: Urgent Debates — Justice Minister—Compliance withCabinet ManualText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Urgent Debates — Justice Minister—Compliance withCabinet Manual[Sitting date: 12 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16563. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central):I move That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance. The reason we have conflict of interest provisions in the Cabinet Manual is so that there is something to prevent personal gain—gain by family gain by friends or gain by a political party—from the actions of a Minister. And it is quite clear to all New Zealanders that Judith Collins in her actions in visiting the offices of Oravida in China and in holding a dinner with the chair of Oravida and a Chinese Government official has a clear and demonstrable conflict of interest. And it is a failure of leadership from the Prime Minister that today he stood in this House and defended Judith Collins. He stood in this House and the most he could say was that there was a perception of a conflict of interest. There has never in my time in this House been a clearer conflict of interest than Judith Collins’ role with Oravida.Let us work through the time line of this situation with the National Party and Oravida. Let us be absolutely clear. Judith Collins’ husband was appointed to the board of Oravida in October 2012—October 2012. Not long after Oravida announced its partnership with Sanford for exporting seafood to China—Rt Hon Winston Peters: Who owns Sanford?GRANT ROBERTSON: —Sanford being more than 50 percent owned by Peter Goodfellow President of the National Party. Interestingly some months before that in July 2012 a delegation was brought to New Zealand from China at Oravida’s behest. They met with Peter Goodfellow and described him on the Oravida website as the chairman of the National Party. Those are the beginning signs of the links between Oravida and the National Party being used to ensure that Oravida benefits.But we have to take one important step back and that is to the 2 days either side of the 2011 election because on the day before the 2011 election Oravida New Zealand Ltd donated $1600 to the National Party. Then curiously a couple of days after the general election in 2011 Oravida New Zealand Ltd donated $55000 to the National Party. That was $56600 in political donations from Oravida New Zealand Ltd to the National Party. That happened at the end of 2011. The delegation came in 2012 and met Peter Goodfellow and Judith Collins’ husband David Wong-Tung joined the board of Oravida at the end of 2012. Early in 2013 John Key was reported to have played golf with the chair of Oravida Mr Stone Shi. There is a little flurry of activity and we found out in just the last couple of days that Stone Shi and John Key have played golf on a number of occasions. So that link is in there as well.Judith Collins who had already made a trip to China in 2012 a trip where she did meet some businesses talked in her trip reports to Cabinet about the businesses that she met which was something she did not do after the 2013 visit. But in 2013 Judith Collins sought approval from John Key to go to China in October 2013. She did that in August 2013. Interestingly at that time she sought approval for her husband to also travel to China on that trip in October 2013. We will come back to that in a moment.Not long after in October 2013 but before she went to China Judith Collins officiated at the official opening of Oravida’s offices in Auckland. That is attended by—let us list them—Dame Jenny Shipley Sir Don McKinnon Peter Goodfellow Melissa Lee Paul Goldsmith John Banks Anne Tolley and of course Judith Collins who got the opportunity to cut the ribbon. She cut the ribbon of the offices of a company that her husband is a director of. And let us be absolutely clear here. There are only three directors of this company: Stone Shi Julia Xu and David Wong-Tung Judith Collins’ husband. There are only three directors of this company.So Judith Collins officiated at the opening of the Auckland offices. Three days later she received an invitation to visit the Shanghai offices of Oravida Ltd. In that invitation the company said: “We would be honoured for you to visit us in Shanghai on 23 October 2013 during your official trip to Shanghai.” So let us be absolutely clear. Oravida knew whom it was inviting. It was inviting a Minister of the Crown to come and visit it. At that moment if she had not done it at any point up to then Judith Collins should have declared her conflict of interest—at that moment then. She should have known frankly that she should go nowhere near the Shanghai offices of Oravida. She should have known straight away that that would give rise to a conflict of interest if she visited the Shanghai office of a company that her husband is a director of and that has donated $56000 to the National Party. That was 9 October but then on 15 October mysteriously David Wong-Tung withdrew from the trip to China. All of a sudden he was not going any more. But as we now know when Judith Collins did go to China and did go to Shanghai she took up that invitation to visit the Shanghai offices.Let us deal with a couple of the misleading statements Judith Collins has made about that. She “popped in for a cup of tea or a glass of milk”. Like some sort of “Countess Homogenised” she shows up at this office and says: “All I’m here for is a glass of milk.” That is not true. That is clearly not true. Anyone who has seen the photos on the Oravida website can be absolutely clear. There is a huge line of people who are there to meet Judith Collins. There is a very formal setting on the table. Anyone who has done business in China will tell you that these things do not happen by accident. These things do not happen on the hoof. This was a pre-planned well-organised photo opportunity for Oravida that Judith Collins participated in.She was invited on 9 October. The meeting occurred on 23 October. There is no doubt that that represented two clear breaches of the Cabinet Manual. It represented a breach in terms of a Minister’s job of not endorsing products and it represented a breach because the Minister’s husband is a director of the company. The Cabinet Office could not be clearer about the need for Ministers to avoid conflicts of interest of that sort and in that moment Judith Collins clearly breached both of those. She was there in China on a $36000 taxpayer trip—Rt Hon Winston Peters: How much?GRANT ROBERTSON: Thirty-six thousand dollars for that taxpayer trip. There are families in New Zealand who have to live for a year on $36000 and Judith Collins spends that going to China to promote the business that her husband is a director of. But what we learnt today is that that was not the extent of it. Judith Collins has spent the last week minimising everything about this arrogantly dismissing the concerns of anyone who would raise them and saying that there was nothing wrong with what she did. And today we learnt that in addition to visiting that company which her husband is a director of she met with and had dinner with the chair of the company Stone Shi and a senior Chinese border control official. Let us just pause on that for a minute. Let us ask the meat exporters of New Zealand just how difficult it is to get products into China. Let us ask any New Zealand company that exports into China how difficult it can be. So what benefit might there be for Oravida to have a meeting where a Chinese official from the border control agency meets a Minister—a Minister? Stone Shi can say: “Look this is how influential I am. I have got a Minister of the Crown here.” I do not think there is much more serious in this story than Judith Collins holding that dinner. Today in this House Judith Collins told us that there were not any discussions at that dinner about the business activities of Oravida. I do not believe that and I think Judith Collins will have to come back to this House to correct that statement.So when we put all of those things together what we have is a tale of a Minister who has quite clearly breached Cabinet Office rules a Minister who does not think that the rules apply to her. Sadly that is typical of the National Party which works in the interest of its wealthy friends rather than in the interests of all New Zealanders. That is what a Minister travelling overseas is there to do. Judith Collins said it herself: “I’m there to work for ‘New Zealand Inc’.” No she was not. She was there working in the interests of her family’s company and the interests of the National Party’s donors. It is the wealthy few in this country who benefit from the National Party.But then we had the reaction of John Key. We had John Key’s response to this—a man who told us that he would lift the standards of behaviour by Ministers. Well that is not what we have seen. What we have seen is a continuous run under his leadership of poor behaviour by Ministers. But today—not like Nick Smith who had to resign over a letterhead not like Richard Worth not like Pansy Wong—Judith Collins gets away with it. That is because Judith Collins is too powerful in the National Party caucus for John Key to deal with.Today is the low point in John Key’s leadership. Today is the day that he failed his own test by not getting rid of Judith Collins. If she does not understand that this was a conflict of interest she is not fit to be a Minister. This visit and the endorsement that happened at it benefited Oravida. This visit and the endorsement benefited the directors of Oravida one of whom is Judith Collins’ husband. This visit and the endorsement benefited the National Party via donations. That is where we have reached with this National Government. It is cronyism. This Minister should resign and this Prime Minister should be ashamed of himself.