O'Rourke Denis: Urgent Debates — Hon John Banks—Ministerial ResignationText is subject to correctionO'Rourke Denis: Urgent Debates — Hon John Banks—Ministerial Resignation[Sitting date: 17 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14022. Text is subject to correction.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First):Several serious questions arise from the resignation of John Banks as a Minister. The first and most obvious of these is about his lack of judgment. It is that lack of judgment that causes me to have some serious thoughts about his leadership of one of the Government’s most important promotions which is that of charter schools. There is already widespread concern about why those schools are needed and whether they will compromise standards because of the use of unqualified teachers and many other aspects of charter schools are at least questionable. So we are entitled to now ask about the ministerial judgment of a man who has had to resign as a Minister because there are questions about the legal propriety of his past mayoral campaign election returns. We are entitled to conclude that this Minister indeed is a Minister who has exercised poor judgment across a range of issues. That includes not only his past behaviour in electoral matters but also his leadership of the charter schools programme. This justifies a total review we believe of the need forcharter schools. at all. If his judgment is so poor then there needs to be another look at them.The question of judgment goes beyond just questions about electoral returns and what that means in terms of Mr Banks’ ability to exercise sound judgment. It goes to how the man has handled the situations that he has found himself in. Most New Zealanders will regard the way that he has handled those situations as very questionable indeed. It is clear to most that Mr Banks has not been as open honest and transparent as we are entitled to expect of a Minister. What this means is that he is not trusted by the community. This defines the nature of the whole Government. The Prime Minister has said that he has been happy to collude with all of this. Even now the Prime Minister wants Mr Banks back. It shows that the Government itself cannot be trusted and that of course is what we are seeing in the opinion polls currently.I have just heard the Deputy Prime Minister say that he regrets the resignation of Mr Banks. Why should that be? Because we all know in this House especially on this side of the House that Mr Banks is the most lacklustre Minister that exists on that side of the House.Hon Trevor Mallard: No that’s not true.DENIS O’ROURKE: Well—Hon Trevor Mallard: He’s a mid-range Minister.DENIS O’ROURKE: I said one of them—one of the most lacklustre. There are many lacklustre Ministers but he is one of the most lacklustre of them all. Clearly he is not really ministerial material. He does not have the talent or the personal ethical standards that New Zealanders expect of Ministers. Nor does he have the confidence of the New Zealand people to be a Minister. He does not even have the confidence of National voters. So why should the Deputy Prime Minister express such regret over this resignation which the rest of the House and I think the majority of New Zealanders actually rejoice in? It is because it makes a Government that does not have the confidence of New Zealanders itself even shakier. It will take more than a manipulated cup of tea to save the Government now. Mr Banks has gone. The Government will be next.The Banks affair is a long-running saga of sleaze of playing the New Zealand people as mugs and of manipulation and deviousness. So the resignation of John Banks has not come a day too soon for most of us. The damage he and John Key have done to New Zealand’s reputation as a well-ordered democracy is huge. The time is well past to put an end to the charade of evasion and double-talk that comes from Mr Banks. New Zealand has been at the top of the international non-corruption index for years. This Government with Mr Banks in support and with his record will put an end to that reputation.The spin now has to stop. The process of justice must be allowed to take its course—no thanks by the way to the wimpy cop-out by the New Zealand Police; thanks only to the efforts of MrMcCready. Electoral law is a cornerstone of our democracy. Electoral law can be flaunted and manipulated with apparent ease if you look at Mr Banks’ behaviour. The integrity of our entire system is put at risk by that behaviour. The law is the law for all but Ministers have a special responsibility to lead in this way and so indeed do all MPs. New Zealand First itself has had to face electoral accusations in the past. New Zealand First has had to run the full gauntlet of police and serious fraud investigation. The accusations were of course found to be utterly groundless. We did not get the easy ride that Mr Banks has had. We did not get officialdom looking elsewhere.There is no tenable way Mr Banks could continue as a Minister. A Government Minister is in a position of great trust and responsibility. This Minister has grosslybetrayed that trust and that responsibility and this Government has colluded with him every step of the way. This Government is just as guilty as Mr Banks has been in that respect. The public must have absolute confidence in the probity and judgment and honesty of Ministers and of the Government. A more honourable person would have resigned when the allegations of electoral misconduct surfaced in the first place. Instead of that we have had nothing but double-talk manoeuvring and in fact strategic silence from Mr Banks for more than a year. He has clung to office by his fingertips and in that he has been aided and abetted by the Prime Minister and by the whole National Government not because they have any particular regard for Mr Banks as a Minister but because they know that they have to have his vote to stay in office. I heard Mr English say today that in fact the Government had more than that but the truth is that it needs every vote that it has got. In reality its majority is just one so without Mr Banks’ vote this Government would not be able to cling to office in the way it has.Finally all of this reflects no credit at all on the Prime Minister of this country. He has allowed this tawdry tale to run on to discredit his Government to damage the reputation of New Zealand and to make it possible for the people of New Zealand to lose confidence in the whole political process. This is a sad day for New Zealand not because Mr Banks has resigned but because he has taken so long to come to that conclusion.