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The Hon Lockwood Smith – Speaker of the House
The One New Zealand Foundation Inc has just had a discussion with the Speaker of the House, the Hon Lockwood Smith and has found; there are no checks in place for a “corrupt” Select Committee to “swing” a Bill in its favour.
Select Committees
Select committees are made up of Members of Parliament from all parties. The Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill was heard by the Maori Affairs Select Committee that consisted of members with a vested interest in this Bill, either through being related to Te Roroa or an interest in a Bill favouring Maori being passed whether true or false.
First Reading. The Minister Presents the Bill to the House
The Minister presents the Bill to the House for consideration. For an example, at the Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill’s first reading, the Minister in Charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, the Hon Dr Michael Cullen misled Parliament with his presentation of this Bill. The Crown has admitted this claim was only an “alleged” claim, but the Minister spoke of it as being a genuine claim.
Submissions are asked from the Public
At the first reading of the Bill, submissions are asked from the public into the Bill. These submissions, if requested can have a hearing in front of the Select Committee where further evidence may be presented and/or discussed. The Select Committee should then review all the submissions and present its unbiased report to the House at the second reading of the Bill.
Second Reading of the Bill
At the second reading, the Select Committee should give an unbiased report on all the submissions. In the case of the Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill, the Maori Affairs Select Committee deliberately misled Parliament by omitted any reference to submissions opposing the Bill, including a submission from the New Zealand Federated Farmers that represents over 17,000 members. The Maori Affairs Select Committee also misled Parliament that the One New Zealand Foundation submission, which opposed the Bill and the purchase of Mr Allan Titford’s farm with documented evidence, was not heard because of offensive language. This was a deliberate lie; the One New Zealand Foundation submission was presented by Chairman, Ross Baker and was heard at Parliament by the Maori Affairs Select Committee on the 2 May 2007 and it contained no offensive language. While the One New Zealand Foundation Inc complained at the time to the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the House, the Minister of Maori Affairs, the Chairman of the Maori Affairs Select Committee and sent a letter all 122 MP’s, not one responded to our complaint before the Bill went to its third reading. How corrupt was that!
Third Reading of the Bill
As the few Members of Parliament who attended the third reading of the Te Roroa Settlement Bill were all in favour of the Bill, it passed without opposition. Those Members who did not attend the final reading of the Bill, such as John Carter who has stated on many occasions, “The Bill must be further investigated”, were more interested in “their job security than justice” and stayed away. How corrupt was that!
HOW CORRUPT IS PARLIAMENT? – Straight from the House’s Mouth!
The One New Zealand Foundation Inc wrote to the current Speaker of the House, the Hon Lockwood Smith and on the 23 July 2009 he replied,
“The Speaker has no authority to investigate the work of a select committee or the way in which it is reported. That is the role of the House when the committee reports to it. Matters are referred to a committee by the House and the committee reports back to the House.
The House considered the Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill following the report of the Maori Affairs Committee. If members were concerned about the nature of the committee’s consideration of the bill and the nature of its report, those concerns could have been raised in the debate on the bill’s second reading. Comment – As the members did not know the Select Committee had deliberately omitted submissions opposing the Bill in its report, then how could they raise them, except for Members, such as John Carter and others who knew it was a false claim but were too afraid to vote against it in fear of losing their highly paid jobs? These Members, “Perverted the Course of Justice”!
The issues that members choose to raise in debate are entirely a matter for them. The Speaker’s role is solely to maintain order during the debate. The Speaker does not speak in debate and has no control over the issues raised by members, unless it appears to the Speaker that they not to be relevant to the bill under consideration, or may lead to disorder in the House.
The Speaker deals with allegations of deliberately misleading the House only where they are raised by a member in writing and then only where they are raised before the next sitting of the House. No such matter was raised at the time. Comment – How would a member know this committee deliberately misled Parliament when it deliberately omitted and lied about the opposing submissions from its report?
Finally, as I indicated to you in my letter of 30 June 2009, members are not precluded from participating in the consideration of any item of business simply because they have a financial interest in the business. This includes a direct financial benefit that might accrue to a member personally as a result of the outcome of the House’s consideration of a particular item of business. All that is required of a member is that the he or she declares the financial interest in the business before participating in the consideration.
Any dispute about whether or not a member has a financial interest must be raised at the time. In such cases the matter is referred to the Speaker and the Speaker’s decision is final. No such matter was raised at the time. Comment – It was raised at the thrird reading that members of the Maori Affairs Select Committee had a vested interest, but the Speaker of the House, the Hon Margaret Wilson took no action.
There is nothing further that the Speaker can do in relation to your complaint and I do not intend to enter into any further correspondence on the matter. If you still have concerns, you might consider petitioning the House seeking a review of the legislation”.
Yours sincerely
Hon Dr Lockwood Smith.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
SUMMARY
The New Zealand Parliament has been hi-jacked by a small bunch of light brown mafia and their fair skinned lackeys, while the rest of our politicians are too afraid to speak out in fear of loosing their highly paid jobs.
Our present Attorney General and Minister of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, the Hon Christopher Finlayson was a member of this “corrupt” Maori Affairs Select Committee that misled Parliament to allow the Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill to proceed.
Prepared by the One New Zealand Foundation Research Department. 31/7/2009.
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