  
 Sultan gives `model' PM gold, ruby gift 

 PRIME MINISTER Helen Clark has been presented with a gold lapel badge worth thousands of dollars but whether 
she can keep it could eventually depend on her successor. 
Miss Clark was presented with the badge by the Sultan of Brunei to mark her visit to the oil-rich sultanate for the Apec 
leaders meeting. 
The sultan gave each of the 21 leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum an 18-carat badge with eight 
rubies, shaped in the image of Brunei's national flower, bunga simpur. 
But the Cabinet Office manual puts the fate of the gift in the hands of Miss Clark's successor. The manual, which sets 
the rules for ministerial conduct, says gifts given during official visits are "more in the nature of gifts to the office than 
to the incumbent". 
If the value of the gift is more than $500 the gift may be kept while ministers are in office. When the ministers leave 
office the gifts must be relinquished unless the express permission of the prime minister is given to retain them. For 
Miss Clark's predecessor, Jenny Shipley, that meant getting the new prime minister's approval to keep a silver tea 
service given to her by the president of Peru, two silver vases, a gift from "His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Japan", 
a gold and gemstone bracelet, a gift from the president of Argentina, an abalone pearl necklace from Rainbow Abalone, 
a silver pendant from Enza and a silver trinket box from United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Miss 
Clark gave that approval. 
A spokesman said Miss Clark would have the brooch valued and then consider putting it on display, since she did not 
wear much jewellery. Miss Clark, the only woman leader at the meeting had the local media gushing over what they 
termed her "fashion model looks". She was featured in a series of articles about Apec leaders in Brunei's Express 
newspaper, and was described as "a lady with an iron will" who looked unlike the average politician. "Her features 
remind us of a fashion model," the newspaper said. "She has a beautiful face and warm smile for her advantage. She is 
charming, but at the same time she has an iron will to push through _ a rare quality among women. Whether it is 
trekking or political affairs, she has her own way of doing it." 
* Think of poor, urges Clark p2 
 
 
 Ministry's ability to oversee `closing the gaps' queried 
 
  
 
THE Audit Office is questioning the ability of the Maori Development Ministry, Te Puni Kokiri, to oversee the 
Government's flagship "closing the gaps policy". 
The ministry is the lead agency for the $243 million strategy to reduce disparity between Maori and Pacific Islanders 
and other New Zealanders. 
But in a report to a parliamentary select committee, the Audit Office has questioned the ministry's ability to monitor the 
effectiveness of spending on the programme and policy advice, and the ministry's structure. 
The briefing to the Maori affairs committee has not been issued, but National MP Murray McCully quoted extensively 
from it at a committee hearing yesterday. 
"There are a number of areas where there are no planned steps to obtain evidence of effectiveness of the ministry's 
expenditure on achieving desired outcomes," he said, reading from the report. 
"It seems to me that the Audit Office is telling me that it is going to be impossible for the ministry to advise on the 
effectiveness of the closing the gaps strategy because it has no programmes in place to measure that effectiveness." 
Ministry corporate services director Craig Owen said establishing links between policy advice and outcomes was not 
something anyone had been able to do. It was particularly problematic in the case of a department like Te Puni Kokiri, 
which did not deliver the programmes it provided advice on. 
"Drawing a clear link between our advice to the Government on education and the delivery of those programmes by the 
Ministry of Education is pretty tenuous," he said. 
Mr McCully said Te Puni Kokiri as the lead ministry for the strategy had a responsibility to ensure taxpayers' money 
was spent wisely. 
"If it was another agency of state that this had been written about, particularly one in charge of a flagship programme, 
there would be some pretty serious consequences." 
He said the Audit Office had also questioned the effectiveness of the ministry's structure _ reorganised since the 
election into an economic and social directorate. 
"They are a bit unconvinced that the structure of the ministry is the best structure to deal with the closing the gaps 
strategy." 
Ministry chief executive Ngatata Love said the ministry's structure had been recommended by the incoming 
government. 
 
 
  Parties see the future united 
  
 HAANA HOWARD;Mr Tulloch, left, and Mr Dunne announce their party merger 
  
  
 
FIRST it was a Samoan party, the rural rump and a group of recent migrants. Now it is the Christians. 
United NZ Party MP Peter Dunne's lonely struggle to fashion a viable Centre party continued yesterday when his party 
merged with yet another political minnow _ Future New Zealand, formerly the Christian Democrats. 
Mr Dunne and Future New Zealand president Ian (Inky) Tulloch called a press conference but only a Dominion 
reporter and photographer turned up. 
Mr Dunne, a former Labour MP who joined six other Labour and National MPs in 1995 to form United, was 
undaunted. "I think this is quite different. This is clearly the largest party we have so far spoken with. I think that the 
mood has changed. The combination of the two is irresistible. If you put the policies side by side there was no 
compromise or negotiation needed." 
There is another attraction too. Mr Dunne has hung on to his Ohariu-Belmont electorate as a virtual independent for the 
past two elections by dint of deals with National, and what politicians from all parties acknowledge is exemplary work 
as an electorate MP. 
But United's share of the party vote has been so low as to leave him without a benchmate. 
Adding Future New Zealand's 23,033 party votes at the last election to United's 11,065 would have secured him 
company because while he retains his electorate seat his party does not need to get 5 per cent of the party vote to win 
party seats. 
National has yet to announce its plans for the next election but activists are suggesting fielding a candidate for the first 
time in three elections. If Mr Dunne loses his seat, his new party will need about 70,000 more votes than its constituent 
parts got separately in 1996 to extend his 16-year parliamentary career. 

 
 Think of poor, urges Clark 
  
  
 
BANDER SERI BEGAWAN 
PRIME MINISTER Helen Clark has urged the Apec summit to open talks with unions and make concessions to poorer 
countries as it strives to combat the international backlash against globalisation. 
During the day-long retreat of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders in Brunei, Miss Clark called on the 
traditionally business-focused forum to be "more inclusive" in its push for trade liberalisation. 
Her call follows a backlash internationally against globalisation, marked by ugly protests over attempts to start a new 
round of trade talks in Seattle last year and further disruption at finance and trade talks in Prague and Melbourne. 
The backlash extends even to member economies within Apec and the World Trade Organisation, with countries 
opposed to the Apec forum this year issuing a strong declaration in support of a fresh round of international trade 
negotiations next year. 
The forum was forced to adopt a compromise position, issuing a declaration yesterday that fell short of the strong 
statement on trade liberalisation sought by New Zealand, Australia and the United States. 
Miss Clark told reporters that the backlash against globalisation must be faced up to by international economies. "But 
on the other hand, the technological push behind globalisation is so strong, I don't think you would stop it." 
The debate would remain acrimonious till organisations such as Apec became more inclusive in the debate, she said. 
"It's obvious, for example, that Apec has a business advisory council. As Government we appoint people to be part of 
that council and there's a formal dialogue. 
"For a number of years now the Asia Pacific Labour Union Movement have been calling for similar formal dialogue, 
and I said that if we could be more inclusive of both points of view that might help the overall objective [of Apec]." 
Miss Clark also called on Apec members to open their borders to poorer countries, after announcing earlier that New 
Zealand would scrap tariffs on imports from 48 of the world's most destitute economies. 
Miss Clark said that New Zealand had decided to show leadership on the issue. 
"It's important . . . the least developed countries see there is something in the world trading system for them. 
"These are the world's 48 poorest countries and they are countries which desperately need to get their products into 
other people's markets," she said. _ NZPA 
 
 
   
   
 
NO petitions were presented when Parliament resumed at 2pm yesterday. 
Papers presented were: the Environmental Risk Management Authority annual report 2000; further government 
response to the report of the regulations review committee on its inquiry into instruments deemed to be regulations and 
examination of delegated legislation; the report of the Legal Services Board for the year ended June 30, 2000; the 
ministerial inquiry into the Incis report to the Minister of Justice; the report of the trustees of the National Library; and 
a report on the first conference of presiding officers of national parliaments. 
Committee reports presented were: business committee on a recommended sitting programme for 2001; finance and 
expenditure on its inquiry into specific activities of the Inland Revenue Department surrounding the taxation matters of 
Jan and Murray Willis. 
The Social Security Amendment bill was given its second reading. Parliament will sit again at 2pm on Tuesday. _ 
NZPA 
 
 
      Move to curb MPs' pay rises 
  
  
 
THE Government wants to limit MPs' pay rises to movements in the average wage after top politicians were handed 
pay rises yesterday of up to 7 per cent over two years. 
In its annual review of MPs' salaries, issued yesterday, the Higher Salaries Commission said Prime Minister Helen 
Clark's pay would jump to $222,400 this year and to $231,400 next year _ a 7 per cent increase over two years. Miss 
Clark also receives an annual allowance of $29,500. 
Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton's pay rises to $165,200 this year and to $172,300 next year _ also a 7 per cent 
increase. In addition, he gets an allowance of $13,500 a year. 
Cabinet ministers' salaries have been set at $149,200 this year and $154,900 from July next year _ the same pay rates 
for Speaker Jonathan Hunt and Opposition leader Jenny Shipley. 
Backbench MPs get a 2.4 per cent rise this year and another 2.4 per cent increase next year, taking their base salary to 
$87,000 next year. 
In the year to August, average private-sector hourly earnings increased 1.4 per cent. 
Finance Minister Michael Cullen said that though MPs' pay rises were "in line" with average wage movements, he 
believed the whole procedure for setting politicians' salaries should be changed. 
He said the Higher Salaries Commission had an impossible job. 
"They're supposed to move MPs and ministers' salaries in line with comparable positions, particularly in the private 
sector. 
"If they did so, the level of increase that would be payable would be so vast that we'd probably have to put an electric 
fence around Parliament to protect us from public outrage." 
If the commission abided by the index it was supposed to use to set politicians' salaries, Miss Clark's salary would be 
$750,000 and his would be more than $500,000, Dr Cullen said. 
"That is clearly a ludicrous suggestion, but in effect we're asking the Higher Salaries Commission not to do the job 
they're supposed to do under the statute." 
Dr Cullen said he was considering linking MPs' pay rises to increases in the average wage in the same way that 
superannuation was. 
The change, which would require legislation, has the backing of Mr Anderton. 
Not all politicians have a problem with their pay rises. 
National MP Lynda Scott said her pay rise as a backbencher was "reasonably fair". 
"For me coming into Parliament as a doctor I've actually taken a considerable salary drop. I think we work very hard. 
I'm working harder than I actually did as a doctor. I'm working six to seven days a week, so I think it's fair." 
National backbenchers Warren Kyd and Katherine Rich also thought their pay rises were fair. 
But the Green Party called for MPs' pay rises to be tied to the minimum wage. 
Green MP Sue Bradford said the backbenchers' pay rise was about twice the $20-a-week increase in the minimum wage 
earlier this year, which she believed would have been adequate. 
The commission said it found itself in an even more difficult position than in previous years when deciding the 
appropriate salary level for politicians. 
"On the one hand it wishes to fairly reward the positions whilst at the same time it is all too keenly aware of the desire 
for restraint." 
In its report, the commission says that when setting parliamentary salaries, it took into account the average increase in 
executives' salaries during the past year of between 4 and 7 per cent. 
Parliamentary salaries were "significantly below comparable levels for positions with the same degree of responsibility, 
complexity and workload". 
"It is very important that New Zealand has good governance and, to achieve that, Parliament must be able to attract 
candidates with the necessary level of ability," it says. 
 
 
   
    We'll name Nat says Alliance 
   
 
THE National Party admits to making discrete inquiries, but insists there will be no witch-hunt for who leaked a 
confidential report to the Government. 
But the Alliance, who found the document, has threatened to name the person if they do not come forward. 
National finance spokesman Bill English was left red-faced on Wednesday when an upbeat assessment of the economy, 
written by him for the National caucus, fell into delighted Government hands. 
In the memo, found by an Alliance staffer in Parliament's cafeteria, Mr English painted a rosy economic outlook and 
said National would have to change the focus of its attack. 
Mr English said yesterday he was not concerned by the leak, which he believed was probably inadvertent rather than 
malicious. 
But he conceded he had asked his colleagues to own up to the blunder. 
No one had come forward. 
"The problem is, I think it may well be the case that people don't realise that they left it there," Mr English said. 
"It would be careless, but politicians have done some careless things." 
A spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton said the Alliance would give the culprit the opportunity to own 
up. 
If it was a genuine mistake, the person would not have a problem with saying "look Bill, sorry, it's me". If they did not 
own up, it was obviously deliberate, he said. 
One of the theories around the Beehive yesterday was that the memo was leaked on purpose to undermine Mr English's 
position as heir apparent to National leader Jenny Shipley. 
But in another twist, ACT NZ claimed yesterday to have been leaked answers prepared for Government ministers to 
use during Parliament's question time _ proving, if nothing else, that politicians on both sides of the fence like to 
indulge in political games.

27 May 2000

Police clear Waipareira Trust 
  
 
 
HAURAKI Labour MP John Tamihere said last night he would try to end an inquiry by Parliament's Maori affairs committee into the 
Waipareira Trust now police had cleared it of any criminal wrongdoing. 
Mr Tamihere had a letter from Police Minister George Hawkins saying that police had found "no evidence of criminality". The 
Serious Fraud Office has also cleared the trust, which Mr Tamihere headed till last year. 
The investigations began after allegations against the trust by ACT NZ leader Richard Prebble. These included forgery and financial 
mismanagement. Mr Tamihere said there was no requirement to continue to waste taxpayer funds and he would move that the inquiry 
be abandoned. Mr Prebble should apologise, he said.. _ NZPA
 
 Labour's loss is Nats' gain - poll 
  
ONE moment it seemed it could last forever; the next it had ended. 
A National Business Review-Compaq poll issued yesterday confirms that the Government's honeymoon is over. 
The poll shows that support for Labour has slipped five percentage points in the past month to 41 per cent. It mirrors the trend in a 
One Network News-Colmar Brunton poll this month which showed that support for Labour had fallen four points to 46 per cent. 
Both polls show National picking up the Labour slack, rising to 36 or 37 per cent. 
The one bright spot for the Government in the latest poll was the Alliance's standing. At 5.4 per cent it was down on election night, 
but several points better than the panic-inducing 2 per cent in the One News poll. 
Since the last Review poll, Prime Minister Helen Clark has become entangled in controversy over the Waitara shooting, cigarette and 
petrol prices have jumped sharply, the Government has set aside lucrative airwaves for Maoris, and the dollar has dropped to its 
lowest in 15 years. 
The fallout is reflected in a dramatic drop in the number of people who believe the Government is headed in the right direction. Last 
month, 60 per cent of those polled thought the Government was on the right track. This month, 40 per cent think that. 
ACT NZ got 5.1 per cent support in the poll, the Greens 5 per cent, and NZ First 3.7 per cent. 
The poll of 750 people was conducted between May 18 and 21 and has a margin of error of 3.5 per cent.

12 Oct 2000

Anderton finalises bank plan 
  
  
  
 
DEPUTY Prime Minister Jim Anderton is preparing a final business plan for his proposed Kiwi bank and expects the Cabinet to 
consider it in the next month. 
New Zealand Post, which is likely to run the bank, presented its final plan to Mr Anderton, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Mark 
Burton and Finance Minister Michael Cullen on Tuesday. 
NZ Post has previously confirmed that two options are under consideration _ a basic model that would not need to register as a bank, 
or one offering cheque and basic lending services that would need a licence. 
A spokesman for Mr Anderton said a survey that showed the six main banks all easily beating the benchmark 1 per cent return on 
assets showed the room for competition and need for a people's bank. _ NZPA 

Great southern men lost on latte 
   
 
SOUTH ISLANDERS get some funny ideas about what Aucklanders get up to, to take it from Trade Minister Jim Sutton in 
Parliament yesterday. 
Hailing the National Party frontbench's new focus on Auckland, he teased Bill English _ a fellow Mainlander _ about taking 
"Auckland" lessons. This, according to Mr Sutton, involved "learning how to suck latte" in a Ponsonby Rd cafe, researching which 
restaurants were trendy and swatting back issues of Metro magazine. The latte-sucking tuition, Mr Sutton said, involved "how to stick 
both [pinky] fingers out". Though it amused both Government MPs, and Mr English _ who comes from Dipton, where even the word 
"Nescafe" is met with a suspicious squint _ Mr Sutton's teasing revealed worrisome gaps in his own worldliness. Despite travelling the 
globe as trade minister, Mr Sutton has no sense of cafe etiquette. Even a Wellingtonian knows that the extension of even one genteel 
finger while holding a cafe bowl or glass is liable to end up in a latte-wearing lesson. 
Mr English, who followed Mr Sutton in the general debate, said bluntly: "I could never pull that off." His focus was on Associate 
Finance Minister Trevor Mallard, who is again deputising busily for Treasurer Michael Cullen. Mr Mallard had already got one away 
on Mr English, when chipped about the Government's failure to stop the cost of living rising for the average New Zealand family. 
"I notice that the member has been shopping in Auckland, rather than in [his humble electorate capital] Gore recently." Another dig at 
Mr English's Auckland lessons from public relations handler Tina Symmans, most famous for bringing about Ruth Richardson's 
conversion to snazzy little Euro-trash suits of the kind commonly found in Auckland, but never seen in Gore. To be fair, Mr English's 
Auckland shopping wasn't readily apparent from his suit. He still looks like a stoical Southland farmer grudged into rather than 
willingly dressed in a suit. And Mr Mallard looks like a burly provincial rugby player rather than a slick junior Treasurer _ an image 
Mr English was keen to accentuate. "It's a joke. It looks terrible," he said of Mr Mallard's recent television appearances. Mr Mallard 
was about as convincing talking about economics "as I am drinking latte on Ponsonby Rd"! 
It was a particularly bad look having "Parliament's bully" as the frontperson for the Government's economic policy at a time like this, 
Mr English said. Mr Mallard was so touchy about this, he gave up drowning out Mr English's speech by chanting, "We want Bill! We 
want Bill!", in order to devote himself entirely to complaining that the word "bully" was against Parliament's rules. 
 
 
   
A PETITION asking that the House advise the Government to uphold statutory prohibitions against discrimination by not including 
the terms "husband" and "wife" in the proposed Property Relationships Act was presented when the House sat at 2pm yesterday. 
Reports presented for the year ended June 30, 2000, were: Health Benefits Ltd; Survey Board of New Zealand; Serious Fraud Office; 
Maori Development Ministry annual report; Intellectual Property Office New Zealand report of the Commissioner of Patents, 
Trademarks and Designs to the Commerce Minister. Ministers answered 12 questions. 
The Forests (West Coast Accord) Bill was given its third reading. The Tutae-Ka-Wetoweto Forest Bill was referred to the Maori 
affairs select committee. The Gaming and Lotteries Amendment Bill passed its remaining stages. Parliament adjourned at 8.30pm and 
will sit again at 2pm today. _ NZPA 
 
 
  Government to name executives at summit 
  
  
 
THE controversial secret guest list for Prime Minister Helen Clark's "business summit" will be made public during the event on 
Tuesday in Auckland. 
Eighty-five executives have been invited, but Miss Clark's refusal so far to make their names public has led to criticism that she has 
asked only those sympathetic to the Government's policies. 
Leading critics of the change of direction since the last election have not been invited, including Business Roundtable executive 
director Roger Kerr, Importers Institute secretary Daniel Silva and ASB Bank chief Ralph Norris. 
Businesspeople not noted for being cheerleaders of government policies between 1984 and last year who have confirmed they have 
been invited include breakfast food maker Dick Hubbard and Warehouse head Stephen Tindall. 
There has also been criticism that South Island interests are being played down, with nobody invited from the chambers of commerce 
in Christchurch and Dunedin, despite leaders of the Wellington and Auckland chambers confirming their attendance. 
The forum is intended to be a private brain-storming session between senior ministers and the invited business people. It grew from 
Government concern at business negativity to post-election policies. Journalists will not be allowed to cover it, though a press 
conference will be held afterwards. 
Miss Clark's chief press secretary, Mike Munro, said yesterday that the guest list would be given to journalists during the meeting. 
"You'll be surprised when you see who is there. It's a wide cross-section of people, chosen because they were seen as likely to make a 
constructive contribution," he said. 
Eleven ministers will attend, with Miss Clark, Finance Minister Michael Cullen and Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton addressing 
the main sessions. 
 
 
Inquiry call over lies claim 
  
 
NATIONAL has called for an inquiry into claims by Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel that department officials lied to her about 
details of a dawn raid. 
Ms Dalziel last week accused members of the immigration service of lying about the exact time a pre-dawn raid on a Filipino family 
took place. 
She was forced to apologise in Parliament for the unjustified raid and the subsequent deportation of the family, which was later 
returned to New Zealand at taxpayer expense. 
National's immigration spokeswoman, Marie Hasler, said she had written to the State Service Commissioner requesting a formal 
inquiry into the "effect and truthfulness of the minister's allegations". 
"If the allegations are true, then the minister must take action with her department head. If it can't be proven, then the minister is guilty 
of gross misconduct." 
 
 
`Arrogant' Swain should apologise says Maori MP 
  
  
 
ALLIANCE MP Willie Jackson says Associate Energy Minister Paul Swain should be forced to apologise over his dismissal of a 
Treaty of Waitangi claim. 
In the fiercest attack launched by a coalition MP on a Government colleague, Mr Jackson said yesterday that Mr Swain's comments 
smacked of "absolute arrogance". 
Mr Swain pre-empted a Waitangi Tribunal ruling on a claim to petroleum resources by Hawera-based Nga Ruahine this week by 
saying that neither the tribunal nor the courts would change the Government's policy. 
That was that oil, gas and minerals were owned collectively by all New Zealanders and managed by the Government on their behalf. 
They would not be used for Treaty settlements. 
Mr Jackson, a vocal advocate of Maori claims, said Mr Swain was out of line and needed to be brought back into line. 
"It just smacks of absolute arrogance for a minister to make these types of comments," he said. 
"One of the primary reasons the tribunal was set up was to facilitate effective communication between Maori and the Crown and 
you've got the minister of communications talking like this. 
"In my view he owes kaumatua [Maori elders] for a start an apology, and he owes Maori members in Parliament an apology. You can't 
have ministers operating like this, otherwise you lose total faith with the whole operating system." 
Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia and the chairman of Labour's Maori caucus, Mita Ririnui, also questioned the helpfulness of 
Mr Swain's comments. 
But Mr Swain said he did not want to "pussyfoot around" or give people the wrong impression. 
"Any claimant has the right to go to the tribunal and the tribunal has the right to make a recommendation, but it is a recommendation 
and does not usurp Government policy." 
Prime Minister Helen Clark said she was surprised to hear of Government members expressing contrary views, because the 
Government's position had been fully discussed with Maori MPs. 
"There will be no apology for stating Government policy," she said. 
 
 
Split in Government ranks on health reform 
  
  
 
CONCERNS have been raised in Government ranks that proposed health changes could cause a budget blowout. 
The Alliance Party and Labour MP John Tamihere opposed parts of the Government's changes in submissions to the health select 
committee yesterday. 
Mr Tamihere criticised a clause relating to Maori, and the Alliance voiced concern about restructuring costs, the accountability of 
district health boards, and the possibility of hospital assets being sold. 
Alliance president Matt McCarten said the restructuring needed to be slowed to ensure rising costs did not destabilise the health 
system. 
"We were concerned at the costs and the blowout, and where the money was going to come from," he said. "There was no budget for it 
. . . or possibly none. 
"What we wanted to do was actually do it incrementally so that we don't land up with a bull in the china shop, which has happened 
with some of the reforms with past governments going in very quickly and ending up with a big bill at the end of it." 
The Alliance had raised the issue at a "parliamentary level" with its senior coalition partner, Mr McCarten said. 
But Health Minister Annette King said later she was "bemused" by the submission. No Alliance MPs had expressed such concerns 
during government talks on the proposals, she said. 
"The legislation before the select committee has gone through all the processes of government _ it's an Alliance-Labour Government. 
"It has had sign-off by Cabinet and by both our caucuses, so all I can assume is that the [political] party hasn't communicated well 
with the parliamentary party over this particular legislation." 
The Government was obviously concerned about the cost of change but had been honest about that and was monitoring those issues, 
she said. 
Mrs King was also confused by the Alliance's concerns that the changes were being implemented too quickly. "We do not have district 
health boards till October next year. We've been going through the process of change since December last year." 
Though she did not accept the Alliance's views, she said she welcomed submissions on the bill. 
But there are splits even among Labour MPs over the bill, as evidenced by Mr Tamihere's submission. He criticised a clause calling 
for district health boards to establish special relationships with the mana whenua (tribal group) of their geographical area. The words 
mana whenua should be replaced with "Maori", he said. 
Mr Tamihere's concerns pit him against Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia, who lobbied for the mana whenua clause. 
In a letter to Mrs King tabled at the hearing, Mr Tamihere said the clause was "an attempt to reconstruct tribal hegemony". 
National's health spokesman, Wyatt Creech, said he shared concerns about a budget blowout, but was surprised at the actions of the 
Alliance and Mr Tamihere. "This restructuring has been poorly thought through. But having the Government admitting this is 
extraordinary." _ NZPA 
 
 
Petroleum veto backed 
  
  
 
A GOVERNMENT official defended Associate Energy Minister Paul Swain's refusal to contemplate Maori claims to the petroleum 
under their land in the Waitangi Tribunal yesterday. 
Office of Treaty Settlements manager Andrew Hampton argued that it was in the claimants' interest that petroleum royalties _ which 
with gas levies will be worth up to $140 million this year _ were not used as redress in settlements. 
"The Crown has decided that petroleum ownership is not available as redress in Treaty settlements because the Crown owns and 
manages petroleum in the national interest, for the benefit and on behalf, of all New Zealanders." 
And compensating Maori with royalties was an uncertain business: "Because petroleum is a high-risk investment, the value attributed 
to petroleum for the purposes of its inclusion as part of the commercial redress package may not be realised. 
"The uncertain nature of the value of petroleum as an asset means that its use as settlement redress is unlikely to foster the objectives 
of fairness and durability," Mr Hampton said. 
The Government had signed heads-of-agreement documents with four Taranaki iwis last year. 
Mr Hampton said this included protocols to improve consultation with iwis over drilling permits. 
He acknowledged there were "mandate issues" with all of the heads-of-agreement documents because disgruntled iwi members 
wanted petroleum included in the settlements. 


24 July 2000 
 
 Clark denies trouble-making 
  
 
 
PRIME MINISTER Helen Clark reacted angrily last night to a suggestion that she was stirring up trouble for the man she sacked as 
Maori affairs minister, Dover Samuels. 
The suggestion, made by Mr Samuels, was carried on One Network News. But Miss Clark said the allegation was "ridiculous, absurd 
and untrue" and Mr Samuels should desist from making it. 
"No journalist could honestly say that I have discussed matters [that are] before the police concerning Dover with them on any 
occasion." 
Earlier yesterday Mr Samuels, the Te Tai Tokerau MP, said police were investigating four complaints of rape against him. 
He said the complaints had been made by a woman with whom he had an affair in the 1980s. 
Mr Samuels lost his ministerial post last month and was investigated by police after it was alleged the woman, identified only as 
Marama, was below the age of consent when their relationship began. 
The results of the police inquiry are expected to be given to Police Commissioner Rob Robinson this week. 
Mr Samuels said the rape complaints had been "sprung" on him during his last interview with police. "My wife and I are shocked by 
these latest fabrications." 
His wife, Jacqui, from whom he was separated at the time of the relationship, said the allegations were "complete and utter lies". 
Rodney Tregerthan, a cousin of Marama's mother, accused Mr Samuels of making the allegations public in an attempt to damage her 
credibility. 
He said the allegations were not new (they had been contained in a letter Marama's mother sent to Prime Minister Helen Clark at the 
beginning of the year) and the family had not been responsible for their becoming public. 
"They have obviously come from Dover. . . . As soon as the police investigation started we basically shut our mouths. Dover is just 
trying to manipulate the system by doing this." 
Mr Tregerthan said Marama, now 31, was shifting to Wellington from Rotorua this week to start a new life. 
"She's coming down here so that she can get some counselling and some help and start a new direction," he said. 
Miss Clark said she hoped Labour MPs would have more productive things to do than discuss Mr Samuels's allegation. 
Acting minister Parekura Horomia is expected to be selected as Mr Samuels's replacement tomorrow.
 
 Confident Clark can afford take-it-or-leave-it attitude 
 
EVEN for a throwaway line, it sounded risky. Prime Minister Helen Clark could not have seemed bolder in retorting that her Labour 
colleagues could look for another leader if they did not like her chosen replacement for Dover Samuels as Maori affairs minister. 
Mis Clark had the ambitious Phil Goff sitting alongside her when she made the comment at last week's post-Cabinet press conference. 
Not only was Mr Goff at the centre of a bid to topple Miss Clark just four years ago, but he is looking particularly good at the 
moment. 
Television is kind to the presentable minister's slightly haranguing style of delivery. His dual justice and foreign affairs roles are 
delivering the high profile that he envisaged in requesting them. Along with resident Cabinet fixer Trevor Mallard, he is a star in Miss 
Clark's Government. 
But she is so supremely confident these days that she knows neither Mr Goff nor anyone else poses an immediate threat. She is 
displaying the firm hand that the polls show New Zealanders appreciate after the political roller-coaster of the last parliamentary term. 
Her critics liken her style to that of Sir Robert Muldoon, the nearest prime minister to a dictator that New Zealand has known. She 
certainly shares with him a nose for the populist and an eye for the jugular. 
She, too, is determined to stay in power, wanting nothing to stand between her and at least a second term. 
But Miss Clark is more a control freak than the bully that Sir Robert was. 
She has a reputation as an exacting boss. Many an aide has been on the receiving end of her withering looks and "please explain!" 
notes. 
She has a tendency to dwarf her ministers. At times, she humiliates them in public. She also strays unannounced on to their turf. 
Police Minister George Hawkins looked none too thrilled with her comments about the police at the time of the Waitara shooting. 
Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton will not thank her for saying the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum would make little 
progress this year under tiny Brunei's chairmanship. 
Mr Goff has seemed strained after some of her more forthright forays into foreign policy. 
For the moment, though, Miss Clark's control freakery is a virtue. She has arrested the sense of political drift that became the norm 
under her National predecessors, Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley. 
Regardless of the controversy over some of her Government's policies, Miss Clark is winning points for leading from the front. But 
her style has its risks. 
She is such a strong leader that whenever she goes overseas she leaves something of a power vacuum. Deputy Prime Minister Jim 
Anderton, as head of the junior coalition partner, is under constant pressure from his cohorts to advance Alliance policies. 
Though he has impressed even the sceptics with his constructive approach in government, that is largely due to his excellent rapport 
with Miss Clark. 
Her own deputy leader, third-ranked Finance Minister Michael Cullen, enjoys a truce with Mr Anderton but lacks Miss Clark's 
authority. 
Every time she leaves the country, therefore, the chances of a coalition upset rise. 
By having her finger in so many pies, Miss Clark also runs the risk of copping the blame when things go awry. To some extent, she 
has nipped that problem in the bud by becoming more selective about the issues she comments on and sheeting more responsibility 
home to her ministers. 
More important, Miss Clark could eventually exhaust the good will among her colleagues. She has their esteem and respect but not 
necessarily their affection. While she is doing well, this is not a problem. But in politics, as elsewhere, what goes up must come down. 
When her popularity sags, her colleagues' loyalty could be seriously tested. 
Mr Goff would be ready to take up the leadership challenge. He has inherited from his former mentor, World Trade Organisation 
director-general Mike Moore, the leadership of the right-leaning group of MPs within the Labour caucus. 
Miss Clark has worked hard to smooth over the cracks between the two factions but the divide still exists. It last risked opening up last 
month when she sacked Mr Samuels, a staunch supporter of Mr Moore, whom she ousted as leader in 1993. It was also apparent in 
December when Mr Goff summoned Mr Sutton home from the WTO ministerial summit in Seattle for the caucus vote on Cabinet 
posts. 
Not that Mr Goff, who is often criticised by his colleagues as a loner, would necessarily carry off the prize. Miss Clark's pick to 
replace her would be Mr Mallard. One of her most competent ministers, Mr Mallard played a pivotal role in her survival of the 1996 
stoush mounted by, among others, Dr Cullen. 
But whatever problems await Miss Clark, they are much further down the track than the pressing leadership woes of her Opposition 
rivals, who will come under fresh scrutiny when Parliament resumes tomorrow after a two-week recess. 
ACT NZ leader Richard Prebble has emerged from last week's gruelling party retreat with his leadership intact but weakened. He has 
come under fire from ACT founder and former cabinet colleague Sir Roger Douglas for giving higher priority to populist issues than 
to the party's free-market policies. Sir Roger and other ACT purists would eventually like to see Wellington lawyer Stephen Franks, a 
first-term MP, in the job. 
But erstwhile perk-buster Rodney Hide, who is trying to shed his populist image and reinvent himself as a politician of substance, also 
has a following. He came close to wresting the Epsom seat from National at the election, whereas Mr Prebble lost the party's only 
electorate, Wellington Central, to Labour. 
Mrs Shipley, who is returning to the parliamentary fray for the first time since her heart problems, has enjoyed a period of grace 
within National since the election. How much longer that lasts remains to be seen. The common view is that she is not up to the job 
but that, for the moment, nor is anyone else. 
Former treasurer Bill English, her most logical successor, has the brains and, some say, the ability for the position but has yet to show 
the appetite for it. He is also no match for Mrs Shipley on the campaign trail. 
By contrast, former social services minister Roger Sowry is hungry enough but he is not as bright as Mr English and is even shorter on 
charisma. Mr Sowry is considered the most likely contender for the deputy leadership should Wyatt Creech resign from politics before 
the election. Mr Creech has promised to divulge his intentions by the end of the year. 
If Mr Creech does go, that could be the moment for Mr English to make a move. He would have time to establish himself as leader in 
the run-up to the 2002 election. The alternative would be to let Mrs Shipley lead the party into the next poll and, in the event of a loss, 
topple her afterward. 
Much will depend on his assessment of whether voters will continue to like Miss Clark's leadership style. And given her determination 
to stay in power and her pragmatism, the chances are that she will do what it takes to ensure they do.

22 Aug 2000

Stern words from PM in refuge row 
  
 
 
PRIME MINISTER Helen Clark issued a stern warning to ministers yesterday to tread carefully with independent 
organisations, after a "robust exchange of views" with Women's Refuge. 
Miss Clark served up the very public reminder to Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia and Associate Maori 
Affairs Minister Tariana Turia amid criticism that the pair tried to chasten refuge chief executive Merepeka Raukawa-
Tait. 
Ms Raukawa-Tait, who felt she had been told to "pull her head in" for her comments on Maori domestic violence, was 
left fearing the refuge's budget could be slashed. 
But Miss Clark moved to tidy up the dispute yesterday, telling her ministers to respect the autonomy of voluntary 
organisations. 
She also moved to allay Ms Raukawa-Tait's fears that the confrontation would have any effect on funding. 
"Nothing that transpired in that meeting has any impact whatsoever on the level of funding which the Government 
makes available to Women's Refuge, which of course does an absolutely essential job for the whole community." 
Miss Clark said it appeared both sides at the meeting came away with different interpretations but she agreed the 
ministers had no right to tell Ms Raukawa-Tait how to do her job. 
"She is not bound to take any notice of anything any minister says to her because ministers do not employ her, her own 
council does. 
"The head of Women's Refuge is not accountable to the Government, she is accountable to her own council who 
employ her. And she must speak as she sees fit within the mandate of her own council." 
But Mrs Turia was unrepentant yesterday, saying she believed that Maoris were being made to look as if they were 
genetically predisposed to child abuse. The media was contributing to beliefs that only Maoris abused their children, 
she said. 
Recent welfare statistics have shown that Maori children are five times more likely to be abused than other children. 
Miss Clark said she did not control how ministers acted, but reminded Mr Horomia and Mrs Turia that the Government 
did not control independent organisations. 
"I can't stop ministers talking in a robust fashion to anyone, but I think it's important for us to respect the boundary 
between ourselves, as holders of the purse strings, and people who are employed by autonomous organisations with a 
mandate."
 
 The minister, the activist, and a bush road;Minister, activist and bush road 

 Ms Lee 
  
 
 
CONSERVATION MINISTER Sandra Lee has asked Urewera National Park park managers to set up exclusive Maori 
camping grounds and spend $260,000 upgrading a no-exit road to land owned partly by the family of activist Tame Iti. 
Documents obtained by The Dominion show Ms Lee's action has caused serious disquiet within the Conservation 
Department's East Coast Hawke's Bay conservation board. 
The documents show Maungapohatu Rd, which Ms Lee wants upgraded, is not a public road, is seldom used for public 
access and is not essential for park management. 
The road does not meet the official tests that would require the department to spend money on it. 
Without Ms Lee's intervention it would not even be maintained, let alone upgraded and then maintained at an annual 
cost of about $30,000. But Ms Lee said she had been "advised" by the department that the road and three bridges on it 
were unsafe and "in the wake of Cave Creek I am ultimately responsible for the safety of the public on the DOC 
estate". 
She declined to answer questions on whether she had travelled on the road and with whom. 
The Dominion understands Mr Iti took Ms Lee up the road on a trip to the park during the Christmas-New Year period. 
Ms Lee said several young Tuhoe people and Tuhoe Trust Board members raised concerns about the bridges. 
She said she was aware the local conservation board did not want to "make a full contribution" and she wanted the road 
to become part of the department's national asset management plan. 
The department had put up signs warning people not to cross the bridges, Ms Lee said. A timber company put in the 
road from State Highway 38 to private land at Maungapohatu in the 1950s. 
A Rotorua Maori Land Court official said Mr Iti's father was one of the owners of the Maungapohatu land _ about 1000 
hectares (400 acres) within the park. 
After her trip with Mr Iti, Ms Lee asked that the road be upgraded. 
In a move that surprised the conservation board and locals, Ms Lee also asked the department for five areas to be taken 
out of the park for "nohoanga" _ described in the documents as camping grounds or maraes for Maoris. 
East Coast Hawke's Bay Conservation Board chairman Aubrey Temara said he did not know where the idea for 
establishing the nohoanga came from. 
"Suddenly, it was there [from Ms Lee]," he said. 
Nohoanga were established in the South Island under the Ngai Tahu Treaty settlement in 1996, but former Treaty 
settlements minister Doug Graham said no national park land would be used. 
Ms Lee said the idea came from the ministerial inquiry arising from a land occupation by Maori protesters at 
Waikaremoana in 1998. 
* Continued p3 * From p1 
Ms Lee said cooperation and consultation was vital because Tuhoe owned the lake bed, including dry land around its 
edges. Everyone, regardless of the organisation they belonged to, or their views on management of the park, should 
remember the park should be kept in the interests of all who loved it, she said. 
The conservation board, made up of members of the public appointed by the previous minister, Nick Smith, appears 
reluctant to confront Ms Lee, in spite of its concerns. 
Records of a public-excluded session of a board meeting on May 17 show the board "expressed a great deal of concern" 
at Ms Lee's actions. 
The papers show the board considered writing to her but decided not to, "concluding that caution should be had in this 
issue". 
They also show Ms Lee argued the criteria the department used for roading were "inadequate" because they did not 
consider the "cultural importance of visitor assets". 
Maungapohatu, near Ruatahuna, is important to Tuhoe as it is the birthplace and site of a settlement used by the prophet 
Rua Kenana.
 

ACT NZ cancels $90-a-head grand ball 
  
 
 
THE formerly flush ACT NZ party seems to have fallen on the kind of lean times it prescribes for beneficiaries. 
It has just had to cancel a $90-a-head grand ball due to a lack of interest by members and has issued a plaintive appeal 
for someone to donate a photocopier because the old one needs too many expensive repairs. 
The ball was to be held at the Centra Hotel in Auckland on September 2. 
The latest issue of the party's e-mail newsletter ACTion says demand for tickets "failed to match the considerable 
interest expressed for the ball. It has therefore been cancelled". 
The same newsletter says the photocopier in the party's head office in Auckland "has succumbed to senile dementia and 
needs constant expensive treatment". It asks for somebody either to buy the party a new one or to pay the lease on one. 
Yesterday ACT chief executive Bruce Howat denied the party was having money problems. He said asking for 
someone to donate a photocopier was simply to save the party the expense of buying one. 
"The ball was cancelled because there was not enough interest for it to go ahead," he said. 
"The band we had hired told me they had had a number of bookings cancelled and had put that down to bad economic 
times." 
But some ACT members spoken to yesterday said the party's head office had not had "serious day-to-day funding" 
since the 1996 election. Before then, the fledgling party had enjoyed substantial backing from several wealthy business 
people. 
One member said a number of the party's grassroots electorate organisations had been in recess since the last election, 
especially those in poorer areas where ACT had low support. 
Party members would rather give money to the party than fund it indirectly through a $90 ball ticket which did not 
include a meal, he said. 
ACT spent $657,889 on its 1999 election campaign. In 1996, it spent $1.6 million, which was more than any other 
party, thanks to the strong corporate backing it had that year. 
National, Labour and the Alliance all spent more than ACT on their 1999 campaigns.

Labour stays ahead but Clark gets hit in survey 
  
 
LABOUR retained a healthy lead over National but Prime Minister Helen Clark took a hit in a TV3/CM Research 
opinion poll issued last night. 
The poll, which contrasts with Sunday's One News-Colmar Brunton survey showing the two parties only one point 
apart, put Labour's lead over National at 11 points. 
But Miss Clark's personal rating, while still ahead of National leader Jenny Shipley's popularity, dipped four points to 
31 per cent, with discontent with her leadership rising. 
The poll of 1000 eligible voters, with a margin of error of 3.1 per cent, was taken after police cleared sacked minister 
Dover Samuels of rape and under-age sex. 
Labour rose one point to 47 per cent, while National was up two points at 36 per cent. 
Labour's coalition ally, the Alliance, fell one point to 3 per cent, the Green Party was unchanged on 5 per cent, ACT 
NZ remained on 4 per cent and NZ First was static on 2 per cent. 
In the preferred prime minister stakes, Mrs Shipley stayed on 16 per cent. Criticism of Miss Clark's leadership was 
apparent, however, with the view that she is inflexible rising 11 points to 45 per cent and the perception that she is a 
capable leader dropping eight points to 77 per cent.

Clark rebuffs National's offer on super accord talks 
  
PRIME MINISTER Helen Clark yesterday rebuffed National's invitation for fresh multi-party talks on a 
superannuation accord, because National was refusing to commit to securing present pension levels for future 
superannuitants. 
"I believe the National Party's agenda remains to make considerable erosions into the principles of universal 
superannuation, which could be done either by means testing, raising the age, or lowering the amount, or all three," she 
told a post-Cabinet press conference. 
"That is not a good basis for talking to us when we are endeavouring to lock in the present level of payment for 
generations to come." 
Nothing National leader Jenny Shipley had said at the weekend had convinced her there had been "any genuine change 
of heart", Miss Clark said. 
"I believe that the public got a very clear steer from Mrs Shipley at the weekend that she has no interest in securing the 
present level of superannuation for generations to come." 
Mrs Shipley would give only a commitment that pensions would be held for current pensioners, Miss Clark said. 
Labour had "bailed" National out on superannuation in 1993, and she would not do that again. 
Asked if that meant she was ruling out multi-party talks completely, Miss Clark said: "I can't see any basis for talks at 
the moment. However, we have offered them briefings on the matters which are being discussed with the Alliance 
about some form of pre-funding or tax smoothing and that offer remains open." 
Meanwhile, Grey Power president Don Robertson said the Government was elected with a mandate to put certainty and 
sustainability into the provision of New Zealand Superannuation and the basis for an all-party accord should be the 
coalition's proposed legislation. _ NZPA
 
 A bill for doctors 
  
 
ACT NZ has introduced a bill to Parliament that aims to make it easier for overseas doctors to register in New Zealand. 
MP Ken Shirley is the bill's sponsor. _ NZPA
 
 Trade pact may go to `symbolic' vote 
  
 
 
MPs LOOK set to get the chance to vote on New Zealand's trade accord with Singapore but the ballot will be purely 
symbolic. 
Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday that Parliament would not have the ability to reject the deal. 
"The longstanding convention is that foreign policy is an executive prerogative and we don't propose to overturn 
longstanding conventions for one case," she said at her post-Cabinet press conference. 
This contradicts a declaration by Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton in May. Mr Sutton told The Dominion then: 
"There's no way that the Government is going to ignore the views of Parliament on this thing. If Parliament doesn't 
want it, it won't happened." 
However, Miss Clark said the vote would be "symbolic but full of meaning". 
She said the deal _ which is all but finalised _ would go before the Cabinet on September 25 before being tabled in 
Parliament and then going to the foreign affairs and defence select committee for scrutiny. 
"It is likely that a vote of some kind will be taken prior to the Government moving to ratify it," she said. 
Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton, who has been pushing for a parliamentary vote, welcomed the decision. 
Mr Anderton's Alliance party has yet to reach a position on the deal itself, but it could side with the Greens in 
vehemently opposing it. If so, this would be the first time the Alliance exercised its right to agree to disagree with 
Labour under the terms of their coalition accord. 
National and ACT NZ, which both support free trade, objected last week to the inclusion of a clause relating to the 
Treaty of Waitangi. But Mr Sutton disclosed that National sought a similar provision when it initiated the negotiations.

Stealing base from Left field 

Helen Clark compares New Zealand Labour favourably to Tony Blair's party, but disillusioned British left-wingers are 
looking longingly at a Kiwi Government that one commentator has said would make radicals everywhere `drool' 
  
How close is Helen Clark's Labour Party to its British counterpart? As the PM readies herself for the centre-left UN 
millennium talkfest in New York, debate continues over her party's place on the political spectrum. Nick Venter 
reports. 
-------------------- 
HELEN CLARK has said British Labour and New Zealand Labour are so similar "that you couldn't even fit a slice of 
bread between us". National's Simon Upton says New Zealand has the most left-wing government in the western world. 
Among the latest to hypothesise on the subject have been Jonathan Freedland, a columnist for the left-wing Guardian 
newspaper in Britain, and "Red" Ken Livingstone, the Labour defector who won the London mayoralty in May. 
Moments after his victory, he advised British Prime Minister Tony Blair to "follow the New Zealand example". 
The same month, Freedland invited his readers to imagine a Labour party so progressive it would make radicals 
everywhere "drool". 
"It has raised the taxes of the rich and transferred the cash to pensioners, students and the needy. It has stopped 
privatisation dead in its tracks, even renationalising one public service because Labour believes there are some things 
the free market cannot get right. It has given trade unions their rights back and boosted spending on schools and 
hospitals. It has rewritten employment law, moving the country away from what the prime minister calls `the loony 
edges of a deregulated labour market'." 
And that was not all, Freedland gushed. This government had also abolished titular honours, scrapped the purchase of 
28 "swanky" new United States fighter planes and had a prime minister who was moving to decriminalise cannabis and 
had encouraged a freedom of information regime so liberal that Cabinet papers were available to anyone who wanted 
them within three months. 
The latter claim will have come as news to Miss Clark as well as anyone who has tried to wrest information from the 
iron grip of the bureaucracy. So will the suggestion that she is personally moving to decriminalise cannabis, but she is 
the prime minister and New Zealand the country about which Freedland was rhapsodising. 
To British left-wingers losing patience with Mr Blair's pursuit of the middle ground, New Zealand has become 
something of an ideological nirvana. It is a curious left-wing mirror image of the British Right's fascination with New 
Zealand during the Rogernomics era. 
One of the people best placed to make comparisons between the two governments is Waikato University vice-
chancellor Bryan Gould. A former colleague of Mr Blair's and member of the Labour shadow cabinet, Professor Gould 
resigned from the British parliament and returned to the country of his birth in 1994, but he remains a keen observer of 
British and New Zealand politics. 
New Zealand Labour has obviously learnt from its British counterpart, particularly in terms of how to win an election 
and how to use a pledge card, he says. But, both before and after the election, Miss Clark had taken a braver policy 
path. "If you actually look at their pledges, if I remember them correctly, quite a number of them were pledges that you 
would not have found the Blair Labour Party making because they would have been too much redolent of Old Labour. 
Raising taxes, the ACC reform, the Employment Relations Bill, even pledges on housing, say, would have been seen in 
British terms by New Labour as being too frightening, too threatening to middle Britain. 
"In government, I think that, again, Helen Clark has been a different sort of prime minister from Tony. Tony Blair has 
been extraordinarily successful, till quite recently at any rate, in portraying himself as almost above politics. New 
Labour was really an instrument designed to take the politics out of politics and that was pretty successful for quite a 
period. I think people are now very rapidly disillusioned with that." 
Miss Clark, on the other hand, has through "plain speaking and directness", restored normal order to New Zealand 
politics, he says. 
"I think when Helen Clark speaks as a Labour prime minister, people say `yes, well we know that. That's what we 
expect. This is language we understand'. They may or may not agree with it, but at least they say `that is what we 
expect of a Labour prime minister'. I think Tony has really confused people quite substantially as to whether he's truly 
Labour or not." 
Professor Gould, who, unlike Mr Blair, was on the Left of the British Labour Party, says Mr Blair's major 
preoccupation is "to maintain and yet make palatable the status quo. He is very concerned not to offend people". 
Miss Clark heads what he describes as "almost a reversionary government". 
"I don't think we are seeing anything radically new. I think this is a return to an older order of politics where National 
represented those who are happy with the status quo and Labour is representing people who are less happy and want a 
bit of change." 
AS MEMBERS of a Government desperate not to frighten the horses, Labour ministers are less enthusiastic about 
identifying differences between the British and New Zealand versions of Labour. Fifth-ranked minister Phil Goff points 
to a "strong degree of convergence" between the parties. "The Labour Party in New Zealand made a transition to 
accepting the market economy about 16 years ago and the British came to that recognition much more recently." 
Fourth-ranked colleague Steve Maharey says "third way" parties are united in their acceptance of the global economy 
as a reality of life, but are not all following identical paths. "It's a continuum. I don't think there is a [single] third way. I 
think you accept the problem, but how you deal with it becomes your own personality." 
It should be borne in mind that the New Zealand Government has to do more than its British counterpart to restore 
balance after "a period of extremism", he says. "The one example I would give you is the National Health Service. Mrs 
Thatcher maintained a free national health service whereas in this country the whole erosion of the public health system 
has resulted in 1.3 million Kiwis on private health insurance." 
Mr Upton says New Zealand Labour has no common characteristics with the Blair-style "new way". Sure, overseas 
centre-left government are more active in areas such as the arts and are more activist in social programmes, he says. 
But they are all "into" privatisation, deregulation, and making markets work. It is a course New Zealand Labour could 
easily have followed because it has got big surpluses and "a natural sympathy for heroic spending in a few areas", but 
they have not, he says. 
"They have set about comprehensively resocialising the labour market, stopping any privatisation, resocialising the 
accident market, getting into quite heavy regulatory positions and putting up marginal tax rates." 
New Zealand Labour is radical in another sense, too, says Mr Upton. 
It is a true believer in the power of politics and the power of governments. 
"One of the things I learnt in my nine years as a minister is that it is very difficult to bring through effective change and 
it's very difficult to communicate abstract notions and concepts. 
"You have got to be able to view things through a practical lens. The idea that you pass a law and you will change 
behaviour, that is a classic Left optimistic view of human nature." 
Mr Upton says Labour's "quixotic" optimism is evident in the good faith bargaining provisions of the Employment 
Relations Bill and the "wildly progressive" generic Treaty of Waitangi clause included in new health legislation. 
One is based on the foolhardy notion that you can "legislate for virtue; the other exposes taxpayers to huge costs if 
Maoris decide to test it in court", he says. "It is a very elite, educated, and, in some respects, quite naive and decidedly 
left-wing government."
 
20 Sept 00

Hobbs unveils `Auntie' TVNZ charter 
  
  
 
TELEVISION New Zealand was set to evolve into a public service broadcaster similar to Australia's ABC or Britain's 
"Auntie" BBC under a draft charter issued by the Government yesterday, TVNZ sources said. 
They said the charter, which sets out content objectives for TVNZ, was not compatible with the commercial imperatives of 
the SOE Act and was likely to force a radical restructuring of the state-owned broadcaster. 
TVNZ's programme-making operations were likely to be split off into a separate Crown entity, with money-making 
transmission arm Broadcast Communications Ltd remaining a state-owned enterprise to compete commercially with pay-
TV operator Sky. 
The charter would move TVNZ in the direction of public service broadcasters ABC and BBC, though it would still be 
required to turn a profit, the sources said. 
Unveiling the draft charter yesterday, Broadcasting Minister Marian Hobbs said viewers could expect to see a gradual 
change in focus from TVNZ, including a greater range of Maori and minority programmes on air. 
The changes could cost TVNZ some revenue but it would still be required to attract advertising under the charter, which 
was expected to become law by the middle of next year. 
"This Government made a commitment to improve the range of programmes that are broadcast on our state-owned 
broadcaster," Ms Hobbs said. "You might expect to see a higher proportion of documentary, and sometimes more serious 
documentary. 
"[But] it isn't that tomorrow there is going to be a radical change." 
Ms Hobbs signalled a big revamp of the state-owned broadcaster's structure, saying it was difficult to see how TVNZ 
could remain a SOE under the charter. "The SOE Act does presume commercial first . . . and then secondary the public 
service. So there are some problems." 
She said the Cabinet would have to look at whether transmission arm Broadcast Communications remained inside TVNZ 
or was separated into a standalone SOE. 
National's broadcasting spokeswoman, Katherine Rich, said the charter was full of nebulous platitudes. "It's hard to argue 
with those sort of generalised sweet nothings, but it's even harder to use them as the basis for redesigning . . . 
broadcasting." 
NZ First leader Winston Peters said the draft charter was "nonsensical drivel", and its emphasis on ethnic programmes 
was another example of "social apartheid". 
Green Party broadcasting spokeswoman Sue Kedgley said she was disappointed the charter failed to deal with issues 
such as violence on television and advertising around children's programmes. 
 
  Thousands in hiding get chance to stay on 
  
  
  
 
OVERSTAYERS who have successfully evaded the law for more than five years will be among almost 8000 people able 
to escape tough new immigration laws. 
From next month, people illegally in New Zealand will be deported immediately without appeal if their papers are more 
than six weeks out of date. 
But Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel said yesterday that overstayers who had been in New Zealand for more than five 
years, were married to or in a relationship with a Kiwi, or had a New Zealand-born child, could apply for a two-year work 
permit. 
After that, their application for residency was likely to be accepted, she said. 
National's Pacific Island Affairs spokesman, Arthur Anae, said the move would save well-settled families who loved New 
Zealand and wanted to stay. 
"It is an amnesty, but it's a word people like to keep away from because of the connotations." 
The crackdown would give teeth to National's 1991 immigration laws, which were easily evaded by overstayers who filed 
repeat appeals, he said. 
"This gives you six weeks to get the permit. If you don't, you're out." 
Ms Dalziel said the reprieve did not reward existing overstayers for breaking the law. 
"It would be unfair for well-settled people to be uprooted and tossed out of New Zealand, especially when these people 
have lived in and contributed to their local community for a number of years, have worked and paid taxes and have 
children growing up as New Zealanders." 
Almost 8000 people, most of them in Auckland, were likely to be eligible for the one-off offer, which would be available for 
six months, she said. 
It would apply only to people who arrived before October last year. 
About 5500 Samoans, 5000 Tongans, 1800 Thais and 1200 British people are among 22,400 overstayers thought to be 
hiding. 
Prime Minister Helen Clark said the crackdown on overstayers would not be watered down. To change the law now would 
send a signal that the Government was soft on overstayers. 
"In the end, people who overstay their limits are breaking the law. We have immigration quotas and targets, we do our 
best to implement them," Miss Clark said. "People who overstay are trying to come through the back door." 
Overstayers were in a perilous legal position, she said. "They can't claim social security benefits, they cannot legally 
access health treatment, their children cannot legally go to school." 
Her contacts in community healthcare suggested that the most vulnerable and disadvantaged families were those living in 
this "never-never existence with no legal status". 
 
We cross live to MPs dressing nicely 

Sky TV superviser Brad Coote tunes in his Sky Digital feed of Parliament's question time, featuring Cabinet minister 
Trevor Mallard 
  
PARLIAMENT was opened up to a live world audience yesterday and MPs made sure they were dressed for the 
occasion. 
As question time went to air on television and the Internet for the first time on Sky News digital, not a parliamentary shirt 
tuck or crease seemed out of place. Even the traditional male neck tie gave way to what looked like a few Armanis. 
Seizing the limelight ahead of Speaker Jonathan Hunt, ACT NZ leader Richard Prebble conveniently ignored the ground-
breaking local telecast to announce the world audience. 
"I think that members should know . . . TVNZ is from today broadcasting question time on the Internet," he said. 
In fact the broadcast, by Sky Digital _ the first of regular question-time airings each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 
to be repeated at 7.30pm _ is a joint venture with Television New Zealand. 
On-screen, Mr Hunt could be seen tartly thanking Mr Prebble for stealing the show. "I was intending to announce that," he 
said. 
Viewers quickly learned the Speaker's mantra, "order, order", but the rules forbidding cameras to pan away from those 
with the floor, or their questioners, meant it was often impossible to know who the miscreant was, or the crime. 
"I'm giving an early warning. I don't want continued interjections," Mr Hunt politely enunciated, several times. 
Later, viewers would have been confused by the warning: "Someone [who] feels it necessary to carry out a bit of 
carpentry could well do it outside." 
Filmed in isolation, the answers to questions, ranging from, "What is the Government's next step toward a common trans-
Tasman currency?" to "Will the Government be increasing benefits?" were barely illuminating. 
"The issue of common currency will need to be debated," Associate Finance Minister Trevor Mallard said of the former. 
Then, almost abruptly, it was over. Despite his earlier warnings about misbehaviour, Mr Hunt congratulated MPs on their 
good behaviour during a busy session. There had been, he said, 58 supplementary questions. 
"This is not a school chamber," he added. "There must always be vigorous debate." 
Perhaps things will liven up in today's broadcast. 
 
 
  Common currency not an option for now - Mallard 
  
THE Government yesterday ruled out fast-tracking any move to a common currency with Australia. 
Associate Finance Minister Trevor Mallard told Parliament that the Government would seek to harmonise business and 
tax rules between the two countries but would not be promoting a common currency. 
"While we are happy that New Zealanders and Australians discuss and become more familiar with the pros and cons of 
such the move, it's clearly not an option at this time." 
Prime Minister Helen Clark revived the common currency debate following a recent meeting with business leaders in New 
York, saying closer economic integration with Australia was inevitable and suggesting progress on the issue might be 
sooner than expected. 
Moves to join wider economic and trade blocs such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries were "the way of 
the world" and she would not be surprised if, at some point, New Zealand became part of a bigger currency zone. 
Australian reaction to a joint currency has been mixed, though Treasurer Peter Costello said last week he would welcome 
talks on New Zealand using the Australian dollar, rather than creating a currency for the two countries. 
Miss Clark said informal discussions on the issue were likely to occur during talks with Australia Prime Minister John 
Howard in Sydney next Thursday. 
Opposition finance spokesman Bill English yesterday criticised Miss Clark for sparking the debate, asking when she would 
concentrate on the low dollar rather than running "red herrings". 
Answering questions on behalf of Miss Clark, Mr Mallard said New Zealand was caught in the same situation as Australia 
with its low dollar. 
"We're working through the issue. Some people are of the opinion that having a lower dollar is very good for exporters and 
import substitution _ I share that view but in the long term I think we all agree that having a dollar higher against the trade 
weighted index is something that would be better for the country," he said. 
The falling New Zealand dollar was a reflection of the strength of the United States dollar, he said. 
"I was in Australia over the weekend and there was lots of publicity over the problems with their dollar." 
Fresh interest was added to the common currency debate by a poll last night showing many New Zealanders favoured 
such a move. 
Fifty-one per cent of New Zealanders favour a common currency, while 36 per cent are against the idea. Thirteen per cent 
are unsure. _ NZPA 
* Editorial p12 
 
 
   Minister criticises school standards 
  
  
 
EDUCATION Minister Trevor Mallard yesterday criticised schools covering up abuse and poor teaching. 
Mr Mallard told Parliament the Government would come down on schools like "a tonne of bricks" if teachers were not 
disciplined appropriately. 
"There's a practise developed . . . of schools covering up abuse, covering up poor teaching, protecting people who were 
doing bad jobs and protecting poor pupils." 
The Government intended to raise teaching standards with legislation that would see the Teacher Registration Board 
replaced with an Education Council, he said. 
It was considering submissions on the proposed council that would "provide a consistent approach to teacher registration 
and professional standards". 
Eighty-five per cent of submissions received had supported the idea, he said. _ NZPA 
 
 
  Inmate payouts `a legal matter' 
  
  
 
SECRET payments to four Mangaroa Prison inmates were a legal matter, not a political matter, Attorney-General 
Margaret Wilson said yesterday. 
Defending her decision not to consult cabinet colleagues before approving the payouts, Ms Wilson told Parliament she 
agreed to the payouts after reviewing the inmates' file and taking advice from the solicitor-general. 
She did not consult Prime Minister Helen Clark "because it was a legal matter and not a political one and the decision was 
consistent with the attorney-general's responsibility to uphold the rule of law", she said. 
The payouts to Nevara Raheke, Warren Te Hei, Michael Ratima and John Gillies took Ms Wilson's cabinet colleagues by 
surprise when they were revealed this month. Ministers have refused to say how much the four got, but ACT NZ MP 
Rodney Hide has said Raheke was paid $90,000, Ratima $75,000, Te Hei $45,000 and Gillies, serving a 12-year term for 
stabbing a policeman, $40,000 compensation for being assaulted by guards in 1991 and 1993. 
Ms Wilson said she would not have had to make any decision about payouts if the National government had not tried to 
cover up the unlawful behaviour of prison officers at the Hawke's Bay prison. 
A ministerial inquiry had found that prisoners had been beaten, stripped naked and left outside overnight and that the 
prison management had, either expressly or tacitly, endorsed the actions of hit squads of guards, she said. 
"Instead of calling the police to investigate the original allegations the National government attempted to cover them up 
and then, when forced to do something, called in a private security firm . . . the evidence became so contaminated in that 
exercise that no prosecution could be brought when the police were eventually called in." 
She said she had had "nothing but support" from Miss Clark for her handling of the issue. 
National justice spokesman Tony Ryall said, through a spokesman, that Ms Wilson was "blustering to cover the fact that 
she made a bad decision that she had not taken to cabinet and didn't get the prime minister's approval for and [for] which 
she subsequently received a bollocking". 
 
 
   
WHEN Parliament resumed sitting at 2pm yesterday a number of reports were presented. 
They included the Defence Force annual report, a report of the purchase of a non-departmental output from National 
Mutual Corporate Superannuation Services, the Land Transport Safety Authority's annual report and the Testing 
Laboratory Registration Council's annual report. 
Ministers then answered 12 questions of the day. 
The Apprenticeship Training Bill and the Casino Control (Moratorium Extension) Amendment Bill were given their first 
readings and referred to select committees. Parliament resumed debate on the committee stage of the Taxation (FBT, 
SSCWT and Remedial Matters) Bill. 
The bill passed its committee stage. 
Parliament began debating the committee stage of the Fire Service Amendment Bill. The bill passed its committee stage. 
Parliament adjourned at 9.45pm. It will sit again at 2pm today. _ NZPA 
 
Samuels police inquiry cost put at $88,672 
  
THE police inquiry into sex allegations against sacked Maori affairs minister Dover Samuels cost $88,672, it was revealed 
yesterday. 
Police Minister George Hawkins said the figure included accommodation and travel costs, independent and in-house legal 
advice, and the salaries of the police involved. 
He issued the figure in response to written questions from Labour MP John Tamihere, who supported Mr Samuels 
throughout the controversy. 
Mr Samuels was sacked as minister amid allegations that he raped and had sex with a woman in the 1980s when she 
was under age. 
Police cleared Mr Samuels of the allegations and also an allegation that he had sex with the woman, now aged 31, while 
she was under 20 and in his care. 
Mr Hawkins said two police officers were employed fulltime on the investigation. 
The allegations of rape and under-age sex were raised by ACT NZ leader Richard Prebble in a letter to Prime Minister 
Helen Clark and senior ministers in June. 
Mr Hawkins said Mr Prebble had provided a signed statement to Detective Superintendent Jim Millar, who headed the 
investigation, but was not interviewed. 
Detective Inspector Stu Wildon, the other detective who worked full-time on the case, interviewed Labour junior whip Chris 
Carter. 
Mr Hawkins also said Mr Wildon had travelled to Australia to interview a witness and New Zealand police liaison officers in 
Canberra and Sydney were also involved. 
_ NZPA 
 

