Dunne 'mortified' by Coleman speech mix-up

Peter Dunne, left, and Jonathan Coleman. Photos / Mark Mitchell

Revenue Minister Peter Dunne has accepted blame for an embarrassing mix-up which led to Broadcasting and Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman delivering a two-year-old speech in Parliament last night.

As duty minister, Mr Coleman was charged with introducing the first reading debate on the Taxation (International Investment and Remedial Matters) Bill in Mr Dunne's absence.

But in an administrative mix-up he was given a speech Mr Dunne delivered on July 23, 2008, on the Taxation, International Taxation, Life Insurance and Remedial Matters Bill.

He read it out for several minutes before noises started being made from the opposition benches about its content, but he continued to the end.

Labour's revenue spokesman Stuart Nash then took his turn to speak.

"I challenge the minister to show me the clauses that talk about payroll giving, that talk about insurance companies, and all those other matters he brought to the attention of the House in his speech because there are no such clauses in this bill," he said.

"The minister gave the wrong speech. He spoke for 10 minutes about a bill that was passed 12 months ago and he didn't notice."

Mr Dunne said today he took full responsibility for mix-up and was "mortified" by it. "It shouldn't have happened and it's not going to happen again."

Dr Coleman said tax was a long way from his portfolios and the two bills sounded similar in technical terms.

"It's one of those things, it's not great-- nobody died - but I think it's a bit of a lesson around procedure, and Mr Dunne has apologised for what occurred last night," he said.

"It's not my portfolio, I haven't been involved with that debate at all. The procedure as duty minister is that you are often handed speeches to deliver on behalf of absent ministers at virtually zero notice - as in this case."

The bill nevertheless passed its first reading.

- NZPA