Field fiasco sparks call for ethics code

Gerry Brownlee

National and the Greens traded insults over each other's handling of the Taito Phillip Field affair yesterday, and United Future called for a new committee of Parliament's most senior members to oversee a code of conduct.

National is annoyed that the Greens reneged on plans to hold a select committee inquiry into Mr Field's conduct, because it lacks the numbers to initiate one.

Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said standing orders meant the inquiry would be toothless and instead got Labour to agree to support a motion censuring Mr Field and securing an apology from him.

National blocked the censure motion from being read and adopted, and Ms Fitzsimons said she would move it again today "in the hope National sees sense".

"If we want to restore the public's confidence, Parliament must be able to express its concern now and lay a platform for setting the standards expected of MPs in future."

If it were not for the Greens, Labour would never have forced Mr Field to apologise, she said.

National deputy leader Gerry Brownlee accused the Greens of a "shabby cover-up" with Labour, and colleague Murray McCully labelled them "Labour's lapdogs".

Mr Brownlee said the collaboration with Labour was inexcusable. "To claim the integrity of Parliament would be restored with a half-baked non-apology is as naive as it is insulting."

He said the "apology" revealed Mr Field still believed he had done nothing wrong, pointing to part of the MP's statement which read: "I accept that members of this House have been concerned by some inferences which may have been drawn from the reporting of the Ingram report."

United Future leader Peter Dunne said the unsatisfactory outcome made it vital a code of standards be developed for MPs by the standing orders committee and then overseen by a new committee of the most senior MPs.

Much of the frustration in Parliament was a result of the fact that no one was really sure how to deal with the matter.

"When the narrowness of the Government's majority is added to that, it is inevitable that the responses we are now seeing are scattergun and not well thought through."

National's attempts to move votes of no confidence in the Speaker were a classic case of "shooting the messenger".

The standing orders committee is already considering a code of ethics proposed by Labour's Ross Robertson.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said this week that she had an open mind about a conduct code, as did Mr Brownlee yesterday, although National had earlier dismissed the idea as a diversion.

The Ingram report examined claims that Mr Field benefited from cheap labour in exchange for immigration aid.


CODES OF CONDUCT

United Future leader Peter Dunne:
"It should make it clear, for example, that MPs advocating on behalf of constituents should neither solicit nor receive payment for any services rendered, nor enter into inappropriate business relationships with constituents."

Labour MP Ross Robertson:
"Members should take decisions solely in terms of the public interest. They should not do so in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family or their friends."