Helen Scores Hat-Trick Of Hypocrisy With Fiji Sevens

For the third time in a week Government Ministers are poised to unmistakably contradict the Prime Minister, National's Foreign Affairs spokesperson Max Bradford said today.

"First, Tariana Turia and Parekura Horomia went to Waitangi ceremonies and a hui on the future of Maori at Waitangi. That was despite Helen Clark's declarations that no Minister would attend the former, while the presence of the Crown at the latter would be a 'distraction'. The Prime Minister's excuse was that they went as 'human beings' not Ministers.

"Then Laila Harre rarked up picketers outside a stevedoring business at which Helen Clark conceded no laws were being broken. Helen Clark's excuse: Ms Harre was speaking as a unionist, not a Minister.

"Tomorrow several Ministers will attend a rugby sevens tournament at which the Prime Minister has encouraged protesters to demonstrate. Ms Clark said the presence of a Fijian team means protesters should make the Fijians feel unwelcome. Outside the stadium there will be protesters endorsed by Helen Clark, inside the stadium there will be Ministers who would no doubt argue they are not Ministers during the matches.

"You have to ask whether Ministers in the current Government ever do anything in that capacity, or whether any flouting of Helen Clark's hyperbole can be justified simply by denying the Ministers were Ministers at the time.

"These are shocking double standards. Holders of such a high office are inseparable from that office. Everything Ministers do they do it while they hold a warrant.

"A priest, having sworn a vow of celibacy, cannot argue that if he was caught in a brothel he was there as a man, not as a priest. No one would buy that excuse, and neither should we have to buy the Prime Minister's lame attempts at letting her Ministers pick and choose how they meet their responsibilities as leaders in our community.

"In Government you cannot be a Minister for some purposes but not for others," Mr Bradford said.

Ends

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