Mr Bolger calls for resignation of Minister

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 2

Mr Bolger calls for resignation of Minister

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

The resignation of the Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Wetere, I was called for by the National Opposition in Parliament yesterday.

• This followed an J apology by Mr Wetere to • Parliament for the late- • ness of the accounts of his J department. 5 The accounts for the : year ended March 31 ; were not considered by • Parliament’s Maori AfI fairs select committee un- • til yesterday morning — S eight months to the day • from the start of the next . financial year. I This was only hours ; before the last date they ■» could be debated by J Parliament — last even- • ingJ “Never in my experi- • ence in the House (since h 1972) have I ever heard a , Minister apologise for his • own incompetence the w way the Minister of Maori J Affairs has,” said the • Leader of the Opposition, J Mr Bolger. • “It is a damning indict- “ ment for the Minister to 5 try to excuse his own j incompetence this way — ’ incompetence of monu- ; mental proportions.”

The Minister was denying Parliament the opportunity to scrutinise adequately the accounts of a major department by restricting it to a couple of hours.

“After three and a half years as Minister, this Minister has failed in his responsibilities to his portfolio, to the Maori people, to Parliament and the country, and I ask him — is he prepared to step down?” said Mr Bolger.

The Minister should be prepared to let someone else have a go because he was demeaning Maoridom

and showing again that the Labour Government treated Maoris as second class citizens.

It was simply unacceptable for the Minister to tell Parliament that the accounts were only now available eight months late, Mr Bolger said.

Mr Wetere had earlier made a Ministerial Statement to Parliament apologising for the lateness.

He said the accounts in his portfolio had traditionally been divided into four sections and circumstances had combined to delay the last of them until yesterday morning.

One reason for the delay was the shortage of qualified accounts staff in the ■ department, which had had a 28 per cent turnover in accounts staff in the last year, including losses in key areas. i Without the help and co-operation of the Audit

Office the accounts would have been even later. His department and the State Services Commission were making a big effort to ensure enough qualified staff for the future. His department had also been let down by old and inadequate accounting machines and the need to introduce and adjust to new ones, Mr Wetere said. Mr Bolger said it was farcical for Mr Wetere to blame a break-down in old machines. He asked why the Government, with its billions of dollars of revenue, did not go to the minuscule expense of buying one of its departments proper machines if the

old ones had worn out. He added that there could be no valid reason why the Department of Maori Affairs found it any harder than any other department to attract and retain competent staff, and the other departments were not this late with their accounts. Mr Wetere replied that no Government in New Zealand’s history had done as much for Maoris and no Opposition had done as much to denegrate them. “National has no policies whatsoever on Maori issues,” he said. “All it does is criticise the Labour Government for what it is trying to do.”