How Labour thanks the Greens
The Greens save Labour’s butt over the Prisoner Compensation law, so how does Labour repay them. Read this transcript of Dr Cullen in the House:
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: As we all know, freedom of expression in our sense does not exist in China. But it is probably true to say that things are better now than they were when my old friend Keith Locke was an enthusiastic supporter of the Chinese regime.
Keith Locke: I wish to make a personal explanation with regard to the statement the Minister has just made that I have been a supporter of the Chinese regime. At no time have I supported the Chinese regime. I have always pushed for multiparty democracies. I have defended Chinese dissidents over many years. The Socialist Action League, a political organisation to which some people in this House sometimes refer to and that I belonged to over 20 years ago was, as the Minister will know, a very strong critic of the Chinese regime, because that regime was undemocratic. The Minister is implying that I was in some ways a Maoist and was supporting that regime, and I object to that totally. I ask the Minister to withdraw and apologise.
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: I withdraw and apologise. I do correct myself. The member was not, indeed, a Maoist; he was a Trotskyite.
With friends like this, who needs …..