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Speeches 

 

General Debate

22.05.2008

MARTIN GALLAGHER (Labour—Hamilton West) : I know that the member for Hamilton East, David Bennett, deeply regrets being unable to mention the wonderful city of Hamilton in his speech. The member was supplied with compulsory speech notes from the Opposition that deliberately excluded the city of Hamilton from his speech. If he had been allowed, he would have wanted to say: “Isn’t it wonderful that we had the Minister Pete Hodgson come up recently to announce the extension of the Waikato Innovation Park?”. That is what Mr Bennett wanted to say. Mr Bennett also wanted to acknowledge the very good work of my colleague Sue Moroney, along with the other Government members of Parliament from Hamilton, in bringing that about.

What Mr Bennett also wanted to say, which the research department in the whips’ office deliberately and cynically prevented him from saying, was: “We are delighted to be looking forward to the opening of the new campus improvement of the Waikato Hospital in the near future, which will reinforce its role as a major, significant, tertiary teaching hospital in our region.” That is what Mr Bennett deeply wanted to say. Mr Bennett wanted to observe the Waikato Times reports of the still very positive consumer figures coming out of the Waikato in spite of international economic challenges. Mr Bennett also wanted to acknowledge the great leadership of Phil Goff and Helen Clark in signing the free-trade agreement with China, and the implications this has for Fonterra, farmers, and milk powder producers.

Mr Bennett was also talking about leadership. I know that in his heart of hearts he has some serious reservations about the in and out, revolving door leadership of the National Party over the last 12 years. I asked the whip how many leaders National has had. There have been five or six. If it is a revolving door in terms of the leadership of the National Party, it is a spinning door—a wheel of gravity—in terms of the deputy leadership. In fact, I believe that in the whole parliamentary history of this country we have never had such a spinning door as we did when Dr Nick Smith was the deputy leader. For how long was he the deputy leader? That has to be New Zealand parliamentary history’s shortest term of deputy leadership of the two major parties. To even equal that kind of performance, I think one would have to go back to the Liberal Party, the Reform Party, or probably even back to Governor Grey’s term, when he served as Premier of this country in the 19th century. I know that is what Mr Bennett wanted to say in his speech, but he was prevented from doing so. I know he wanted to give an objective account of leadership.

If we talk about leadership, let us talk about National’s leader, Mr Key. Let us talk about his incredible leadership on a number of issues, and the series of flip-flops. To speak about Mr Key in terms of leadership, I will quote him from May 2005: “This Kyoto Protocol is a complete and utter hoax, if I may say so. … even if one believes in global warming—and I am somewhat suspicious of it …”. That actually sounds like Maurice Williamson; I think he still has those views. A year later, in November 2006, Mr Key said: “I firmly believe in climate change, and I always have.” There we go. That is leadership. That is consistency.

In the time that I have left I will talk about the mooted MMP referendum. I say to the smaller parties in the House, particularly the Māori Party, that it is very obvious what that means—with Peter Shirtcliffe pushing for it, there will be a referendum on MMP. The plans are very clear: some people want to go back to first past the post. That means there will be an absolute dictatorship of one of the major parties in this House, as opposed to there being the diversity of opinion and viewpoint in our modern democracy that is offered by the range of parties that is now represented. There is a very clear subtext on that agenda, and I hope all parties and their supporters take very close note, because what this says is very clear. These are coded words, in the end, for some people wanting to go back to the old days where they can have it all their own way.

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