King AnnetteHon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour): On a day like this I too want to join those who wish John Key well in his retirement. It is a time to thank him for his 8 years as Prime Minister of New Zealand. Anyone who has ever been close to a Prime Minister will know that they work incredibly hard they make a huge commitment to the country and it takes a great toll on them and their families. I wish him well in his years ahead.But I need to tell this House that Labour is ready we are organised and we are hungry for the election whenever it will be. We are committed to addressing the challenges that face this country because we know that there is work to be done. We cannot cover up the fact that there are many New Zealanders out there who are suffering at the moment. They might not be obvious to some opposite because for many of them they are out of touch with what is happening around our country.For us we are ready and maybe now the air will be clear so that people will be able to hear our plans as to what we want to do for a better New Zealand. We are going to go out and we are going to ask the questions of New Zealanders. We are going to say: Should young New Zealanders miss out on owning their own home? Should older New Zealanders miss out on getting the healthcare that they need?"—people like Trixie Cottingham who is 96 years old and had hours taken off for her home help. Why would we do that to a 96-year-old in a land of plenty? We are going to go out there and ask people if they are going to work whether they should not get a decent wage and decent working conditions. We are going to go out there and ask parents whether they should be paying for the education for their children when they are dipping into their pockets every day to meet the expenses. We will be putting forward those questions but more importantly we will be providing the plan to address them.This resignation in my view has exposed a National caucus for what it is: a bunch of independent sole traders who are interested in themselves. We see the discontent. We now see the disbelief at losing their leader. We see the disaffection growing and the envy and the resentment—and the resentment about John Key leaving will grow because he was their "get out of jail free" card. He was the person who was going to ensure the fourth term and now he is gone.I believe that we are now seeing that the knives are out. The new suits are being bought the flash ties are being put on and the people who would like to be the next Prime Minister are going round and sitting next to colleagues. In fact colleagues on the other side have told me that they have never had so many phone calls from their caucus in their lives. You see the knives are out and what is going to be interesting is which knife will be the sharpest one. Will it be Judith Collins' stiletto—you know the one that slips in very very easily? It slips in when you are not watching. It is called "the silent killer of ambition".Then we have got Jonathan Coleman. Well he will have the scalpel. He will be wielding it with a total lack of precision because he knows how good he is even if everybody else does not. We are going to see between him and Bill English what has been called "the battle of the mustards": the Colemans and the English mustards are going to be now battling over the leadership.And then we have got Bill English. The knife that he is going to have is an old rusty carving knife. It has been in the back drawer for 13 years and I have to tell Bill English that it is actually beyond sharpening. So then we have got Paula Bennett. She has not put her name in but she is looking for a position. She has got a boning knife you see. She is expert at removing meat from the bone and she practised it first on beneficiaries so she is certainly very skilled with the boning knife. And then of course Steven Joyce has got the utility knife. He has got the knife that goes across all portfolios and especially portfolios where there are lots of stuff-ups. So what we know is that across there the fight has begun.Do you know that they have got two ABCs already? They have got "anyone but Coleman" and "anyone but Collins". They have got two ABBs—no three ABBs: "anyone but Bill" "anyone but Bennett" and "anyone but Bridges". So the battle is on.As I said the phones are running hot. We are here watching but what we are telling New Zealanders while National members fight amongst themselves is that we have a plan to take New Zealand forward and make this a much better place than it is now."