Carter David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Carter David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:637;Page:7480] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (National) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to follow Mr Ron Mark from New Zealand First in this debate because in the next day or two that member will have the opportunity to put his money where his mouth is. I understand that in the Justice and Electoral Committee National members of Parliament are calling for a select committee inquiry that can finally resolve the inadequacies of the Department of Corrections. Whether that select committee inquiry proceeds will be based entirely on the vote of Ron Mark. So he can come into this House day in and day out protesting and questioning the Minister but he will now finally have a chance to do something about it. I will be watching his vote as will many New Zealand First voters throughout the country. 
I start by welcoming to our caucus Katrina Shanks. She was dealt a fairly harsh blow at the last election: she was an MP for just over 1 week. When the final results came in she held her head high and I think it is great that we now see her as a member of our caucus. I also record my thanks to Don Brash who departed as a member of Parliament over the Christmas break and say he did a remarkable job for the National Party. He took us from 20 percent in the polls to nearly being in Government and I assure the Government side of the House that this party intends to build on that success and make sure that at the 2008 election there is no doubt at all that National will be the Government. 
A week is a long time in politics when we consider that it is now just over a week ago that the Prime Minister stood here and gave a very boring 35-minute speech. The buzzword on that occasion was a new one—I give her that—sustainability. I watched with interest the body language of the Labour members of Parliament as they listened to that rather turgid boring speech. They knew that the Prime Minister who has delivered to date seven such speeches has at best only one more of these shocking speeches to deliver before the next election. 
Darren Hughes 
: Three elections down; two to go! 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: I say to Darren Hughes that I took the opportunity to go back over some of the earlier speeches made by Helen Clark. They are full of buzzwords and rhetoric and there is no substance to them at all. When she first started delivering speeches in this Parliament she used to use the word “integrity”. It is a shame that she certainly cannot use that word now amongst New Zealanders without a huge smile coming across all their faces because they know that her party totally lacks integrity. 
The next buzzword we see is the term “economic transformation”. We had a couple of years during which the Prime Minister used to try to tell us that the film industry would replace New Zealand agriculture as the basis of the economy. We all know that that did not happen and never was going to happen. This year she came to the House with her eighth Prime Minister’s statement and began the parliamentary year by talking about sustainability. 
Darren Hughes 
: Good idea! 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Darren Hughes says it is a good idea! She was livid by the time she watched the 6 o’clock news that night because she realised that by raising the issue of sustainability the question on everybody’s lips was how sustainable the Labour caucus is. Taito Phillip Field whom the Prime Minister had said was simply a little over enthusiastic in the way he represented his constituents had the audacity to question the Labour Party and its loyalty to him. The response was that he was sacked immediately and all of a sudden the voting majority of this Government looked questionable. 
So I want to talk about the sustainability of Labour. Today we found out that Helen Clark is now on record as saying that Taito Phillip Field is immoral and unethical yet the Labour members of this House are prepared to grab the vote of a member who is unethical and immoral according to their own Prime Minister’s statement. So that says it all about Labour as it desperately tries to hang on to power and limps to the next election midway through 2008. 
Let us look at some of the other less sustainable aspects of the Labour caucus between now and 2008. A number of its members are on the chopping-block. Jim Sutton was told to go late last year and was replaced by “Champagne Charlie” Chauvel whom I welcome back to the House. I see he is here this week; I did not see him around last week. Georgina Beyer was told to go to be replaced— 
Darren Hughes 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: The member knows— 
Darren Hughes 
: I want to raise two points of order Madam Assistant Speaker. The first point of order is that every member must be referred to by his or her full name not in any other way. Secondly one cannot refer to the absence of members. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: The member is quite right. The member will call members by their correct names and he will withdraw and apologise. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: I withdraw and apologise. I welcome Charles Chauvel back as part of the rejuvenation process of the Labour caucus. The next one is Lesley Soper. Labour did not think much of her after she had been here in the last term; it dumped her way down the list. She is here today only because Georgina has left this place. Then we have a few others still to go. When will Dover Samuels go? The Prime Minister sacked him only because he was accused of wrongful action—it was never proven by the police. We have Russell Fairbrother who was identified by the Prime Minister as being dog tucker in the Labour caucus. There is Jill Pettis still to go; there is Dianne Yates—the list never ends. The interesting thing to do is to look at who possibly might replace them and I think to do so will provide the only hope that some of the deadwood on that side of the House has. There is very little talent still to come in. 
I looked at the Labour Party lists and when Dover Samuels Jill Pettis or Russell Fairbrother gets the final nod the next one in is Louisa Wall. Louisa Wall is the only one on the first half-dozen places of Labour’s list who does not appear to have active union affiliation. She happens to be a policy analyst with the Human Rights Commission—almost as bad. The next person on the list is Su’a William Sio who by his own blog is a personal friend of Taito Phillip Field. The first thing he will be told to do this afternoon is to get that statement off his blog. He has good Labour Party affiliations—good union affiliations. Let me quote from Su’a William Sio’s personal statement on the Labour Party website: “I believe my services in the Labour Party the trade union movement in both New Zealand and the South Pacific region have prepared me to advocate strongly for the above points and add value to Labour’s Parliamentary team …”. The only thing stopping Helen Clark from proceeding to get rid of the deadwood on the Government side of the House is that the people on the list who would replace them are certainly no better and provide no rejuvenation whatsoever to a tired tired Labour Government. 
I have not mentioned one or two others who need to be mentioned and of course I cannot go without mentioning the Hon Damien O’Connor the Minister of Corrections. He was totally missing over the Christmas break when we had the dreadful Burton affair. An innocent person was killed and Damien O’Connor could not be found anywhere to even comment on the issue of Burton being let out on parole even when the police were asking that he be recalled. 
Of course the other Minister who must be on borrowed time is the Hon Dr Michael Cullen the man who raised the idea of a mortgage tax only to be shot down in flames by his own leader. 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: No he didn’t. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: I say to that member that I was listening to  
Morning Report 
 and yes the Minister did raise the issue of a mortgage tax. He suggested that it was an idea worthy of investigation. He was completely annihilated immediately by Helen Clark who knew that such an idea was political suicide. So how long can that Minister stay on as deputy leader when he openly disagrees with the leader of the Labour Party? I will tell members again what saves Dr Cullen: there is nobody with any talent at all to take the job from him. The pretender Trevor Mallard does not have a show. He is the guy who blotted his copybook by talking about a stadium on the waterfront. That will be what saves Labour members—the machinations of trying to carry out the rejuvenation process. They are bereft of talent in caucus they are bereft of talent outside caucus and they will see that there is an ability to rejuvenate after the 2008 election when National is on the Government side of the House and the remaining Labour members are over here.