Maharey Steve: General Debates 
Maharey Steve: General Debates 
[Volume:611;Page:8540] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 Members and those listening at home may remember that before all those points of order a person was screaming into the microphone. It is a kind of a worry the way that the leader of the National Party—he is not really the Leader of the Opposition any more; Mr Peters is clearly the person who has that role—gets up here time after time. By the time he has finished after 5 minutes he has basically just screamed himself hoarse. All we can do is to have sympathy for him. I cannot remember what he said. I could not hear most of what he said because his own members behind him kept up an unbroken chanting of interjections the whole way through his speech as though they did not want him to speak. It was a remarkable performance. He was trying to scream above his own back-bench members who were trying to overwhelm him all the time but in the end we just feel sorry for him. 
We come to the conclusion that maybe we are dealing with an extremely angry desperate man. Why would Bill English not be desperate? There is 53 percent support for the Prime Minister and Mr English hopes that one day he can eclipse Mr Peters and get himself back to being the second preferred leader in the country. But he is on 7 percent. I would be angry if I were on 7 percent. I am on this side of the House and I am on the Prime Minister’s side but if I were in Opposition and on only 7 percent I would be angry. No wonder he is angry and desperate. No wonder he gets up and screams himself hoarse every time he has a chance to speak. 
The other reason he is angry is that Maurice Williamson is back. I would be spitting if I were Bill English and the maverick—not the martyr—was back. Maurice Williamson has not been sacrificed. He has been able to say whatever he likes. He is back here in the Paul Keating position at the bottom of the party waiting to rocket back through the ranks after everything he said. Of course he had a right to say the things he said. The National Party lost two elections. It changed its leader it has polled pathetically for over 4 years and it is not really in the running now with a leader who can promise to be the next Prime Minister. Mr Williamson had a reason to say: “We resemble the  
Titanic 
.” He said that somebody should get the orchestra to shut up and that everybody should be on deck manning the lifeboats. He said: “I haven’t criticised Bill English. I’ve talked about the facts. We need to deliver a performance that the public sees as credible.” Maurice Williamson has also said: “I guess Bill English is the 2000 equivalent of Bill Birch. Bill was a bit boring as boring as watching paint dry—and saying that is probably a bit unfair on paint. Mr English lacks the excitement charisma humour personality or talent to lead the National Party.” 
The last National Party conference was likened by Mr Williamson to a slow train crash. That is not much to say about the leadership of one’s party is it? It is not much to say about the National Party. It is not really something one would expect a person to be demoted for vilified for or threatened with excommunication for—then survive. Bill English likes to think he is in control of the National Party and here is someone who likes him so much that he is not stabbing him in the back; he is stabbing him in the front—and he still survives after all that. All I can assume—and Murray McCully the strategist of the National Party will know this for sure—is that Maurice Williamson has won. Members will remember that Maurice Williamson’s advice was—apart from all the things he said about the National Party—to narrow the National Party down. He said: “Don’t appeal to Maori don’t appeal to Pacific Islanders don’t appeal to young people superannuitants and beneficiaries. Don’t appeal to all those people because if you do you get a party that doesn’t seem to be able to appeal to our core constituency.” I am not sure who the core constituency is for Bill English—the people right of Dipton I guess are his core constituency. 
All I can assume—and I am sure that Murray McCully the strategist for the National Party will confirm this when he rises—is that Maurice Williamson is now one and the National Party under Bill English is officially now a minor party. National wants to appeal to a very narrow constituency of New Zealanders. It does not aspire to represent the wide range of diverse people who make up this country. It wants to fight over that little narrow centre-right part. National does not want to contest the national socialist position of the New Zealand First Party it does not want to contest the moral conservative position of United Future and it does not want to contest the scandal-busting position of the ACT party. National wants to establish its own position and its own position was revealed last week. It wants to represent people who drive old tractors. That is the constituency it wants to represent—the people who drive old tractors. Today in an hysterical speech the speech that led off the most important debate of the week in the House we heard the Leader of the Opposition—the would-be taker-over from Winston Peters as the Leader of the Opposition—spend his whole 5 minutes on his own constituency; he defended those tractor drivers.