Cosgrove Clayton: General Debates 
Cosgrove Clayton: General Debates 
[Volume:609;Page:6147] 
CLAYTON COSGROVE (NZ Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 I have just one thing to say to that member—and he should listen to the interjection of Lianne Dalziel the Minister. If Nick Smith is such a great constituency member of Parliament why did he not get off his chuff and write to the Minister about the issues of which he speaks? Why has he not lodged a letter with the Minister about those issues? It is because Nick Smith is not up to it. He can come into this House scream from the top of his voice bang his chest and his desk and make a great dramatic statement but I say to him that as a constituency member in this House I know that the first thing a member does if a constituent has a problem is to get off his or her rear end and write to the responsible Minister. Nick Smith has not even done that. That is all I have to say to him.  
This is the grandstander Nick Smith who will be remembered for a career— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I apologise to the member for interrupting his speech but he has raised a very specific point and he will be going on to other issues. So I seek leave of the House to table five letters: to the Attorney-General to the Minister who is responsible for the Department of Child Youth and Family Services to the Minister of Maori Affairs to the Prime Minister and to the Principal Family Court Judge specifically on that case. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Point of order— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Can I clarify that those letters will be tabled with all identifying names removed? 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I need to know very carefully whether those letters are from the member or from the family. I need to know that in order to consider the tabling request. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: The letters are from my constituent’s family. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The letters are from the family. Leave is sought to table them. Is there any objection? There is. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I do not quite know what the point of that was. I asked that member why he did not write on behalf of the family. He has mana in the community. He is a leader in the community as the local member of Parliament. Why did he not put pen to paper? That member talked about his career. His career in this House is in jeopardy because he has broken one of the highest tenets of our constitution— 
Gerry Brownlee 
: No he has not! 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: It has been alleged that he has I should have said. I withdraw and apologise. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. We will not sit here quietly and allow that member to make that sort of allegation against one of our fellow members on the Opposition side of the House. Nick Smith has not broken any law and will not have done so until a court may decide he has. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I withdraw and apologise. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: All right—the member has withdrawn and apologised. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: That is fair; I concede that to Mr Brownlee. “Alleged” is what I should have said and I accept that. But I will say this: Nick Smith’s career will be remembered for things like the Department of Conservation “magic carpet”—the scandal that never was—and similar huge issues of moment. When it comes to issues that really matter to his constituents he does not have the tenacity to get off his chuff and write a letter. 
 I turn to the National Party and its leadership. In the last couple of months we have seen U-turns and flip-flops. Last night a member of the National Party said to me that its leadership was sewn up and Bill English would be there until the next election. I think that member is right. I will not name him but he is right because we know what happened. We know that Dr Brash was on the way; we know that there was a thread of cotton between him and the leadership. It was going to be Brash and Power. The problem is that the boys got to Dr Brash and it became Brash and Brownlee—members know; a sort of B B King of Brash and Brownlee. Then the caucus realised that that was not a winner and now its members are talking to Winston Peters. We know that. I think that Mr Peters is a bit smarter than that. He has been there and done that and he knows that the National Party is on the back foot.  
I have an interesting quote here from Mr English from a speech he gave at the Maori sports awards in Ngaruawahia on 3 November when he said National was the Opposition and it could say anything. Is that not a true statement? Is that not true? National has no policy and no leadership and it says anything. Let us take the Budget debate. Mr English accused—I said at the time that I never thought I would hear a Tory leader accuse a Labour Government of being too tight fiscally—Dr Cullen of being too tight while Dr Brash said he thought Dr Cullen had basically done the right thing and we should not be spending any more money. What a contradiction that was! National can say anything.  
Then in relation to Tranz Rail 70 percent of the population believe we have done the right thing. National sold it we have bought back the track and when challenged by the Minister of Transport as to whether National would will sell it off again if it gets into Government Mr Sowry—the Al Bundy of Otaki; a decisive member of Parliament—said National would wait and see. He was really saying that he knows that if he and the National Party came out with National’s true asset-sales policy now which is to sell them all off—to sell Air New Zealand sell Tranz Rail knock off the Accident Compensation Corporation and knock off the hospitals—National’s 21 percent in the polls would then become 2.1 percent. That is what National is saying; that is what those members know. However they do not have the intestinal fortitude to spell out National’s policy.  
Meanwhile the ship of State under this Labour Government rolls on and continues on a very steady course. We have 4.4 percent growth. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: That’s right; nowhere to go. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: There goes the blunderbuss from the National Party. That member should stick to woodwork; he knows that he will not make it. If I were Mr Brownlee I would get out the plane and the router. I would sharpen the blades and get out the overalls and dust them off because that is where he is going.