Bennett David: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: General Debate[Sitting date: 26 November 2014. Volume:702;Page:850. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East):Thank you Mr Speaker—Pita Paraone: This is going to be interesting.DAVID BENNETT: It will be and you want to listen. I do not want to take too long on the Labour Party and its leadership vote but the first thing New Zealanders need to know is that the Labour leader Mr Little did not win because the unions voted for him. He did not win because the unions voted for him. He won because selected members of the unions voted for him. Under that union vote not every member of the unions got to vote. In a democratic party and in a democratic Government and in a democratic country you would think that every unionist would have the ability to file a vote. It is not the case. Under the Labour Party rules 14 unionists make one voter. And those “one voters” for each of those people for all those unions were the mates of Andrew Little. His mates are not here; they are the people out there who run the unions.It is the hierarchy of the unions that determines who the leader of the Labour Party is. It is not the actual workers out there. It is their hierarchy—the people who are taking advantage of them. That is a shame for New Zealanders and that is a shame for the Labour Party. Grant Robertson—go and get a recount. Go and do it. Go and get a recount. Get all the union members to vote not just the one of 14 whom Andrew Little controls under your proposals and under the democracy of the Labour Party. Let us have a look.Hon Annette King: Why isn’t that man a Minister? How many votes did you get for Cabinet?DAVID BENNETT: We have got the new deputy leader of the Labour Party asking how many votes. Well I will tell you how many votes. We had over 10000 in Hamilton East and that is because National delivered for that city. Mr Macindoe had over 5000 votes in that seat against Sue Moroney and that is because National has delivered for that seat. We have built roads in that city that the Labour Party could not even commit to. The Labour Party was asked year after year whether it would commit to the Waikato Expressway and no it would not. It would not commit to it. Then at the last moment—this is a month before the election—the Labour members came down and gave a hollow promise saying that they would think about doing it. The Greens actually controlled the Labour Party’s transport policy. Julie Anne Genter to her credit stood up and said that they were not building the Waikato Expressway. The voters of Hamilton knew that. The voters of Hamilton knew what they would get after the election.You have a Labour Party in trouble that does not know who its leader is and that has capitulated on internal politics since that time. You have got a Green Party that is now licking its wounds because it thought it was going to do better than it actually did. You have got a New Zealand First party where no one actually knows who the members are and where the leader still does not know who the members are and he will never know who the members are by the end of the next 3 years. But that is OK. It is unfair to pick on New Zealand First. I will not do it because it is too easy. We will leave them to speak next. Ron Mark—I am going to love to see what is going to happen in 2 years’ time with you and Tracey. Who is going to win—you know? The old boy might be going but who is going to take over? That will be interesting eh? So we will look forward to seeing what happens with New Zealand First.The voters out there are smart. They know there is a country that has got a Government that is delivering a strong economic base. They know there is a Government that is actually looking forward for New Zealanders and that is looking at economic growth in the most testing of economic conditions. It is a Government that is actually trying to make sure that we are part of this modern international world.If we do not take our opportunities if we do not embrace immigration if we do not embrace trade then we will miss out to Australia. Look at what was happening in Australia last week. Australia embraced those things. Australia embraced India Australia embraced China and that is the balance that we need to meet as well because we are a trading country.New Zealanders have low interest rates and they have a strong economic base and they see that investment in health and education that is going on—new schools in Hamilton. Sue Moroney when she was in the Labour Government could only come and have a look at a bit of land and say: “This would be a lovely place to build a school.” Well we actually went out there and we bought that land and then we actually committed to building that school. Thank you very much to Mrs Anne Tolley in front of me who did a great job as Minister then. We are delivering for New Zealanders and that is why they vote for us because they see what is coming. They see the infrastructure that is needed for New Zealand to grow and prosper. Thank you.