Maharey Steve: General Debate 
Maharey Steve: General Debate 
[Volume:624;Page:19245] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 For those people at home they have just been listening to a speech made by a person who I think is a true Opposition spokesperson Ron Mark. He has assiduously followed a range of policies in this House that are close to his party’s interests and his own interests. I do not happen to agree with his characterisation of the Government in relation to its concern for old people about crime and so on. I know that as he is sitting in his seat now considering the possibilities of maybe one day working with a Government—one never knows—that he himself knows his speech was full of rhetoric. However the member has been assiduously a powerful Opposition spokesperson. 
That brings me to the central point of what the Government is concerned about today—that is it is the Government’s role to keep the Opposition honest. In the case of Mr Mark we can say he is doing his job. In the case of the National Opposition—the party that is called “the Opposition” the party whose leader is called the Leader of the Opposition in the House—we have to say if we are to keep its members honest that it is time they admitted they are hopeless. The election is now only 6 months away. One might expect a sense of urgency to be building in the National Party. [ 
Interruption 
] Lynda Scott pipes up to say that she is leaving soon. She is a first-term MP. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: No I’m not. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: A second-term MP. 
Darren Hughes 
: It feels like first term. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: It feels as though she has been here for only a short time because her impact has been low. But she along with Roger Sowry is leaving. She is leaving because she knows it is a waste of her time being here. She is a doctor for goodness’ sake! She can help people. She can do something for the older New Zealanders of this country. She knows that the choices between doing something and sitting here for another 3 years— 
Darren Hughes 
: Miserable years. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: They would be long miserable years as the junior Government whip—or intermediate whip as he is now known—said. 
Lynda Scott sits there knowing that the National Party will never be the Government. I will show members why. We know for example that Murray McCully wants off the election campaign committee because the National Party cannot win. Actually Murray McCully never wins campaigns—never. He has been in charge of campaign after campaign. It is no wonder Lynda Scott is leaving—if he is to be in charge of the campaign she knows it is a foregone conclusion that National will lose. But Murray McCully has said that things are so bad that even he wants to get off the campaign committee. We know that Gerry Brownlee has been to see that wise member Winston Peters—who would have been the father of the House but unfortunately he has a broken record of being in Parliament—to ask whether their parties could work together in a coalition. Unfortunately Don Brash has already ruled that out. So we now know that there is a complete division in the leadership—between the deputy leader and the leader—as to what to do in relation to coalitions. We know that Katherine Rich was demoted by force from her position on the front bench and she has never ever looked happier. She is absolutely beaming about the possibilities after the next election and about coming back on to the front bench with a new leadership team. 
Then we have what I think has broken the spirit of the National Party the hagiography of Dr Don Brash. Let us be clear: this book is not a biography. This book was an effort by a writer to write something that was absolutely page-turningly positive about the leader of the National Party. It is a hagiography. It is supposed to be something that people say praises this person. It is an admission. That is what it is about. It was written so that Don Brash could be promoted in election year. But the poor old Simon Powers of the National Party have to pick up this book and no doubt read a page a night; it is too boring to read more. What they read is that they have a leader who is obsessed with the speckles in his carpet who cleans the garage floor and as it says at the back of the book was so excited when he went to a dance in Latin America. But on page 62 there is one line about the episode in Latin America. It states: “I quickly realised I was out of my depth with the Latin beat.” That is it! That is as exciting as it gets. He could not dance the Latin beat. 
One goes through the book to find out that he developed “considerable pulling power when it came to girls at university”. Now as everyone knows he has considerable pushing power. I would be depressed if I were the National Party. I would know I had already lost.