Ross Jami-Lee: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ross Jami-Lee: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 14 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6596. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) 
: 
 After that speech by Jacinda Ardern I think that we are starting to see a new leadership contender emerge because that was the most energetic speech I have heard all afternoon from the Labour Party. I have been waiting for about half an hour for David Shearer to take the stand and have a go in the general debate as he usually does. I actually enjoyed watching the Labour Party last week because it was the most sad disappointed heads-buried-in-their-desk performance from Labour MPs watching their leader that I have ever seen and that is how you know that the Labour Party is looking for a leadership change. 
During question time we had the three Davids on their feet. We had David Shearer trying his best trying not to stutter 10 times throughout his questions and not quite succeeding trying to hold on to his job. Then we had David Parker asking some questions as well. David Parker is always the professor the pointy-headed professor doing his best with the numbers but he had to drop out last time. He had to drop out last time and probably is doing so again this time round. And then we had David Cunliffe—David Cunliffe the great messiah. He is growing a beard again. Have we all noticed that? What does that mean? What happened last time David Cunliffe grew a beard? It was leadership time; that is when he last grew a beard. David Cunliffe is growing a beard again and I think David Shearer should be worried about that. But we had the three Davids on show on performance trying to show their colleagues what they are made of. 
We have got the big conference this weekend coming up as well. Do you know what is interesting about this conference? What is interesting about this conference is that that is when they start to adopt their new rules. These new leadership rules are when they start to have members having their say. 
So what are members of the Labour Party saying about their leader? They are about to give Labour Party members a bit of a say in their leadership. Here we go there is a great website called The Standard. It is full of Labour Party members spouting their views. Here is one: “David Shearer has simply shown time and again that he is not up for the job. He can’t handle the stress he can’t think on his feet and he doesn’t have a solid set of beliefs to give him a firm footing when he stands up on issues.” How about another one? “I should have listened to Brian Edwards and to that little voice inside that was telling me Shearer was unsalvageable as talent. … it is that hamfistedness that has finally been the deal breaker for me. I just can’t imagine how David Shearer could survive an election campaign …”. That is what Labour Party members are saying about their current leader. That is what Labour Party members are saying about their leader whom they are about to have a say on. 
And what about this Brian Edwards? What do we know of Brian Edwards because David Shearer likes to say that it is just bloggers talking to bloggers. I do not think Mr Brian Edwards would consider himself a blogger. Brian Edwards happens to be the biographer for “Dear Leader” for “Auntie Helen”—for Helen Clark. Brian Edwards was also the media manager the person who did all the training. What does Brian Edwards say? He says: “… Shearer is harming rather than helping Labour’s cause and [so much so] that he cannot continue to lead the party.” 
What else do we know about Brian Edwards and Helen Clark? Helen Clark is in the country at the moment. Those members want to deny it. They want to deny it but I was there. I was in the dining room; I saw them walking through the dining room. I saw David Cunliffe come through then Chris Hipkins and Jacinda Ardern put their heads round the corner. They scuttled off again but in came Darien Fenton and Phil Twyford. Darien Fenton is one we should watch. She is the union powerbroker at the moment. Darien Fenton is actually the union powerbroker. Andrew Little thinks it is him. Andrew Little thinks it is him but it is actually Darien Fenton. So these are the members of the Labour Party who David Cunliffe had trotting along to the little meeting and Helen Clark was in the country too. We know what texts from New York are all about—they are about when the leadership comes around. 
Jacinda Ardern wants to say that we are joking too much. And yeah we are having a bit of fun at those members’ expense but they are about to change their leader. But I want to tell the House what is a real joke. Here are the Labour Party policy proposals for the weekend. This is scary stuff; this is no joke. These are the policy proposals that Labour is proposing on the weekend. A financial transactions tax. You know if we cannot earn more money through revenue let us just tax people more. That is a Hone Heke tax as Hone Harawira would probably say. A universal child benefit so millionaires can get paid for having kids. Well I think that is something Kim Dotcom would quite like too. There is 52 weeks’ paid parental leave. Not content with costing us half a billion dollars more in paid parental leave for 26 weeks those members want to move it to 52 weeks. They want to ban fracking they want to ban seabed mining they want to ban certain foods in schools and they want a mineral export tax. That is not a joke. 
They want to hurt New Zealanders more lose more jobs. We are for growing jobs we are for growing the economy and that is why New Zealanders love the John Key Government.