Banks John: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBanks John: General Debate[Sitting date: 10 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:11866. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon JOHN BANKS (Leader—ACT):What a soul-destroying rant from the list member from the “New Zealand First Winston Second Party”.Why is the Leader of the Opposition not here this afternoon?Mr SPEAKER: Order!Hon JOHN BANKS: OK I will not Mr Speaker. The Leader of the Opposition needs to get up in the House and take calls like this to defend his position. It seems to be that I have never seen a Labour Party in such disarray. In 10 Parliaments of being here I have never seen a more dejected reduced-to-nothing hopelessly out-of-control miserable specimen of an individual than the leader of the Labour Party. Why is it that his bench mate Grant Robertson “The Toad from Toad Hall” looks so happy? In the AA Milne bookToad of Toad Hall  Toad of Toad Hall looks so happy. He looks so happy because he is creative and he is devious but he is self-centred to the point ofsociopathy. He is self-centred. The “member for Vivian Street” is happy today because he wants to take over the mantle of the leadership—the remnants of the leadership—of the Labour Party. But he is completely lacking in common sense.Toad of Toad Hall is known as someone who is always clever devious educated—over-educated—and over-competent but lacking common sense. That over there is “The Toad from Toad Hall” who would be the leader of the Labour Party if the poor joker—to use the vernacular the Leader of the Opposition has just finished a long visit to the taxidermist. He is finished. It is all over. I have never seen anyone so dejected. I have never seen anyone so miserable. He sits there at question time he eats peanuts he chews his fingernails he feels out of depth and all he is saying is: “If only I were in New York with my secret bank account it would be so much better than this place of purgatory.” But “The Toad from Toad Hall” the grunter from Vivian Street is there. He is ready to take over and he would be an equal disaster.In AA Milne’s book it says: “When the Toad came down the street howling the streets were full of people jeering at the sight.” That is what will happen with that leader. So we get rid of the hapless Mr Shearer and we get the “member for Vivian Street” in charge of the Labour Party. That is where Labour members belong—in Opposition for a long long time. They can have theirMoët champagne at Skycity; they can have their secret bank accounts in New York; they can have their hapless hopeless and useless leaders; and they can have their very earnest little chief Government whips. But what they cannot have is any constituency out there that represents common ground common sense investment growth or jobs. The Labour Party is in a bad way.A day before I entered Parliament in 1981 there were four women members of Parliament. The day after I entered Parliament 10 Parliaments ago there were eight women members of Parliament. Today there are 44 women members of Parliament. What we need are high-quality women members of Parliament like the two I am looking at now and the one who is behind me—the three on this side of the House—Mrs Tolley Mrs Upston and this lovely member over here.Grant Robertson: Tell us her name.Hon JOHN BANKS: What is wrong with that? On their own those three women would be an Opposition demolition team and they would not need “The Toad from Toad Hall” the “member for Vivian Street”.Is it going to be Shearer Robertson Cunliffe or Little? We on this side of the House do not care as long as they stay where they are. As long as no one cares because no one up and down the country cares this Labour Party is in disarray from the grassroots up. Worse by cuddling up to the Greens Labour has become a party intent on destroying business growth and jobs and more content on staying over there and that is not all bad.