Coleman Jonathan: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeColeman Jonathan: General Debate[Sitting date: 26 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11293. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Defence):That was a great speech from a new member. I think that shows the depth that the National Party is bringing into this Parliament and I want to congratulate Claudette Hauiti on pointing out some of the realities of what this National Government has achieved for Māori. I can tell you what: that is why the Labour Party is going to get its backside kicked in the by-election in Ikaroa-Rāwhiti come this Saturday. That side of the House has not delivered for Māori. One of the big reasons for that is that when you pick up the front page of theNew Zealand Herald today and you see this picture of David Shearer banging his head against the wall that is not something that inspires confidence.Hon Trevor Mallard: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I was not present in the House earlier—are you allowed to refer to your own absence? I think you are. I was away a little earlier but I thought that the Speaker—it appeared on the radio at least—was ruling against the continual use of a device by Mr Henare and had indicated to Mr Henare that if he held it up again he would be required to leave the House. He has held it up again.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Well all I can say is that—[Interruption ] Order! Order! All I can do is refer members to Standing Order 109(2) which is to do with visual aids. It says that they should be displayed only when a member is speaking and must be removed at the conclusion of the speech. The member is not speaking. He cannot display a visual aid. He should know that. I was here when he was sent out before.Hon Tau Henare: I haven’t.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): All members are honourable and I accept the member’s word. [Interruption ] Order! Order!Hon Trevor Mallard: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member most certainly held up a placard with a figure on it. I did not see what he was holding up earlier. [Interruption ]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! This is a point of order.Hon Trevor Mallard: He held it up in here. I assume that it was the thing that he was requested not to hold up on warning that he would be kicked out of the House. A repeat offender—I think that is a naming offence.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! All I can say is that the member has given me his word that he did not do it. All members are honourable. [Interruption ] Order! If it is otherwise then there is the possibility of a breach of privilege. I call the Hon Jonathan Coleman.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Well I think that just shows that when Trevor Mallard—[Interruption ]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! Sorry Mr Coleman. You can start again. I know that the members on both sides of the House love each other but courtesy is contagious so let us try to work together.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am about 45 seconds into a 5-minute speech and I would request that you reset my time to zero—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! [Interruption ] Order! The member will be seated. If the member had listened I actually said that. I call the Hon Jonathan Coleman.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Excellent! So this—Hon Trevor Mallard: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Since when when a member on his own side misbehaves does a member get an extra three-quarters of a minute? That is an outrageous ruling.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! There have been enough interjections and enough points of order. I have heard enough. What I want is what everyone in this world wants and that is order. I call the honourable member Jonathan Coleman.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: For 5 minutes I presume. This is a very bad day for the Labour Party. You cannot ignore a poll rating like you have seen on the front page of theNew Zealand Heraldtoday. And what is Labour at? It is at 30 percent. I do not know whether you saw TV3 this morning but David Shearer was asked what he is going to do differently and he said: “Absolutely nothing. We are going to do everything exactly the same. We are not going to change anything.”There is only one guy who I reckon will be the beneficiary of this—and he has been very slyly smiling away quite undisturbed through all this—and that is Grant Robertson. He has been putting political arsenic in David Shearer’s tea for the last 18 months and it is starting to pay off because David Shearer the poor man is just about dead on his feet. I tell you David Shearer is actually a very good bloke. I like the guy. He used to be one of my constituents. He voted for me. He used to engage very well in conversation. He is a very decent man. But he would be saying: “How can I get out of this? How can I get back to the Middle East or the jungles of Rwanda? Because this is not going well and I just want to get out of here with some dignity.”But when you look at the options they are not great. I think we have got a few of them here—six people here and correct me if I am wrong but I think five of them have not got a day’s business experience between them. David Parker I will make an exception for. But you have got Grant Robertson there. Is this man unelectable or not? This is a guy you can take around the cafes and the nightclubs of central Wellington but I can tell you take him to the Glenfield Mall or the Northcote Tavern where I am from and it just ain’t going to work.Annette King is a very nice lady but a total retread. Next time will be her third time round. Darien Fenton marks me in Northcote and I encourage her to do more doorknocking in my electorate. It is something we should have more of. Trevor Mallard—well we have seen today that when Trevor is in the House Mr Mallard things go wrong. I actually had quite a high opinion of David Clark until that incident 10 days ago when he yelled an insult knew he was in the wrong and went running out the door—running away. And then he realised that it did not look good to run out of the House so he came back under Trevor Mallard’s tutelage and he apologised. So he is definitely not up to it because he cannot face up in the House and take his medicine. So that is a real shame because he was a young man with some promise. And of course Trevor Mallard—need we say more? In fact I wish Trevor Mallard would come and do some doorknocking in my electorate. That would be the ultimate. That would really get the party vote going.But what I want to say is that group over there is focusing on the things that do not matter to New Zealand. They focus on the parliamentary bickering. They focus on the points of order. They focus on the backbiting in the select committees. You know what? Actually the general public do not watch any of that stuff. But what the public knows is that under the National Government when their kid is sick the under-sixes get a free doctor’s visit; when they need to get cancer treatment for their mother-in-law their grandparent within 4 weeks they are getting that treatment in Australia. When AnnetteKing was health Minister it took weeks and weeks and weeks and people died on waiting lists. Their answer in the end was to kick everyone off the waiting list.What you can see today in the OECD report on education is that New Zealand is doing excellently. The work that my colleague Anne Tolley did around national standards—these guys said it would never work but it does work because we are connecting with parents and parents know it is the right thing to do. If you look at law and order there are 600 more cops on the streets. The cops love the Minister of Police. They are glad to be rid of that tawdry lot who were in Government before who had no regard for the police and who still show that when Trevor Mallard gets up in a select committee and abuses a public servant—abuses Mike Bush the Deputy Commissioner of Police which is totally unfair because Mike Bush cannot talk back. That is not the mark of people whom you would ever want in Government. Those people over there are a disgrace.But meanwhile who have you got who can unite the Labour Party? There is one man. It is David Cunliffe. They are united in their hatred of him. It is the one thing they all agree on. They do not want David Cunliffe as leader or Prime Minister. So when you look at it it is pretty bad news over there. But we are focused on rebuilding Christchurch—billions of dollars going into there and 50000 new jobs in the last 4 years. We are very focused on getting the Public Service actually getting something happening. It is all good news.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.