Mallard Trevor: General Debate 
Mallard Trevor: General Debate 
[Volume:632;Page:4208] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister for Economic Development) 
: 
 It is clear that the deputy leader of the National Party Gerry Brownlee is just as much “yesterday” as his leader. I ask Don Brash to please stay on as leader. He is at 13 percent in the polls and going down. That is the trend we want. He is saved only by a gridlock in the National Party at the moment and he is getting desperate. To appoint into his office the man who ran the Big Gay Out in defiance of his masters from the Exclusive Brethren is a really desperate approach. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I know that Government members are very sensitive to the allegation that they are corrupt. They cannot imply that anyone in this House is influenced from outside. Even I did not imply that about Mr Field. I said that Mr Field acted on his own behalf that his corruption was all his own affair and that he has been covered by the Prime Minister. Of course for Mr Mallard to say that Don Brash is somehow influenced from outside is quite inappropriate. He should apologise but when one is corrupt one does not always do these things. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I apologise. 
I would like to give the House a preview of the National Party conference to be held this weekend. I will refer to what the National Party used at its regional conference round this year in building to its annual conference. First of all I have a document that states: “We Must Make National Cool”. That is a contradiction. Don Brash is so cool that he is just about dead. He is a cold fish. 
National members want to use The Feelers at the conference. Did they ask The Feelers? Is that a Christian Heritage NZ approach to life? What sort of thing is the National Party doing? Did National members ask Steriogram—the group they complained about when it played outside Parliament—whether it could appear in its presentation? I bet they did not. National members want to use collateral and merchandise but did they look carefully? Which company does the collateral and merchandise come from? It comes from Dawn Raid. Some of us know what the current Dawn Raid is and some of us also know what it is named after. Shame on the National Party—the party of the dawn raids—for trying to use Dawn Raid collateral and merchandise for its own promotion. Don Brash approved this for the National Party. 
It gets better. Another document states: “Mix Young Nats with charity … It’s not what you know it’s who you know! If you or a brother or sister are aged between 13 and 24 and have been diagnosed with cancer CanTeen is for you.” The approach of the National Party is to mix Young Nats with CanTeen with the Cancer Society and with Youthline. What a cynical dirty approach. How low can one go in politics? 
Then there is another joke. A document states: “Get covered in the women’s mags and advertise with them”. Judith Collins is on the cover of the  
Australian Women’s Weekly 
; Jacqui Dean who I understand is an MP but I don’t know whether I have seen her yet is on the cover of  
Her Business 
—“Jacqui Dean: The road from Otago to Parliament”—and Jackie Blue is also on the cover of that magazine. 
Then we come to the classic. National is the party that will go all soft and caring! We have heard National members talk a lot recently about Plunket and now we know why. National is telling its people to get out for cynical political reasons and support women-specific charities such as breast cancer Women’s Refuge and Rape Crisis. I say that that approach to a National Party conference is absolutely disgraceful. It is a sure sign of a deputy leader and a desperate leader Don Brash stooping very very low in order to get votes. A document from the conference states: “Sell our female MPs”. That is an incredible plan given National’s approach. Its members ignore their women MPs and they demote them when they disagree with them. The party has hardly any women MPs and it wants to try to sell them. I say: “On what street?”.