English Bill: General Debate 
English Bill: General Debate 
[Volume:640;Page:10474] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. It is becoming clear day by day that the Labour front bench is cracking. It is cracking under the pressure of bad policy bad judgment and bad polls. How do we know it is cracking? Well Steve Maharey who is meant to be in charge of the education of all of the children in New Zealand is busy applying for the job of vice-chancellor of Massey University. I wish him well because if he does not get that job his future after he leaves Parliament will be that of a discredited Minister without a job. It would be great for Steve Maharey to get that job at a quarter of a million dollars a year but I tell members that it would be terrible for Massey University. For the good of the students that job should not be given to him. 
Steve Maharey should announce his retirement. What credibility does he now have as a man dedicated to the future of our children? He has none. He is now dedicated to his own future not the future of our children. He should go. 
We are told that Annette King wants to go but Helen Clark will not let her because Annette King is meant to be the competent one. Until 10 days ago that might have been the case but then she landed on the Government the sheer embarrassment of the foreign policy failure of the Therapeutic Products and Medicines Bill. That showed arrogance and mishandling—if Phil Goff had been handling it it would have got through. Phil Goff knows that and that is what he is telling anyone who will listen including members of the National Party. 
I am sure Annette King is worried about her involvement in the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board scandal. What a scandal that is. As my colleague Tony Ryall pointed out today she was fast-tracking the appointment of Peter Hausmann the principal tenderer for $50 million of public money when he was being fed the tender documents for comment by the chief executive of the district health board. And of course I am sure that Mrs King is worried about the role of her husband. He was second in charge of the district health board and he is now working for Peter Hausmann the principal tenderer for the $50 million contract whom she appointed to the board. So if Annette King does not want to go now I am sure she will want to go soon. 
Pete Hodgson cannot smell the smell the stench of cronyism. There is the implication—and at the moment I say the implication only—of an inside job between the previous Minister of Health her husband their mate who was appointed to the board and the chief executive who made it all happen. Pete Hodgson said there is nothing wrong. That is the measure of his inability to understand the public good. He says that nothing is wrong and that nothing will be found and to make sure that nothing is found on Friday he appointed his mate Syd Bradley to run the inquiry. Then today he sacked him because he realised it would look completely stupid to have the Minister’s best friend in the health sector inquiring into the Minister her husband and all their mutual friends. 
Then we come to Dr Cullen. For 20 years the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act has been a cornerstone of the economic management of New Zealand and a cornerstone of the credibility of this country. It means the country can borrow hundreds of millions of dollars overseas at reasonable interest rates. That is what it comes down to. Others lend us money at reasonable interest rates—rates are a bit high at the moment—because of that Act. Dr Cullen in trying to deal with short-term pressure on his economic management has now virtually invited Winston Peters whom no one trusts on economic management to change the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act. And Dr Cullen thinks he is clever. 
The only reason this Parliament is not debating a change to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act is that National said no. So now the Opposition is the only thing that stands between this country’s creditors and a total shambles. Dr Cullen is inviting trouble and he should go.