Power Simon: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Power Simon: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:623;Page:18384] 
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 That was a short and unspectacular contribution from the Speaker-aspirant. That poor member who was led up the garden path for the best part of 5 years and led to believe that he would be the next Speaker of the House is in for a rude shock upon your departure Mr Speaker because the job that that member has been looking for for 5 years and probably been promised for 10 has just disappeared from right in front of his grasp. 
That Minister the Hon Mark Burton talked about 5 years of looking forward. Well we on this side of the House would refer to it as 5 years of interference—5 years of interference from a Prime Minister who acts like a big sister in the sixth form to all New Zealanders throughout this country of ours. New Zealanders are actually quite capable of getting on with their own lives and of making informed decisions for themselves about how they wish to lead their lives. Instead we have a sort of bossy sixth-form head prefect who is running around New Zealand busily telling New Zealanders how they should be running their lives—in their homes in their workplaces and in their play times. New Zealanders are sick to death of it. They are sick to death of being told what to do by Helen Clark the sixth former who is running around bossing this country. 
I want to wish all members a happy New Year and to say that after 6 years of sitting through six prime ministerial addresses including this one—and a few of those have been addresses from the throne—one thing still amazes me about Helen Clark. I have to ask how a set-piece debate with no interjections for 20 minutes with a packed press gallery and with five previous speeches having been delivered by the Prime Minister in the same environment can be delivered in such an appallingly dull uninspiring and boring manner. One would think that after having had a crack at it six times the Prime Minister might actually inject a bit of life inspiration and verve into the speech. But no we had the same old droned-out monotone that we have had every year at this time when the Prime Minister thinks that she would much rather be doing other things but feels compelled to be in this House giving that boring speech. So she thinks that what she will do for the rest of New Zealand is to make it even more boring than she did last year. 
 This Prime Minister has decided that her idea of an inspiring speech full of soaring rhetoric is to include the word “dream” six times in one paragraph and one believes as she obviously does that if she just includes the word “dream” six times in one paragraph that will be inspiring enough. But she is a person who can take a spectacular occasion and make a very unspectacular speech—not once but six times since I have been in this Parliament. It was hopeless actually and the sad attempts by Labour Party MPs over the last 13 hours of debate to try to make it less of a flop have failed dismally. 
What a tired dull lot this Labour Party has become. What a tired wrung-out dull lot members opposite have become. The Hon Jim Anderton has turned into a sort of guest ambassador in Parliament for the Progressives—he sort of wanders in and out at will without making any contribution to the mechanics of government at all. While Steve Maharey his benchmate who was sacked from the tertiary education portfolio for making a hash of it—[ 
Interruption 
] He was sacked from the tertiary education portfolio now his Jobs Jolt package is a shambles his career is over his life of blameless excellence is finished and he is going nowhere. Whereas Annette King has already been told very publicly: “Don’t hold your breath Ms King for the health portfolio because that’s off to Pete Hodgson.” Well what a vote of confidence in Annette King that was—to publicly let New Zealand know that dear old Annette King is about to lose her job and it will go to Pete Hodgson. Well that will be inspiring! And does not Trevor Mallard suddenly look competent as the Minister of Education compared with the Associate Minister David Benson-Pope who has made a complete hash of the matter within his first 2 weeks as Minister in charge of schools. The National Certificate of Educational Achievement is in a shambles; scholarships are a farce. All that David Benson-Pope can say—a man who the House will recall was previously responsible for fish—is that there are no issues on the table in education. Well that Minister is in for an uncomfortable ride. 
Then there is George Hawkins who is in a league all of his own. Because of caucus factions in the Labour Party George Hawkins is still in a job. This side of the House is going to make Helen Clark sit through question time every day until the election and regret the day she did not bite the bullet and do what every New Zealander who worries about law and order knows she should have done—that is sack George Hawkins when she had the opportunity. Ministers know they are in trouble in question time when Michael Cullen asks them two supplementary questions. It is the kiss of death when Michael Cullen gets up in this House in question time and asks two supplementary questions of a Minister. When that happens the Minister is gone. 
Through it all Phil Goff sits there with his head down wishing he had just invited another three or four people to the barbeque. Well it is just too late. I want to know where Ruth Dyson was over the summer with regard to the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) helicopter debacle. While Anne Tolley in the East Coast collected thousands of signatures and Nathan Guy in Otaki collected thousands of signatures where were Darren Hughes and Moana Mackey? They were on holiday. Ruth Dyson was on holiday. I have news for Moana Mackey and Darren Hughes: going on holiday at that time will be the single biggest tactical mistake they will make this year. Their communities were crying out for representation on that ACC helicopter issue. I tell them they are in very serious trouble in their electorates. 
One thing we do know is that if we put enough pressure on a Minister in election year we get whatever we want. They cave in like a pack of cards. Ruth Dyson Darren Hughes and Moana Mackey were on holiday while National candidates were working their guts out on the ACC petititon. But where was Darren Hughes? His car was parked in the parliamentary basement probably while he was overseas during December. Did we see Moana Mackey sticking up for the people of Gisborne? She was nowhere to be seen. Those members know it and the people of those communities know it. I say just look at the polls. 
National will finish this year by wiping this Labour Government off the face of the earth. By the end of September Don Brash will be the Prime Minister of New Zealand and we will be finally rid of Helen Clark’s bossy sixth-former older-sister interference in our lives—of which this country has had a gutsful.