Kaye Nikki: General Debate 
Kaye Nikki: General Debate 
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NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) 
: 
 Today there is a tale of two parties. We have a party on the other side of the Chamber that is sinking. It is actually quite sad to watch that. What we can see—and it is a pretty standard tactic when we see a ship sinking—is the tactic of diversion. That is exactly what we have seen today from Annette King and Clayton Cosgrove. They have chosen to divert the whole argument to one about our Prime Minister but here are the facts. The facts are that Labour MPs have been jumping ship from that caucus for a long period of time. We have seen Dr Cullen go Winnie Laban is nearly gone and we will see George Hawkins go. 
But the one person who is staying is Chris Carter. He is sticking around because he is going to spill the beans. That is right. What he is talking about is what I am calling the “Save Labour 17”. I can hear right now some people clicking away and creating a Facebook page called “Save Labour 17”. I can tell members that—and we have done the numbers here; we have done the numbers—when we start to look at the number of MPs who would be in that list we see the fact is— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I wouldn’t go down here if I were you Nikki Kaye. 
NIKKI KAYE 
: That member has the numbers; he has the numbers. Anyway the reality is that there are not 17 members but 18 members on that list because one of them is munching a bagel in New York as we speak. There are actually 18 members on that list. 
We see a party that is in absolute disarray. I could not believe it when Annette King stood up today and asked what leadership was. I will tell that member that she asked exactly the question that is being asked in the offices of all her party’s MPs right at the moment. The irony was incredible. The irony was incredible when she chose to give a speech in which she posed the question what is leadership? If the deputy leader needs to ask that question out loud what is going on in the Labour Party? That was actually a bit sad so I will not spend any more time on that. Members can see a party in absolute disarray questioning what leadership is. 
That situation contrasts with what this Government is doing so I will tell Annette King right now what leadership is. Leadership is leading the biggest tax reforms that our country has seen in a long time. Leadership is making real changes to GST. Leadership is not the flip-flopping that we have seen Phil Goff doing. Leadership is about funding over 3000 new university places to help young people. Leadership as I said before is about changing the country from one that was absolutely laden with bureaucracy to one where we have real front-line public services. Leadership is about making changes to the Resource Management Act so that thousands of New Zealanders do not have to spend time and money on bureaucratic processes. Leadership is saying it is not fair in this country to allow one in five kids to leave school without being able to read and write. We see a Government that is making real change to New Zealand in terms of education the economy health and the environment compared with a party that sadly is completely imploding.