Moroney Sue: General Debate 
Moroney Sue: General Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:15946] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 It is a great privilege to be able to participate in the first general debate in the sitting after a parliamentary adjournment because it is always a very interesting time in terms of the political landscape. Looking across the Chamber I ask what the political landscape is in the National Party. It seems very divided I must say. There seems to be division at every single level within National. National does not have much policy but its members seem to be at complete odds with each other over what little policy they have that they are prepared to talk about. Let us look at some of the policy divisions that exist over there in the National Party. John Key seems to be the main swallower of dead rats. He has been swallowing so many dead rats that as Dr Cullen rightly pointed out earlier this week he is starting to resemble a dead rat cemetery as he walks around the country. He is swallowing dead rats while the other National members are saying: “Hang on there Mr Key we’re not so sure we want to just simply regurgitate Labour Party policy because yes although we know all the ideas are over on that side with Labour setting the agenda we don’t think the National Party should necessarily just follow along in its footsteps.” However there is great division on that because John Key just wants to say what he thinks people want to hear. 
There is great disagreement within National. Let us just get into what the detail of that is. John Key and Bill English disagree on a number of aspects. They disagree on the future of rail in this country on the future of broadband in this country on the issue of asset sales and on the issue of the level of what sort of Government debt this country should carry. They disagree on superannuation on how much of it we should have and at what age people should qualify for it. They also disagree on early childhood education. These are not small side issues here in this country of Aotearoa; these are major issues about the future of this country. 
The leader and the deputy leader of the National Party disagree with each other. But it does not finish there. John Key and Tony Ryall disagree on whether the cap should be removed on doctors’ fees. Again it is not a small issue for New Zealanders. This is about how much we will pay when we go to the doctors. John Key agrees with Labour that it should be as low as possible. In fact Labour has halved the fees people pay to go to see their general practitioners these days. John Key thinks that is a pretty good policy but Tony Ryall thinks that doctors should be able to continue to charge as much as they like irrespective of how much the taxpayer puts into subsidising those doctors’ fees. Tony Ryall says that we should just let them charge as much as they like. So John Key and Tony Ryall disagree with each other. 
John Key also disagrees with Wayne Mapp and Tony Ryall on whether market rents should be returned to State housing tenants. Mr Key disagrees with Georgina te Heuheu about abolishing Maori seats. John Key Maurice Williamson and Lockwood Smith disagree completely about climate change—or do they? It is a pretty hard one to track. John Key once said that he thought it was a hoax but now he says he completely believes in it. However Maurice Williamson and Lockwood Smith clearly have not got to that point yet. They are climate change deniers. Also John Key disagrees with Allan Peachey on the issue of bulk funding of our schools. 
There is great division and it is at every level. That division is starting to split the National Party apart and it goes like this: there are those people who strongly believe in the National Party philosophy and then there is John Key. I have here a direct quote from John Key: “My goal in leadership is to win the next election and everything I do will be about achieving that.” What sort of leadership is that? John Key is stating that he will do whatever it takes and say whatever he thinks people want to believe in order to get elected. Goodness knows what he would do if the country was foolish enough to give him that opportunity and to actually go about electing him. 
I also want to talk a little more about the division that is there. This is what John Key had to say about rail in May of this year. He said that the rolling stock would “remain state-owned for at least the first term of a National-led Government which is consistent with our SOE policy.” But in March 2008 Bill English said: “We certainly wouldn’t be buying Toll. … We need to look after taxpayers’ interests and the network and the best way to do that is to have a competent operator.” He went on to say that if the purchase was completed under Labour then a National Government would get out of the business as quickly as possible. Possibly what he wanted to say was “before lunchtime”. If it was gone by lunchtime it would complete the sale of infrastructure in which Labour wants to invest for this country.