Goff Phil: General Debate 
Goff Phil: General Debate 
[Volume:641;Page:10917] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Defence) 
: 
 It has been a bad week for John Key and the National Party knows it. It is written all over the faces of National members and it is in their body language. It started off with the National Party conference when John Key made a poor speech and faux pas. The caucus is in disarray. Poor old Maurice Williamson said something about concentration camps; somebody else said something about Tim Groser and marijuana. 
The keynote address was to be given by Alexander Downer. Alexander Downer wanted his speech to be on the record but the National Party—the party of transparency and openness—refused to allow the media to go in and I have found out why because I have some of his speech. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is a bit unfair of Mr Goff to go down that line. Mr Downer is of course the Australian Foreign Minister. The last thing the current Government of New Zealand would want is for his speech to be on the record. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: That is not a point of order Mr Brownlee. It is a frivolous comment that can lead to disorder. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: I can tell the House why National did not want his speech printed. Here is part of what he said: “what is going to matter [in the next election] is substance not stunts. The Leader of the Opposition … is a master of stunts. He does stunts very well. But he doesn’t do substance …”. Regardless of whom Alexander Downer was talking about that was far too close to the bone for the National Party. It was in fact an almost perfect description of John Key. 
I saw  
Facelift 
 the other night and that was even better. It portrayed John Key going up to the counter at McDonald’s. He spent some time looking at the menu. People were backing up behind him and they were getting frustrated. The guy was saying: “What do you want Mr Key?”. Mr Key says: “What do you think I want? What would you like me to have?”. That was the caricature of the National Party leader—no substance no policy no direction and no answers. 
But it got worse for John Key during the week because he got caught out not once not twice but three times. He got caught out about Iraq. I cannot say that he was lying about Iraq as he said other members were. I did note that he was a bit pathetic like a little puppy dog on morning television today saying: “They are being so nasty to me.”; then he got up and gave a speech that was full of personal invective and abuse. But I will say that Mr Key was mistaken. He was mistaken three times. He said on the record—and Dr Lockwood Smith knows this because he said exactly the same thing—that National would send troops to Iraq no ifs no buts no maybes. That is what Dr Smith said. That is what Mr Key said. Now we find that John Key is blaming it all on Dr Brash; it was Dr Brash who thought that not the National caucus! But this morning we heard from Mr Key’s office that actually it was the caucus policy and that is why the poor inexperienced John Key got it wrong. His own press secretary called him inexperienced. That is why the country will not have John Key. They cannot rely on him. In a crisis he would go to pieces. He knows nothing he contributes nothing he says nothing and he has no principles. 
But it got worse. It was not just Iraq; it was also the joint therapeutics agency. He flip-flopped once twice three times. He did the interview with Audrey Young a veteran reporter then he said she got it wrong then he flip-flopped again. But Audrey Young has it on tape. That shows who the liar was in that dispute. She has it on tape and she has witnesses. It is one thing to get it wrong it is another thing to flip-flop but then to cover it up by not telling the truth about Iraq and about the joint therapeutic agency—that is what New Zealanders will not tolerate. 
Then there is the hypocrisy of the other issues such as affordable housing. That was the keynote of his speech to the National Party conference—the boy who came from a State house and good luck to him. He got a helping hand with his family from that Labour Government but now he wants to deny other kids in the position he was in the chance to get a decent home. Mr Key says that affordable housing is National’s policy but not in his own electorate which is a bit upmarket for that—not in Hobsonville. That is a tragic case of double standards. No wonder John Armstrong wrote this morning that Key got “a drubbing a thrashing a trouncing … a hiding” and I say he richly deserved that.