Swain Paul: Address in Reply 
Swain Paul: Address in Reply 
[Volume:628;Page:268] 
PAUL SWAIN (Labour—Rimutaka) 
: 
 Poor old Tony Ryall! What a bitter person he has turned out to be. When he first came into Parliament he was quite funny. He had a sense of humour but he has lost it now. Do members know why that is? It is because he has had 6 years in Opposition. They have been long long years in Opposition and he is bitter because he belongs to the National Party which thinks it has the divine right to rule. National members are still angry and bitter that the public threw them out in 1999 and he still has not got over it. What a cheek for National members to talk about the health system! What a cheek for them to criticise the Labour Party about the health system! Does everyone remember the Crown health enterprises? What about those things? Four of them were appointed by Bill Birch with no public input. They were appointed in secret here in Wellington. They were thrown out and not before their time. 
Do members remember when the National Party started to charge people to go to hospital? National’s grand plan was to charge people to go to hospital. [ 
Interruption 
] Tau Henare was part of that. He supported charging people to go hospital but the Labour Party said: “No you should pay for your health-care on payday not at the hospital door.” That was the fundamental difference between us and the National Party. What a cheek for the National Party to talk about staff and staff morale! It did nothing for 9 long years. The National Government introduced the Employment Contracts Act which shattered— 
Mark Blumsky 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Excuse my naivety with this question but Standing Order 37 refers to the seating of parties in the House. I think it is fantastic that the Labour member Steve Chadwick has decided to join this side of the House but I wonder whether that is appropriate in particular given the noises coming from that seat. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: The member is right. The member cannot interject from the seat she is sitting in now. 
PAUL SWAIN 
: National members have the cheek to talk about the pay structures within the health-care system when it was a National Government that introduced the Employment Contracts Act which shattered all the good conditions and wages that had been built up over time. It has taken this Government about 5 years to try to do something about it. Finally the nurses got something they needed because the National Party kept saying they were all going overseas because they were not paid enough. It was an absolute outrage. 
They also have the cheek to talk about aged care when they did nothing for 9 years. Thank goodness the National Party was not voted in because it would have meant another 3 years of inactivity! Of course it is the old story. Every time National members get up in this House and talk or ask a question they want to spend more. They want to spend more on roads on health on prisons and on schools but they also want to cut taxes. Do members remember that? It is called voodoo economics. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Just like Treasury. 
PAUL SWAIN 
: Treasury has to work out that the election is over and we won. The point is of course that one cannot cut taxes and spend more and that is why in the end the New Zealand public rightly rejected that ridiculous proposal and supported Labour back in again. 
But it is not just economic policy that National has to worry about. No one believes that Don Brash will lead that party into the next election. He ain’t going to lead it back in and people know that. Then we have to start looking around at who will be there and who will not be. Let us have a look. Simon Power’s day will come. He has the strategy group led by Jon Johanson at Victoria University. It may be interesting for some of the new members of the National Party to learn that that strategy group is going on. I wonder how many of them know about it. It is a little group around Simon Power to try to get him the position of leader. The problem was that he fell over a little bit with his “where the States go we go” kind of policy that even Tau Henare would be embarrassed about. The National Party had to back away from that but potentially Simon Power’s time is coming. 
What about John Key? Let us concede that he is able and bright but he is too new and not tough enough. He has a small group around him led as we are told by people in the cafe by Brian Connell. Brian Connell is John Key’s numbers man. I say to John Key that it is best to get rid of the numbers man when it is Brian Connell. 
What about Gerry Brownlee? He has plans too. We know that Tau Henare has offered to help Gerry even though he does not really like him because this is the long-term strategy to finally trip him up. Tau Henare knows about Gerry Brownlee. Gerry Brownlee is on the way back. The problem with Gerry Brownlee is that he will have to work himself out. He has terrible problems with people in stairs and he will have to change his behaviour when it comes to that. 
And of course what about Bill English? Everybody said that Bill English’s time was up but he is on the way back. He has a lot of support. His support comes from the leftovers of the brat pack—Nick Smith and Tony Ryall. We understand that Eric Roy is a strong supporter of Bill English because they are next door to each other. 
What about the new ones like Mark Blumsky? Sooner or later these people will have to work out which side they are on because they have to be on the right side if they want promotion. For me the wild card is Tim Groser. In the end Tim Groser is quite an able fellow but he will probably be a team of one and he will have to wait a very long time while probably there are two or three generations of leader on that side. 
I say to National Party back-benchers that when those people come knocking they will have to sort it out pretty quickly because it will not be Don Brash. They will have to work out very very quickly which horse they will be on. They can either decide now or be like Murray McCully and be on every horse. That is what Murray McCully has done over the years. He has been on every horse which is why he is still around. Everybody on the back bench of the National Party knows that Murray McCully should be gone. He has overseen three appalling election campaigns and they still hold him up as a key strategist. One could forgive one loss one could maybe let him get away with two losses but not three. I say to National members that they will not make progress until such time as they get rid of Murray McCully. Who will it be? Will it be Simon Power John Key Gerry Brownlee Bill English the wild card Tim Groser or someone else? 
 It is good to see the Leader of the Opposition come into Parliament but we should point out that question time starts at 2 and it is really important to be here on time if that member wants to continue to be a leader. 
On the other hand the Labour-led Government is now assured with one of the greatest Prime Ministers we have seen in this country with an economic programme second to none supported by the New Zealand public. That is why we are confident and positive going into the next 3 years. We will continue down the economic programme we have developed with economic growth now the envy virtually of the developed world. Unemployment is at 3.4 percent which was unheard of in the old days—in fact when that member was studying his economics in the Reserve Bank they used to talk about the natural rate of unemployment and they said that that was probably 5 or 6 percent. The figure of 3.4 percent was not possible at all. 
Dr Don Brash 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. The member has absolutely no grounds for making that statement at all and I ask him to withdraw and apologise. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: That was not a point of order. It is a debating point. 
PAUL SWAIN 
: If the member has not heard about the natural rate of unemployment— 
Dr Don Brash 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Are members allowed to make assertions that are blatantly untrue in this House without challenge? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: The member will be seated. I have already ruled that that is not a point of order; it is a debating point. 
PAUL SWAIN 
: That is the reason why that member will not be leader of the National Party in 3 years’ time. 
Ron Mark 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I start by congratulating you on your job. In order to try to be helpful I say that I know that Dr Don Brash is still a relatively new member of this House but possibly you could help him by explaining to him that he does have redress through making a personal statement if he wishes to. The provisions in the Standing Orders for that are very clear and he should also be reminded that to interrupt a speech in that manner with a point of order that clearly is not a point of order designed simply to break up a very good speech is in itself outside of the Standing Orders. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Suck up some more. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: That was not a point of order either. 
Ron Mark 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Would the member please be seated. I have ruled previously on the point of order. It had been dealt with. That was the end of that matter. 
Ron Mark 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. You are perfectly correct. However I was asking you as the Assistant Speaker to point out to Dr Don Brash the provisions within the Standing Orders that allow him to make a personal statement if he wished to redress the very issue that he is challenging on the floor. It is not challenging your ruling. It is simply asking you as the Chair of the House as the Assistant Speaker to assist that member by pointing out the very clause in the Standing Orders that quite clearly he needs to help himself with. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: I thank the member. That is certainly my decision and I certainly did not think it was necessary. 
PAUL SWAIN 
: I was making the point that that is why that member will not be the leader of the National Party going into the next election. Hopefully Murray McCully will not be the strategist and that might well help as National goes into the next election. 
I was trying to say before I was rudely interrupted that the Labour-led Government is very confident about the programme and economic development. We will be focusing on the critical areas of savings productivity education and skills science innovation and export growth and add on to the things that we did so successfully in the first 6 years. Education health the elderly and the infrastructure—you name it we will be working hard to ensure that the growth in unemployment we have achieved over the last 6 years will continue. 
But I just say that the reason why the public rejected National’s programme was that they now feel proud and confident to be New Zealanders. They feel they are an independent country standing up to the rest of the world putting forward their viewpoint and not kowtowing to various countries around the world. What they seek is leadership and that is what they have got from Helen Clark and the Labour-led Government. That is why this Government will be around for a very very long time. This country is now right behind the Labour-led Government making sure that we have a future for the young people of New Zealand to be able to get jobs and training and to be able to bring up their kids in the way they want to.