Woods Megan: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWoods Megan: General Debate[Sitting date: 25 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2590. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram):Well what a show of “third-term-itis” we have heard in this House today. Opening the batting today we had the Hon Paula Bennett who was out for a duck trying to defend a failed housing policy that is lying in tatters. But it was not just one duck because next up we had the “Minister of Bridges” Simon Bridges playing a defensive game caught on the back foot and unable to make any runs.This is a Government that has run out of ideas. This is a Government that is playing defence and a Government that is severely out of touch. We are seeing arrogance we are seeing bullying and we are seeing a Government that is desperate to cling on to power whatever the cost and whatever it takes. Did we hear speeches today from Ministers sketching out a brave new vision? No we heard speeches trying to play patch up and speeches that did not work in trying to play patch up.Then we had the last contribution from new member Matthew Doocey across the way. This was desperation at a new level. He had said in his office: “Oh I know. It might make us sound a bit better if I can compare us to the winning cricket team. That might make it sound better.” but that just did not work. It was desperation. He talked about the rise of a new power. Well given the state of this Government we have to ask whether that new power is Paula Bennett Bill English or Steven Joyce. Which one are you backing?This is a party where the wheels are coming off. National is about to do the unthinkable—that is snatch defeat from the jaws of victory—and possibly turn a 9000 majority into a loss in Northland on Saturday. This is a Government that really is playing off the back foot. We have got John Key’s increasingly bizarre outbursts which show that this is a Government losing control of its agenda and trying to protect its own neck. This is a Government in disarray as my colleagues have said. It is about scandal about botch-ups and about fiasco. It is making a complete hash of things in Northland and it is making some very very strange statements in the House.But there are some very serious issues that underlie this. We have been seeing for a period of time now the abuses of power that this Government is willing to commit in order to hold—and desperately hold—on to power. It is a Government that is riddled with controversy and a string of these abuses. There is the smear machine that has been run out of the Prime Minister’s office. The Prime Minister himself was shown to be on late-night text terms with his bestie Cameron Slater on the eve of the release of the Chisholm inquiry. We have a Government that is willing to use the resources of our security intelligence agency for its own political ends—first of all against Phil Goff in the 2011 electoral campaign and now we have the Government willing to use our security intelligence agency as a recruitment agency for one of its Ministers. That is not a sign of a Government that deserves to be in power. That is not a sign of a group of people who have a positive agenda for our country and want to implement it.Then we have got the panic—the absolute panic—that is setting in over Northland. I think the National Party are in desperate need of a Corporal Jones within their midst—someone to make the clarion call of “Don’t panic!”. Maybe it will be its whip Tim Macindoe. He has just heard Matthew Doocey shop himself by saying that he goes home early to watch the cricket rather than staying on until the end of play at 12 but it might be his time to rise up and be the Corporal Jones and tell us “Don’t panic don’t panic!” because panic has set in on the benches opposite.Whether Mark Osborne gets over the line or not on Saturday National has already lost in Northland. National has already shown that it is a Government on the way out. It is a third-term Government that people are losing faith in quickly. The people of Northland like people all over New Zealand are showing that they are sick of being taken for granted and of having their needs ignored and they are going to punish National at the ballot box. Whether that is a win or a close call a close call is a loss for National in Northland.