Quinn Paul: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Quinn Paul: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 11 May 2011. Volume:672;Page:18574. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
PAUL QUINN (National) 
: 
 I was looking forward to taking this last call because I was hoping beyond all hope that I might be able to make an excellent contribution to the arguments put forward by the Opposition.  
But what have we seen? We have seen a continuation of the extraordinarily poor performance that has characterised this Opposition in recent times. Did members know that question time once again finished before 3 o’clock—again! That was after about 20 minutes taken up with forestalling by the Opposition shadow Leader of the House to try to drag it out. This is what members of the Opposition are reduced to. Instead of following the Speaker’s lead and asking searching penetrating and focused questions those members do not have a clue. So it is all over before 3 p.m. as it was yesterday and as it was last week and that is after 20 or 30 minutes of points of order just to try to drag it out. By the way most of those members are lost anyway. This is just an appalling performance and it is no wonder that those members are reduced to what Mr Hodgson likes to refer to as “minutiae”. They are going to focus on this because it really will drag down this Government!  
They talk about helicopter rides. Has Labour forgotten about the 2006 helicopter ride to bring back Chris Carter’s toothbrush? Did members know that? A Minister of their administration got an air force helicopter ride in 2006 to bring back a toothbrush he had left behind from the islands where he had been. It would have cost him $2 to go down to the corner shop to the grocery store or to the supermarket to buy another one. But no he had to waste taxpayers’ money on sending a helicopter. Perhaps the toothbrush was pink and he could not get any other pink toothbrush. But I do not know why he had to send a helicopter at enormous taxpayer expense to go and get it.  
One really has to ask whether we can have the real Opposition. It seems to me that the real Opposition at the moment is the fourth estate. There is Mike Parkin on Television One talking about the Diplomatic Protection Squad and there is Patrick Gower on TV3 talking about self-drive cars. Bring them in but do not pretend to pinch their lines.  
Let us talk about for instance Diplomatic Protection Squad holidays. Labour members ask as Mr Hodgson asked who needs the Diplomatic Protection Squad when they go on holiday. Well if Prime Ministers have men-mountains like Darren Hughes Chris Carter and Damien O’Connor and they tag them along on their holidays I suppose they do not need the Diplomatic Protection Squad because those people will look after them. Or of course there is that man-eater Judith Tizard who is going to save the Prime Minister while she is on top of Mount Cook. Who needs the Diplomatic Protection Squad when they have such a coterie of hangers-on to save them and to ride to the rescue?  
It is interesting that we are talking about the Diplomatic Protection Squad. At the weekend the United States President Barack Obama went to Fort Campbell to honour the SEALs. One would think that when the president went to Fort Campbell to honour the SEALs who are faceless extraordinary soldiers he would be under the biggest security and would not need to have his own security detail. Clearly the Opposition is totally unaware that when the President of the United States went to Fort Campbell this weekend to honour those people there was a bevy of security people associated with them.  
Then of course we have ginga No. 2. He seems to have jumped ship; he seems to have left the nest of the duck to go and sit at the foot of the chicken man. He has got on top of for instance the cost of $275000. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.