Carter Chris: General Debate 
Carter Chris: General Debate 
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Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Education) 
: 
 At the beginning of the debate my colleague Pete Hodgson got up and mentioned that it had been a year since John Key had become Prime Minister and there was hysteria among the National members of the House. They must be very easily satisfied. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I raise this because this is the first opportunity for us to do so. But I did note that the Minister just announced that John Key is now the Prime Minister of New Zealand. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member knows that that is not a point of order. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: No but it would be a damn good idea! 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: No. Frivolous interjections or points of order designed to break up a 5-minute speech lead to disorder. The member will start again. 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: He is never going to become Prime Minister. When Mr Hodgson mentioned that it was 1 year since Mr Key had become leader of the National Party hysteria broke out among National MPs. They must be very easily satisfied because I guess when one considers that Mr English “Mr 20 percent” who got the lowest result ever for National and then Don Brash the man who could never remember his conversations with the Brethren when one compares them with Mr Key I suppose they would be a bit pleased. But he would never do for a Labour leader. This is the man who said: “No we wouldn’t go to Iraq now.” but just 2 years ago he said: “Yes yes we’d send our troops to Iraq.” This is the man who was a climate change denier; now he is a convert to climate change. He said he lived in Parnell but he registered a vote in Helensville. This is the man who cultivates the Maori Party but as soon as he gets in front of a National Party audience he says: “We’d get rid of the Maori seats.” This is the man who has told the  
New Zealand Herald  
reporters that he would sign the therapeutics legislation but of course later on said: “No I never said that.” when Mr Ryall threw a little tantrum. Of course the transcript was released and it was revealed that Mr Key had not been quite as truthful as he could. 
But I guess in the end one can judge someone only when he or she is seen in action. I would like to tell the House about a very interesting meeting I went to in the Helensville electorate. At Marina View School in the heart of the Helensville electorate a public meeting was called by the ratepayers association. It was to protest against that fantastic development that the Housing New Zealand Corporation is doing at the old defence site at Hobsonville. 
Mr Key is the local member and he came along. Mr Key we might remember in this House was raised in a State house. He was sitting with me as Minister of Housing as I was then on the stage in this hall crammed with some 500 people. The audience started to react to the redneck populist stuff that had been going on. People stood up and said: “State house tenants are thieves.” They said: “They will steal our washing from the washing line. They will be urinating in the streets. They will be leaving old bombs of cars in front of their houses.” Mr Key sat through all this. As this conversation became more and more racist more and more prejudiced did he intervene at any point? I of course drew the audience’s attention frequently to the fact that I am sure Mrs Key was not like that when she was a State house tenant. I would have to say that if we were doing a score card we would give him an A for pandering to prejudice and a D for leadership. He showed no leadership at all at that very bigoted prejudiced meeting. 
I would like to talk about the Big Gay Out. It is something that I think only Mrs Shipley and Mr Key have ever attended as National Party leaders. Mr Key arrived at the Big Gay Out in a pink shirt. He stood up and said: “Some of my best friends are gay.” But as he started to walk around the crowd somebody came up to him and said: “Did you vote for the Civil Union Bill?”. He said: “No no. I didn’t vote for the Civil Union Bill.” When he was asked why he said: “Oh because my electorate is very conservative.” Well I represent the neighbouring electorate of Te Atatu. I have a 12000-vote majority. At every election since 1999 my majority has gone up. How come middle-class Helensville is more conservative than working-class Te Atatu? It does not register does it? I have to say that I would give Mr Key an A for having double standards and a D for lack of integrity. He did not have the guts. If he did believe in— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: That is a personal reflection. The member will withdraw. 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: I withdraw and apologise. If Mr Key did stand by his comments to me personally and to many other people in this House that he supported the Civil Union Bill why did he not have the courage to vote for it? I will say why. It is because he was pandering to prejudice. He was pandering to that right-wing conservative religious bloc in the National Party. Again it is an A for double standards and a D for integrity. 
Let me tell members about a visit to the Mahatma Ghandi Centre. For the last 5 years I have spent my weekends visiting ethnic events. Occasionally we see National members there but not very often. Pansy Wong usually attends but nobody else. Mr Key came to the Mahatma Ghandi Centre earlier in the year. He stood up in front of the very large crowd of mostly New Zealanders of Indian descent. He mispronounced the name of Anand Satyanand our Governor-General three times in a row. He said that he really loved the Indian community in New Zealand because of their great restaurants. Then he sat down. I have to tell members that people were very offended by that. They regarded it as patronisation. So it is an A for patronisation and a D for cultural insensitivity.