Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): After five years of this Government this Labour Government is in total disarray. They're tired they're divided they're arrogant and they're out of ideas. The Prime Minister will be coming up at the end of January and she'll be turning up and announcing the election date for next year. I'd advise her to announce it for February so that the country can get on with it and get back and have a Government that knows how to actually implement things rather than just to stand and announce and think that the announcement of spending is all that's required because that's what this Government seems to believe and what Jacinda Ardern seems to believe. So if we start with the entrenchment debate I mean it's an extraordinary set of circumstances. We have David Parker pointing out and making sure that we're fully aware of the Cabinet note which said that Cabinet decided not to entrench the three-waters bill. The Government had been thinking about it because they know the three-waters legislation is unpopular. People don't like it and they don't want it. They don't believe that putting everything together in one big monopoly like the Unitecs and like the hospitals is going to lead to better outcomes. They don't believe it and so they're not liking it. They don't like the co-governance provisions. They believe that all New Zealanders should have an equal say in who affects them and what their decisions are about water and basic things like that. They don't like the co-governance so the Government wanted to entrench part of the legislation. Cabinet disagreed and then lo and behold it gets in front of the Parliament and the Minister of Local Government Nanaia Mahuta slips it through with the Greens. They kept their heads down quietly for a little while and then Duncan Webb said when they were caught out—they were caught out and then they panicked for a little bit. Duncan Webb said I was just following the Labour caucus's orders."—so what does that mean? So Cabinet had decided no Duncan Webb says that the caucus had said "Yes let's do it." Nanaia Mahuta says nothing the Prime Minister says "It's nothing to do with me. Oh yes we made a mistake." The only mistake that they made was that a political mistake that they got caught. That was the only mistake they made—they got caught. They slipped it through hoped that nobody would notice and now they've undone it. So that doesn't convince people that they know what they're doing. The problem is that actually it does matter if the Government is coherent and predictable and capable. It does matter to a country and New Zealanders look and they think that they have no idea where things are going and when it comes to the issues of the constitution they're rightly concerned. They're rightly concerned that this is a Government that no longer believes in equal voting rights. That's a fairly fundamental issue that most New Zealanders would be concerned about but in terms of local government or the Canterbury bill they've done away with equal voting rights. The same Minister—Mahuta—is keen to extend that provision right across local government and once they've gone through local government they'll probably go into central government and all of a sudden we're in a country that no longer believes in equal voting rights. So people are suspicious around the constitutional tinkering and when the Government of the day tries to entrench its legislation so that future Governments can't have a different policy and can't go to the electorate and say "Actually we don't agree with three waters. We don't support it and we want to change it."—it now tries to meddle with it so that future Governments can't do their job. What a disgrace and it shows what a divided Government it is. Then we have Michael Wood—Michael Wood bringing pork-barrel politics from Mt Roskill—trying to write to local Labour Party members of Parliament and saying "Why don't you come up with some ideas for new bus stops and bus lanes?" but he doesn't write to anybody else. He doesn't write to the ACT MPs and he doesn't write to the National MPs but he's only concerned with his own. Then he stands up and says "You can be sure I wouldn't engage in any untoward businesses." Well he's been caught red-handed with pork-barrel politics and he should be thrown out. Then we've got Willie Jackson—Willie Jackson. Willie Jackson goes on the TV and says "I believe in media independence." and then says "But I also believe in my right to attempt to bully a journalist live on TV and to try and get him to shut up and leave me alone because he's being too mean." So I think that he's sent a slightly conflicting message on that one—Hon Stuart Nash: Come on you've got 45 more seconds—go hard. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: —and there he goes. Andrew Bayly: What did Nash do? Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: Well I don't know what Nash did. What did he do but he looks like Max Bradford to me. Surprisingly you've got the Minister responsible for this $300 million merger of Radio New Zealand and TVNZ that nobody—I have yet to meet anybody including the Minister who understands what the point of it all is. Nobody understands it. You've got a Prime Minister saying that Radio New Zealand is going to go down the gurgler unless we do something but then she is reminded that actually taxpayers fund Radio New Zealand. They're not going to go down the gurgler. You can't possibly go down the gurgler when the taxpayer is funding you so it doesn't matter. So that was a bizarre twist earlier in the week. Then when we finally come to—oh my goodness I've run out of time. But this Government is soft on crime and soft on the causes of crime."