Joyce Steven: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeJoyce Steven: General Debate[Sitting date: 26 November 2014. Volume:702;Page:846. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development):I thought I might start with a quote this afternoon. This is a quote from a parliamentarian last week: “My focus will be on the issues that actually New Zealanders are telling me that they’re most concerned about which is their jobs and whether they can increase their income and earn better and do better and get ahead.” Who was that? Who was that just 1 week ago? It was Andrew Little on his election by the unions of New Zealand to the leadership of the Labour Party last week. And what has his focus been on since then? It has been on dirty politics it has been on bloggers and it has been on the Prime Minister being a devil beast. It is actually a rerun of the last two election campaigns and it worked so well—so well—the first two times that Labour has decided to run it a third time. This time in the House this week he has had days of questions general debate and urgent debate—nothing on the economy and nothing on jobs. It is all about dirty politics and that is his problem. That is his first problem.Andrew Little’s second problem it has to be said is that little anger issue which I think we need to talk about. It is a little anger issue. Yesterday I turned the television on the news and there was this guy doing his best impersonation of a vein-popping Phil Goff—a vein-popping Phil Goff. We know how well that worked in 2011. But Andrew Little is away and he is going to cut the crap. He is pointing the finger at everybody already. He is as angry as he can be. His fuse is so short. Mr Little’s fuse is so short he actually goes off before you get a match near him. That is Labour’s problem. This guy has got a big problem and the Labour Party has got a big problem.So what are they thinking? What are they thinking the Labour Party caucus? It is only a week in. It is a bit early for the reviews. It is only a week in. But Labour Party leaders do not actually hang around for long so you have got to do your reviews quite quickly. So where are all those in the caucus who voted for him? Where are all those people in the caucus who selected Andrew Little? Where are they and what are they thinking now? Where are all those backbenchers all those people all four of them who voted for Andrew Little? All four of them what are they thinking now? Well one of them is David Cunliffe. He has not been here this week. He has not actually—Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I was waiting for you to raise the issue. There are very clear rules about referring to the absences of other members in the House for very good reasons and I think that Steven Joyce should respect that.Mr SPEAKER: And I agree. It is not appropriate to refer to the absence of any member on any occasion.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: But what is he thinking? What is he thinking? He brought 25 percent of the caucus votes that voted for Andrew Little to the Labour Party and how is he feeling now? And of course how is Carmel Sepuloni? She is very quiet. She has brought 25 percent of the caucus votes for Andrew Little. Four of them voted for him and of course the rest did not.So who did vote for Andrew Little?Hon Member: How many voted for you Steven?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Who did make him the leader of the Labour Party? It was not the caucus no. Do not worry Grant your chance is coming soon. It was not the caucus. It was not the Labour Party. It was six unions. The Labour Party has gone back and delivered us worse than 1970s-style democracy. This time the Labour Party is blatant. The unions selected its leader. As a result Labour has got a cloth-cap unionist who is straight out of the 1950s with his little cheese-cutter hat on yelling and angry and pointing his finger at the Opposition. That is what we have got. I suppose that if you hand your leadership election to the unions if you refuse to back your caucus if you refuse to back your party instead you get what you have got which is Andrew Little.So just think: it could have been Grant Robertson. It just could have been Grant Robertson. Just one vote in the caucus and we might have somebody a little more sensible as the leader of the Labour Party. But that is all right. It is going to be a short run. I predict the ides of March 2015. The ides of March 2015 is when Grant Robertson will finally get his third chance to lead the Labour Party when “Mr Angry” Andrew Little gets asked to step aside.