Jones Shane: General Debate 
Jones Shane: General Debate 
[Volume:636;Page:6939] 
SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 The previous speaker identified that this debate is called the general debate and that it is a debate where policies are discussed. He bemoaned the fact that people were not following it but anyone who had been has long since gone to sleep because of his performance and delivery. 
I want to turn to Mr Bill English and Mr John Key because future events will show that they have no ideas and that they are still influenced by the forces that brought down Don Brash. It was perhaps just 2 months ago when Don Brash stood up and described our Government as being the most corrupt Government in our history and he lays today a wasted man. Boy did those words—those stones he cast—come back upon his head! Of course it was a little harsh for my relation Hone Harawira to wish him hasta la vista. No doubt he will issue his farewell to us and although I personally wish him good fortune in his life politically he spread poison and now he has disappeared in an air of toxicity. 
I want to focus on the Maori Party. Members of that party had an opportunity yesterday in this House to uphold the democratic rights they enjoy every single day. They had the opportunity to stand for those democratic rights in such a way that they should be shared throughout the Pacific. But they were conspicuously silent. At a time when the people of Fiji are rent asunder members of the Maori Party had an opportunity to stand and affirm the primacy of democratic rights. Why did they not do that? The first thing is that they are confused and at war with one another. They have the odd and unsustainable view that indigenous rights or property rights should eclipse constitutional and democratic rights. That is pathetic. It is the democratic franchise that our Maori people enjoy that has brought them to this House. What do we hear instead? We hear that Dr Pita Sharples in an attempt to emulate Kissinger wants to go to Fiji and make peace. He wants to be what we might regard as te kaihohou rongo the person who brings peace and understanding. Well he seeks to emulate or replicate Jesse Jackson—as I have said in other places I do not know whether it is Jesse Michael or Peter Jackson—but he has no business going over to Fiji especially when he is unwilling to stand in the face of his own people and affirm the legitimacy and the importance of democratic rights. 
However that bout of silliness was not actually matched by his co-leader the Hon Tariana Turia; it was exceeded. In a fit of enthusiasm on National Radio she said she has decided that the Maori roll that she has bitterly complained about being under threat should now be opened up so that people from Samoa and other Pacific Islands who are entitled to vote are able to join it. So at a time when the National Party—its brown wing te kanohi Maori of the National Party—in order to coordinate better is trying to suck in our relations from the Maori Party and befriend them we have Tariana Turia wandering around terminating the Maori roll. I can tell members that our tribes will not forgive her for that. The Maori roll is a taonga with roots back to the Treaty of Waitangi and from colonial history. If she does not want to support the diminution of the roll and movement on to the mainstream roll then it is certainly not good enough for her to define the roll as being available for other minorities. Rest assured at the next election and at hui up and down the country the absurdity of that call of hers will be brought home to bed. 
Do people know what the National Party pretends to stand for? We do not hear from these new leaders—well actually one is not new. One of them is wearing a constant pout that any self-respecting female would be jealous of. The other is highly aspirational but will be the first New Zealand politician who with a flick of a finger could fund an infinitely expensive campaign and Kiwis will not like that. There is one thing that New Zealanders do not warm to. They do not warm to the constant chiming and reminding of how affluent a person is. In fact people who really have power and financial resources do not wander around showing it on their sleeve. My word to John Key is that the story he tells about having come from rags to riches has been told once or twice too many times and rest assured we will use it to his peril. Therefore Mr Deputy Speaker kia kaha kia ora tatou katoa.