Fenton Darien: General Debate 
Fenton Darien: General Debate 
[Volume:644;Page:13530] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 That was an extraordinary speech but quite frankly I did not want to hear about the nub. What a fiasco these last couple of weeks have been for National. First there was John Key’s big announcement. What was that? It was that hey he is ambitious. Wow what an announcement that was! I think we all figured that out some time ago when he pushed Bill English aside and dumped Gerry Brownlee so there is nothing new in that. Then in addition we get $50000 worth of boring propaganda on DVD no doubt paid for by National’s rich mates out there. The DVD is all sugar and syrup with no insight no policy and no answers. There are no answers about doctors’ fees no answers about asset sales no answers about workers’ rights and no answers for families. The National Party is very embarrassed about this ridiculous DVD. It was meant to convince New Zealanders that John Key is a real person not some kind of Merrill Lynch dummy. It was the big secret weapon. In John Key’s own words the DVD is intended “to give Kiwis a closer look at my life and what I stand for”. How sad is that? After all this time as the National leader he has had to make his own DVD because most New Zealanders would not have a clue who he is let alone what he stands for. That is how out of touch he is with the rest of New Zealand. 
The commentators along with the rest of us had a good laugh. John Armstrong gave the DVD two out of five. He said: “Hold the popcorn. Citizen Kane this isn’t. It’s Citizen Key in a 13-minute epic saturated with more artificial sweetener than The Sound of Music and ET combined and which manages to make National’s leader look about as deep as one of The Stepford Wives.” 
Then we found out that National ripped off someone else’s music for this DVD and it is now attempting to spin its way out of that debacle by blaming the production company. We need to remember that “Clocks” by Coldplay which has been stolen was not chosen at random. It was the song National used when John Key entered the male pale and stale National Party conference some months back. It even ran a competition to pick it trying desperately to show us how cool it really is. It is a miserable song. Actually it is a lovely tune and I do like Coldplay but let us just remind ourselves what the words to that song are: 
“Lights go out and I can’t be saved 
Tides that I tried to swim against 
You’ve put me down upon my knees. 
Oh I beg I beg and plead …  
Confusion that never stops 
Closing walls and ticking clocks … 
Am I part of the cure? 
Or am I part of the disease …” 
Let us remember that this was the conference where John Key was in this fantasy world where he thought he was going to be the leader of the Labour Party. It says it all about National’s conference and it says it all about John Key and the National Party. 
Now that the DVD has turned to custard National is trying to point the finger elsewhere. That is typical of National members. They cannot take responsibility; they blame the workers they blame the staff and they have a go at them. They do not take any responsibility. What we can be really sure of is that this DVD is not on anyone’s Christmas list. I would say that it is the gift from hell. It is the gift one gives the most disliked person one has to give a gift to and that person throws it in the rubbish bin pretty quickly. The good thing is that Labour members do not need DVDs to tell the public who we are or what we stand for. We do not need to convince New Zealanders that we have one of the best Prime Ministers this country has ever had and neither does she need DVDs for people to get to know who she is because they know who she is. 
It is deeds not words that matter and Labour demonstrates this every day. All year we have been getting on with the people’s business. We have not been distracted by petty politics or campaigns run by huge money interests like National’s friends out there right now. We take the job of governing seriously. It is important that we talk about policy and ask some questions. Doctors’ fees and prescriptions are now cheaper. They are down by 50 percent. What would National do about that? I think it would put them up. We have built more hospitals from Kaitaia to Invercargill and they do not have a cash register at the door.  
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.