Finlayson Christopher: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Finlayson Christopher: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 25 July 2012. Volume:682;Page:3900. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage) 
: 
 I found the allegations of cronyism a bit rich especially at times where I seem to be a one-person employment agency for former Labour MPs. But I want to start by acknowledging and paying tribute to Margaret Mahy one of our great literary figures who died on Monday. Her books were translated into a dozen languages and I am very pleased to see that Joy Cowley and other writers are planning an hour-long tribute to her at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October where New Zealand will be the country of honour. 
Last weekend I went to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Wellington which performed Wagner’s  
Valkyrie 
 in honour of another great New Zealander Lloyd Morrison. Nothing more exposes the inaccuracy of headlines that the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra could be axed than the fact that I sat through 5½ hours of Wagner on a Sunday afternoon. Every New Zealander should support and be proud of this institution although as Michael Cullen said to me yesterday there will always be some people— 
Grant Robertson 
: Sir Michael. 
Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON 
: —Sir Michael; I apologise—who say that orchestras are a waste of money and that there are some who say that the second violins should be abolished because they are an unnecessary duplication of services. I was very impressed by the singers at the concert although the tenor could learn a thing or two from a certain member of this House who I am not allowed to bring into the debate but whose musical virtuosity is known to and appreciated by us all and I am not referring to Brendan Horan. 
Last weekend we had a very successful National Party conference in Auckland. Spirits were high and the protests were scant. Nothing makes left-wing protesters abandon their cause faster than light drizzle. The mood of the public was positive and it is because this Government is getting things done for New Zealand. We are settling historical grievances with iwi we are rebuilding Christchurch we are improving infrastructure we are paying down debt and we are strengthening New Zealand’s capital markets. This will be a very busy 3 years for this Government and we will deliver results for New Zealanders. 
The Labour Party members have been very busy as well staring at their own navels. They have just finished a momentous review not of how to grow the economy or make the tax system work better but of how much of a voting share Helen Kelly should have in picking potential Prime Ministers. I think they have settled on 20 percent. David Shearer has put in place a new organisational structure to cement his future as leader. Rather than plotting in the shadows and briefing TV3 Labour’s roll-call of leadership challengers will now have to write to the party’s governing board to initiate a spill with the support of two-thirds of the caucus. Forward-thinking members like David Cunliffe will protest that his campaign website is a more 21st century way of signalling his intentions than old-fashioned letter writing and Grant Robertson that great internationalist currently temporarily resident in Wellington Central probably thinks that a text from New York will suffice. 
Mr Shearer is a traditionalist. He has consolidated his position. He stands on the brink of greatness at the threshold of ensuring his tenure as the longest-serving Leader of the Opposition in Labour Party history. Mr Robertson will also reach another great milestone—perhaps not the one he was after—and will be remembered as the longest-serving deputy leader. Mr Shearer may justify the odds to be known as one of the great tacticians of New Zealand politics. He has quietly outmanoeuvred Mr Robertson who has stacked the party’s headquarters and parliamentary offices with his loyalists. But Mr Shearer has changed the rules of the game. I do not mean to say that Mr Robertson will never make it to the top job; in fact he has often struck me as— 
Grant Robertson 
: He’s obsessed with me. 
Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON 
: I am not obsessed with him. He has often struck me as the Gordon Brown of New Zealand’s social democracy. And I am not suggesting that Mr Shearer and Mr Robertson are not close. A number of media profiles that accompanied their ascent to the Labour leadership noted their similarities. They are very much the Noel and Liam Gallagher of the Labour Party. But there is no oasis for the Labour Party; it is all desert. 
Grant Robertson 
: What band are they from Minister? 
Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON 
: Oasis. As I said there is no oasis for the Labour Party; it is all desert. It has been a week of triumph for Mr Shearer out of the limelight away from the glare of public attention which he does leave to Mr Robertson. He has sorted out his legacy. 
But how irrelevant it all seems when one compares that with the achievements of our great Prime Minister and his Government: on the one hand an inward-looking party focusing on how to deal with party challengers and on the other hand a party and a Government that are interested only in a brighter future for New Zealand.