Williamson Maurice: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliamson Maurice: General Debate[Sitting date: 05 March 2014. Volume:696;Page:16338. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (Minister for Building and Construction): In the last week or so we have been watching the unfolding of a Shakespearean piece of work on the other side of this House. I am still unable to work out whether it is a tragedy a drama a thriller a comedy or a documentary or all rolled into one. It all centres on the leader of the Labour Party.The good news about having been in this House for a long time is that you actually get to a point where you think you cannot see anything new under the sun. But there is something new and I want the Labour Party members to listen up. It goes like this. I have never seen ever in the history of the New Zealand Parliament a political leader of a party who was not voted to that position by his own team. I have never seen that—I have never seen it. In fact I do not know of any country around the world that has a political leader of a party who did not enjoy a majority. So Mr Cunliffe I suggest to the House starts from behind the eight ball. That is what you would say in the old vernacular. He starts from behind the eight ball where less than one-third of his team actually wanted him.One of the things he could do is win support. He could get out there and have some real big hits. Can Labour score some hits? Yes it can. Shane Jones has shown that. Shane Jones has shown how to have a really big hit. He has done it. Oh and guess what? He did not brief his leader on it and did not discuss it with his leader. Wow! That is team playing for you Mr Jones—that is team playing for you.But Mr Cunliffe’s tragedy cum drama cum thriller cum comedy keeps unfolding. In any other sport be it baseball softball or whatever even in some of the legal things with regard to offending we all know of a thing called “three strikes and you’re out”—“three strikes and you’re out”. No wonder Mr Cunliffe did not support the “three strikes and you’re out” policy because I was actually going to get up to give this speech saying that he has had his three strikes. There was “baby bonus - gate”. We all remember “baby bonus - gate” where he badly screwed up the announcement of that. Then there was “leafy suburb - gate”. We all remember “leafy suburb - gate”. He is an ordinary common man of the people and then it turns out that he is earning in the top 0.1 percent of 1 percent of income earners and lives in a house worth more than most of us put together. That was fine. But then we got “trust-gate”. “Trust-gate” I thought was a real clincher.But there are some more. I have had something handed to me just today. Poor Clare Curran has been blamed—has been blamed—for the leak of the information and communications technology policy yesterday. It was her fault—that is what we were all going to say. It was her fault. Poor Clare Curran. But I have just been told that David Cunliffe’s chief press secretary Simon Cunliffe—a relation I presume—Chris Hipkins: That’s a bit low.Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON: What is wrong? Did you hear that? “Chippy” over there says that it is a bit low to say that he is a relation. Is he that bad now that youdo not want to even claim that you are a relative of the guy? How bad is that when he does not want to even say he is a relation of his? That is bad.Let us go to “trust-gate”. What was “trust-gate” about? It was about getting money into the coffers for your leadership challenge and not telling anybody where it came from—and not telling anybody where it came from. Well we have got some speculation on this side. We think it was Kim Dotcom. We think there is almost no doubt but we do not know you see. They go “Oh no no.” but we do not know. We do not know where that money came from. It could be from Kim Dotcom. It could be from Owen Glenn—it could be from Owen Glenn.Hon Member: Putin.Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON: No no. My friend up there got carried away and said it was Putin but that is not right. It could be Matt McCarten. There is a really good one. The Unite union got him into power because the caucus did not want him. The caucus did not want him. They still do not want him. They want him out.I want to tell that Labour Party that you have got to be very careful when you are on the slippery slope. One of the bits of history that I remember was 1990. In 1990 Labour’s then leader its then Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer just was not cutting the mustard. I used to talk to Labour backbenchers and they used to say: “Jeez I don’t know what we’re going to do here.” Well do you know what the Labour Party did? Six weeks before the general election it said: “We can’t go on with him.” and it cut him. It went to Mike Moore and do you know what? The old adage of “Cheer up; things could be worse.”—well they cheered up and sure enough things got worse. Labour went out on a slippery sliding hiding to nothing.This leader is gone. He is dog tucker. He has had his three strikes and he should get out.