Young Jonathan: General Debate 
Young Jonathan: General Debate 
[Volume:656;Page:5900] 
JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth) 
: 
 I could not help but notice that one of my colleagues across the way was reading a paper and I presume imagining tomorrow’s headline which will say “Shane Jones rolls Phil Goff”. Members can look at the smile on Mr Jones’ face. Let me tell the House something that Labour’s own people are saying. We have talked about quotes that Chris Trotter has made. He has asked “What’s the matter with Labour? Why is it making so little impression on even its hard-core supporters? And can anyone explain why Labour’s strategists still believe it’s intelligent politics to have their MPs recorded singing songs on a bus in the Tory-blue heart of Taranaki?”. 
I have a photograph here of Phil Goff and Annette King sitting on the front seat of the bus but they are soon to be sent to the back seat of the bus if Dover Samuels has his way. He has said that Mr Goff and his deputy should go: “My message to the leadership to Phil and Annette is it’s time to step aside. The retreads of yesterday have gone past their use-by date.” But I think he more poignantly said: “We have fundamental problems in the Labour Party. Right now the leadership does not resonate with the ordinary working people.” 
The bus travelled through Taranaki weaving its musical way to wayward New Plymouth which had turned its back on Labour where Labour members tried to resonate with the people. They sang “Hotel California” “You Are My Sunshine” and “Take Me Home Country Road”. I am sure that Mr Hughes would have liked to sing “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round” and perhaps Shane Jones would have liked to say “Phil Goff’s polls go down and down”. What great songs! But Annette King was quoted as saying: “We are telling the people we are still here and we are in good heart.” You know I think that probably a band whose songs those Labour members should have sung was a band called The Pretenders. John Armstrong quoting the one he called or determined “Mr Hapless Hipkins” who had made a faux pas said that it was a lesson in why politicians are less than honest because even when the wheels are falling off the political vehicle in which they are travelling it is said that things are always going swimmingly well no matter how bleak and desperate the reality is. 
I very much enjoyed what Harriet Palmer wrote in the  
Taranaki Daily News 
 that day: “Taranaki is oozing with schmooze like it has never oozed before. Yesterday the region hosted no fewer than 25 Labour Party MPs after their ‘magical mystery tour’ hit the heartland.” The mystery is why they keep insisting on singing. The magic I think is that that is what it will take—magic—to turn heartland Taranaki anywhere near red. In fact it will never ever get beyond deep purple which in the end Phil Goff will get used to and eventually accept because Deep Purple was his favourite band back in the 1960s. 
But the good news for Phil Goff and the team is that Cliff Richard is coming back to New Plymouth this summer so Phil can bring the boys and girls in the bus back to town. This time they can sing: “We’re all going on a”— 
Hon Members 
: —“summer holiday”! 
JONATHAN YOUNG 
: While they are on their summer holiday we the members of the National-led Government will be doing the hard work of turning this country round and getting us back on track on those roads that our fantastic Minister of Transport is building. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: The Government! 
JONATHAN YOUNG 
: I have to ask the question that Chris Trotter asked: what is the matter with Labour? I ask Mr Hughes why it is making so little impression on even its hard-core supporters. It is because its members are all on a summer holiday or maybe they are in a season of winter solace instead. But we know that coming up very shortly in October they will be into their barbecue season and barbecues of course can be very dangerous places as we heard the Hon Nathan Guy say. He said that it was in January 1999 when Phil Goff invited 12 Labour MPs to a barbecue where a challenge to Helen Clark’s leadership was cooked up. This is the amazing thing. That frying roasting and broiling of their party leader occurred at a time when Helen Clark was polling very very positively—at 23 percent—in the preferred Prime Minister stakes. I fear what is going to happen in this barbecue season. I fear what is going to happen on Labour Day this year when the barbecues are rolled out and everybody around the country is talking about how Labour is getting on where we are going and what is going to happen. 
In this week’s poll Mr Goff has slumped 2.6 points to just 6.5 percent in the preferred Prime Minister rates—still behind Helen Clark who is no longer in politics or even in the country. Her legacy lives on like a ghost keeping the Labour leader awake well into the night. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Is some honourable member going to take the call? 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Is it correct that the next call is a Green call for the general debate? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is my understanding if the Green Party wishes to take the call.