Peck Mark: General Debates 
Peck Mark: General Debates 
[Volume:613;Page:10162] 
MARK PECK (Labour—Invercargill) 
: 
: 
 First I congratulate Gerry Brownlee on his ascension to the deputy leadership of the National Party. I know that my father the reverend of Bishopdale would certainly like me to pass on his regards too. 
Darren Hughes 
: Is he praying for him? 
MARK PECK 
: My father prays for lots of people. However as the member can see sometimes it does no good. But I say to Mr Brownlee that it is pleasing to see I wish him well and he should not give up the ambition. I also say to Katherine Rich—[ 
Interruption 
] That was a message from Bob. Katherine Rich must be absolutely gutted. In the reshuffle she stayed at No. 4 and Mr Power was moved from No. 6 to No. 3. I tell Shane Ardern who was overlooked for the agriculture portfolio on the front bench not to worry—Katherine Rich’s star is on the wane already. That inane question she asked at question time today certainly shows that. Shane Ardern is on the way up like any good lad from Manaia should be. I am looking forward to him taking his rightful place at the top as well. I say to Simon Power who is a little bit bemused and befuddled that we did not spend too much time on the National Party— 
Rodney Hide 
: He knows all about being promoted. 
MARK PECK 
: Well I say to the member that I have not been promoted enough to be demoted. If I keep progressing at this rate I will be here until I am 100. I say to Simon Power that the reason we do not spend too much time on the National Party is as Dr Cullen says an ongoing matter and we will certainly watch with interest.  
I have a couple of things to say about the potential coalition partner ACT. I say to Rodney Hide that if it had not been for Fiji he would have been looking like the top seat. When we look at the rest of his colleagues we see that things are looking a little bit sort of dodgy. In fact I would have thought that Rodney Hide would be delighted with the way things are going with ACT at the moment. Deborah Coddington came into this House as the bright new thing who would eventually replace the leader. 
Rodney Hide 
: I heard that about you Mark. 
MARK PECK 
: They did say that about me once but they do not say it any more so I am not terribly worried about that. However the bright new thing who was going to go to the front of the Chamber when Mr Prebble retires has got herself into a little bit of trouble. She has been in cahoots with a guy called Alister Taylor whom Richard Prebble calls a bit of a hard case—knew he was a bankrupt but said he did not want somebody who was a hard case stopping somebody getting into Parliament and the somebody that he thought would make a good MP was Deborah Coddington. A bunch of companies that have been outlined in the House in the last couple of weeks— 
Rodney Hide 
: He’s old Clayton Cosgrove’s sidekick. 
MARK PECK 
: I do not take Clayton Cosgrove’s line on this. The line I take on this goes this way: Deborah Coddington has been responsible for ripping off quite a bunch of senior citizens in Australia. She has ripped off Trish Clutterbuck aged 61 and Sid Hansen 64—both senior citizens. She and her partner ripped off those people. Those people thought that something good would be done to honour their lives at a time in their lives when they were getting on in age. They thought that they were going to be honoured and they were ripped off. Trish Clutterbuck cannot believe that she got away with it so they cannot imagine her lasting very long and Sid Hansen said that he hoped she would be called to account. Deborah Coddington wants to promote a little book about a rubber ducky. I remember reading about the rubber ducky when my kids were growing up. I used to sing them the song about the rubber ducky; joy of joys and that sort of thing. 
Rod Donald 
: Sing it for us. 
MARK PECK 
: No I cannot sing. My voice is nearly gone. She certainly wants to write a book about integrity honesty and independence yet she has not once stood up in this House and disavowed any knowledge of those connections with her former partner. I do wonder why it is that all the issues with which Deborah Coddington is associated in a formal sense with her partner—that those bills have been paid. Was that to save her neck as a member of Parliament while others who have lost money along the way have to find their own way out of the problem? I do not think that is good enough. But there is nothing unusual about this. There is one little bit in here and I actually agree with Donna Awatere Huata—people like Owen Jennings were treated a little bit differently and others in the ACT party who got into trouble were treated differently from the way she was treated and that speaks volumes about the ACT party.