Sowry Roger: Voting — Correction; General Debates 
Sowry Roger: Voting — Correction; General Debates 
[Volume:608;Page:5698] 
Hon ROGER SOWRY (Deputy Leader—NZ National) 
: 
 It is no wonder that David Cunliffe yesterday said that it was one of the worst days of his life. It is no wonder that yesterday around the corridors David Cunliffe was so upset at not making Cabinet. When we heard that speech from the new Cabinet Minister we saw that there was no vision no mention of his new portfolios and no pride in his new job at all. Instead he came into the Chamber parading his new shirt and was content to stand here and shout and rant and rave. I have to say it is no wonder that David Cunliffe Nanaia Mahuta and Judith Tizard—all the people who thought they were going to be in Cabinet—managed to find something else to do other than listen to that Minister. 
I say to the House and to New Zealanders that we are starting to see a trend from this Prime Minister. It started with an incident that was referred to as the “paintergate” incident when the Prime Minister just over a year ago stumbled on a new phrase. The new phrase for her was: “I have no personal recollection of that event.” Firstly she had signed a painting. She had no personal recollection of that at all. She did not recall signing it. Then when it came to her attention that she had signed not just one painting but about half a dozen paintings she said that perhaps she could recall it but lots of other people had done it—everyone had done it in fact. Then of course everybody became nobody and suddenly in the Prime Minister’s terms it was “time to move on”. So we did move on. We moved on to the “corngate” affair. 
In July of last year just before the election campaign the Prime Minister when asked about a release of genetically modified corn responded that she did not recall it. She said that her memory would be pretty stretched in that area. She said we were expecting her to dredge up from her memory but that she had no recollection. 
That is what she said about “corngate”. Then when suddenly the documents started to fall off trucks people started to talk about the release and the requests made under the Official Information Act started to come out the Prime Minister said: “It’s time to put this behind us and move on. It is time to move on.” And we did. We moved on to December of last year and Gregory Fortuin’s mediation with the Alliance and to the Alliance meltdown—and all that became public. The Prime Minister was asked in the House when she first became aware of Mr Fortuin’s involvement with the Alliance negotiations. She said that she was not aware of it until after his involvement began. When she was asked when it began she said: “I have no recollection of being briefed on that matter.” When asked whether she had any meetings and briefings on it she said that she probably did but she had no recollections of them. Mr Fortuin by this stage had gone and it was time to move on. And we did move on. 
We moved on with the OECD growth targets and with the revelations this year that the Government had decided in 2001 to talk about New Zealand reaching the top half of the OECD by 2011. That being a goal that being in a foreword that was signed by the Prime Minister that being set in concrete and that being the vision the Prime Minister was asked about it. She started firm and strong like a Prime Minister who says what she believes and said: “No time frame was established.” She then moved to: “I have no recollection of this event.”