Hodgson Pete:  
Hodgson Pete:  
[Volume:622;Page:17315] 
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Energy) 
: 
 There is a man who thinks that if one yells louder one is listened to more. That has never been the case with Lockwood Smith. He has never managed to attract a lot of support from this side of the House because he tends to get his facts wrong. 
Here are a few facts that he got wrong in the last 5 minutes. He said that all the Maori electorate members would lose their seats. That of course is a matter of opinion. I am a student of polls of Maori electorates and my opinion is that all current Maori electorate MPs will retain their seats. That is my view. Secondly the Fish and Game Council does not get any money from the Government and members should reflect on that. 
Let us talk not only about the member’s mistakes but about the member’s party. The member’s party is now undecided it is divided and it is derided. In fact the leader of the National Party used to be indecisive but now he is not so sure. That goes right across the party. Indecision is absolutely throughout the party. That is why it is derided. The U-turn on superannuation was surprise enough; the U-turn by the leader of the National Party on civil unions was remarkable indeed. This is a man who said a week ago that he would not cast his conscience vote on the basis of public popularity—that if his vote was unpopular he would cast it anyway. Within a week he turned and said he would not be supporting the civil union legislation because there was a bit of a problem in the National Party heartland. The National Party heartland is small enough as it is so one can assume that the leader was keen for it not to be any smaller. That is how he has deployed his conscience vote. I do not think that is a good look. There are a whole lot of words for it but I had better not dwell on them. 
The National Party used to be a little more sure about how it would roll out policy. It did the Orewa speech for brown people then it did the law and order speech for bad people. Then it was going to do the education speech for young people the health speech for sick people and the social welfare speech for poor people. It got the brown people done—it does not like them. It got the bad people done—it does not like them either. Then it stopped. It could have done the sick people whom it would like and the young people whom it would like and the poor people whom it would not like. It could have done that but it stopped. It did two out of five then stopped. Then the National Party said it would get started again then it changed its mind. Then the National Party said it would get started again then it changed its mind. Recently there were hints that it would get started again but it had better hurry up because it is 1 December already and people are getting ready for the beach. 
So why did National stop? What happened? What was the big strategic decision? It seems to me that the best answer is that Don Brash needed to keep his powder dry because if the powder got wet and he was still doing no good he was gone. 
John Key 
: Let’s talk about the energy crisis. 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: Let us talk about energy. I ask whether the National Party has delivered an energy policy yet. In April this year Roger Sowry the National spokesperson on energy said it would have one this year and it is now 1 December. Where is it? It is 1 December this year and still there is no energy policy even though the National Opposition spokesperson on energy said in April that National would have an energy policy this year. Is that indecision or is National simply divided? Can it not make up its mind or is it divided? [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr Key is getting distressed. He does not like being told the truth. I tell Mr Key that the long and the short of it is that I have just had a look at the options Trevor Mallard has put for the future leadership and deputy leadership of the National Party. Mr Key should not be so harsh on me. I have voted him as deputy leader to Gerry Brownlee. He should not yell at me because I might change my vote. I do not think that member should look a gift horse in the mouth. What is more that particular combination is paying 4:1. It looks quite popular. The member should reflect take a look at his future behaviour and make sure he does not yell too much. He might find himself in a leadership position. There will be a change soon. There has to be a change sometime. A person whose party now polls 30.8 percent him having said: “If I go down in the polls it is my fault.” cannot then say as quoted in this morning’s  
New Zealand Herald 
 
that it is just volatility.