Dyson Ruth: General Debates 
Dyson Ruth: General Debates 
[Volume:610;Page:7234] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Minister for ACC) 
: 
 I want to present a bit of a ballad this afternoon during the general debate. It is called the “Deadwood - Blues Brothers Blues Ballad”. 
I want to dedicate my ballad to a young east Auckland man—a young east Auckland man who has been described by his constituents as honest and as being the only one who is prepared to stand up and tell the truth. His constituents say he is their MP and they are proud of him— 
Phil Heatley 
: From Whangarei? 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: No they are not from Whangarei; they are from Pakuranga. The man from east Auckland has been described by his former friend and colleague Bill English as being “capable and talented”; and is described by other current friends and colleagues as “energetic and able”. This same man in a TV3-NFO poll last week was described by 66 percent of people as a person whom they did not want the National caucus to suspend. So 66 percent of the people who vote National said no to that and 74 percent of National voters said he should not be expelled from the party. That same man Maurice Williamson once said: “This is a job where you are a rooster today and a feather duster tomorrow.” 
Maurice Williamson has been in Parliament since 1987 and I frankly hope he is here for a lot longer—and not just for fairly obvious party political reasons. Leaving all party politics aside—[ 
Interruption 
] well perhaps not all but a lot—I say Maurice Williamson is a capable energetic talented and able person. He has always been someone to speak his mind and clearly is one of the few people left within the National caucus who have the ability to do that. He said a little while ago: “A few ill-informed commentators have said ‘There’s only one way for National from here and that’s up.’ and I say they’re wrong. If we don’t make significant changes if we don’t go back to our grass roots then we’re doomed to languish in the mid to low 20s.” Yet again he was right. But what was his most recent error in the view of his former friend and colleague Bill English? It was to say that Bill English should be put on notice and should be sacked as National’s leader if the party does not get two decent poll results during the next 12 months. So for saying that Maurice Williamson is out. 
The editorials around the country have been absolutely consistent on this issue over the last week. They have stated a lot of really good things but one of the best comments is from  
Hawke’s Bay Today. 
 I must admit I do not quote frequently from that newspaper in the House but this quote is well worth reading. It starts off by asking: 
“What on earth is up with the National Party?” and ends with this statement: “Mr Williamson may be irritating but National is not going to rise to challenge Labour by shooting the messenger. It would be better listening to the message.” Every single editorial and commentator has said exactly the same thing. Maurice Williamson is the only person in the National caucus who is prepared to say publicly what I know many of his other colleagues have been saying not very quietly and not very privately. 
There are a lot of reasons that Maurice Williamson would say negative things about Bill English. I thought one of Maurice Williamson’s more astute comments compared Bill English to Bill Birch who made an extraordinary contribution in this House. I did not agree with his politics but I found him to be an extraordinarily competent member of Parliament. Maurice Williamson said that Bill English is the “2000 equivalent of Bill Birch. You vitally need people like that in the team but there’s no way you would ever have thought Bill Birch would be the leader’’—and nobody thinks of Bill English as the leader either. 
Bill English has been very quick to defend his own position unlike most of his front-bench and other colleagues with the exception of Nick Smith. In fact when Bill English was discussing this issue with the media he said that the issue was not about his leadership of which Mr Williamson had been a harsh critic. “I don’t think it is seen by anyone as about the leadership.” he said. “The point here isn’t what I think about it. The point is what everyone thinks about it. It is not about my leadership. This is a very big step to consider.” After saying it was not about his leadership Bill English went on to say: “It’s not about free speech either. It’s about whether people can work with people or not. It is not about my leadership.” The National caucus then went on to suspend Maurice Williamson in a secret ballot.