Collins Judith: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCollins Judith: General Debate[Sitting date: 10 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:11861. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Justice):What a joy to follow the lecture that we have just received from that member Metiria Turei. Oh for goodness’ sake! Honestly I was so so enthralled with her lecture that I almost forgot that last night she was so busy lecturing us that she forgot to vote against the legal assistance legislation that she had railed against from one end of the country to the other. It was wonderful to have her support in the final moments so that in fact the bills went through unanimously. So well done Ms Turei well done—you are finally seeing some sense.But I have to say that that presentation on merit and how bad it is was pretty amazing. To say that over here the women are—what? We are dominated by the men? I think that is a bit of a joke. Unfortunately what I can see though is that in the Labour Party of course it is in fact all about the man ban. Why is it that with the three different factions in the Labour Party all vying to take the leadership not one of the leaders or deputy leaders in contention is a woman? Why is that? Of course the reason is that they are always chosen on merit. That is why it is; it is clearly on merit.I thought Ms Moroney did brilliantly onThe Nation last weekend. I am looking forward to her coming on again next weekend and probablyQ+A  as well. It was so much fun I even taped it. It was fantastic. I played it again just in case some people missed it—and they really should see it. I have no idea why she is not allowed to turn up in the media more often. It must be because she is a woman! That is what it is in the Labour Party. That must be the reason.But of course David—what is his name? David Shearer yesterday—[Interruption ]—well that is what they asked onMorning Reportyesterday on RadioNew Zealand National. They said: “Where is David Shearer?” because for the first time in living memory I think since the 1930s when the Labour Party was first set up a Labour Party leader refused to go onMorning Report . How does that happen? How does that happen? He refused to go on because he did not want to talk about MsMoroney’s very good attempt to bring in the man ban. It is so clearly needed because Labour has only two women on its front bench and of course we have got three. Of course our three are equal to about six of them when it comes to merit. But having said that why is it?All the last week we have watched as the Labour Party has imploded and it has talked about the things that nobody cares about—in other words getting rid of men not letting them compete equally against women and turning them into an endangered species if they were not already within the Labour Party.But of course what have we been doing? Well we have had a bit of fun I have to say amongst all the work and most of that fun has been at the expense of Labour members. But we have also been getting on with the job of government thinking about what it is that the people of New Zealand want. They want jobs. There is the convention centre deal which I am sure those people in the Labour Party probably will end up voting for. I am sure that Phil Goff Clayton Cosgrove David Shearer—and who else—Annette King and Kris Faafoi will want to vote for the convention centre legislation. They were very happy to take the hospitality of Skycity the other week—why was that—after they had been bagging them day in day out in the media. Of course what they did was stay there all night just to tell them off. It is amazing what those poor people endured.We are also into bringing the crime rate down and this last week we announced our Better Public Services targets. What can we say? Under Labour prisons got full. Under National crime is coming down. Youth crime has dropped 18 percent since June 2011—a fantastic rate. Total crime is down 11 percent. Reoffending is down 9 percent. Under Labour what was happening? Violent crime was going up and reoffending was going up. Labour made no progress. Poor Miss Moroney is still trying to get a question in the House. Why can that woman not get a question? Why is that? It is because she is not on merit—no she is on merit.Hon Member: The woman has a name.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: She has and she deserves it because she has helped us in Hamilton West to make it a safe National seat and before that she did the same for Hamilton East. I think that is an outstanding record and I am looking forward to her doing it again in Christchurch East because apparently it is that member whom the hierarchy want to be there. That of course will be on merit—yes absolutely. I see theTui billboard coming on.I am so proud to be a member of this National-led Government. It is working well and getting on with the business. It is talking about the stuff people want. What we are doing is we are getting the crime rate down getting jobs for people bringing the economy further up and actually undoing some of the rot that Labour left us with.