Brownlee GerryGENERAL DEBATEHon GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. Three months ago today I stood in this House and described the Government of the day—the Labour - New Zealand First - Green Government—as being a shambles. Well today as sort of a quarterly update can I say that it is now an omnishambles. Yesterday we had a Government pass a bill allowing a defence for having marijuana on you and using it—loose leaf any form—if in fact you've got a chronic pain condition. What that effectively means is that it's OK to use it but it's not OK to supply it it's not OK to grow it and it's not OK to get it for somebody else. That is a regime that will not work unless of course the police turn a totally blind eye to the carte blanche use of marijuana in this country.It's interesting that the Minister of Transport stood up today and said We're making great progress on keeping our roads safer." Well the road toll doesn't quite tell you that. The thing he may like to know is that there are more road deaths now where people are killed by drug-impaired drivers than those who have excess alcohol on board and this Government has just said that's OK—that's OK—because the police can't pull you up the police can't prosecute you and the police will not be around. I can tell the House that all the raids the police had on all those big marijuana crops throughout the country—all off. They're not happening. They're all off. On the roadsides if you see it growing—and you will because everyone's going to be right into it and the long acre is going to be full of it—just stop and pick what you want. It's all good—no problem whatsoever. That's the sort of Government we've got: non-thinking non-caring about the best interests of New Zealanders.Then we heard today the contradiction between the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety and the Prime Minister where she has said she has personally intervened with the parties in the Air New Zealand strike and he has gone out and said it's inappropriate for any Minister to intervene in the Air New Zealand strike. Well what we're seeing here of course is a union grossly empowered now by the Government and its new legislation that also passed yesterday exercising the sort of position that they've got to really inconvenience the public so that they will I guess manipulate some kind of positive result for themselves. Well what this tells you is that the cloth-cap brigade are back in charge of industrial relations in New Zealand. They're all there cloth-caps and all making all the decisions about when the ferries are going to stop when the buses will run—and we've seen the buses strike—and now when the airlines are going to fly. So of course those ferries will be just next. This is the sort of environment where you do not get the growth in an economy sustained as the Government is claiming they're going to get.Then of course there is this amazing Sroubek case—so many unanswered questions. Today the Minister responsible for allowing this ratbag to stay in the country is saying that he will not release the names of those who have been his supporters who have put in submissions on his behalf. Well what's the reason for that—what's the reason for that? There can't be one. Well I'll tell you what: the decision yesterday around marijuana and Sroubek are connected. Very soon I predict the registration of "Sroubek Dak"—a new company to flood our streets with medical marijuana for all those people who have got headaches. It will be the new Panadol no doubt about it. "I don't want a Panadol; I want some Sroubek Dak."—that will be the thing. The interesting thing will be to go to the New Zealand Companies Register and have a good look to see who the shareholders are in that company.What are the associations of the shareholders of that company? That's the sort of Government that we've got at the moment. They're not letting hard-working people who come to this country to help this economy stay but a ratbag who's going to cost us for years and years as he drags it through the courts—and of course that will mean years and years of questioning to Ministers as it goes through the courts. This guy is just going to be a complete drain on our resources.And then to top it all off we've got the rising rents. Well people the time today is not going to let me go into that whole story but let me make it clear: when expenses of providing rental accommodation are ring-fenced for landlords rents will rise. And that's exactly what's happening at the moment. People are not going to privately subsidise other people's accommodation in this country. And you would think the people who'd know that the most are the socialists over there. Apparently they've forgotten.If there's a headache—[Time expired]"