Cosgrove Clayton: General Debate 
Cosgrove Clayton: General Debate 
[Volume:639;Page:9845] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Minister for Building and Construction) 
: 
 That was the Paris Hilton of the National Party. When she talks about fizzy drinks we know which member has had too much Coca-Cola for many years—Nick Smith. 
Only Bill English could stoop as low as he did today. Just after we had had the debate about the corrections tragedy only Bill English pretending to be some sort of statesperson could stoop so low as to dance on the grave of someone who had died and play semantic political games. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: That’s what Helen Clark did. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Nick Smith interjects on me. Of course Nick Smith was the former Minister of Corrections whose claim to fame was that under his stewardship he signed the prison van vehicle contract with Chubb. I am told that given his reputation he was the first Minister of Corrections to have his own rubber cell. 
National members would do and say anything to win. The facts are this— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The reference the Minister has just made is very typical of the personal denigration the Government makes when it is in trouble. We have just had a chat about— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: What’s the point of order? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: There is to be no comment at all during a point of order. That is a yellow card Mr Cosgrove. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
:The personal denigration made by the Minister is I think quite inappropriate in this House. If we are to have members making those sorts of slurs on people’s characters the standards in the House will really go through the floor. I would ask the member to withdraw and apologise. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I listened I heard what the member said and I waited for a reaction. I ask the member to withdraw. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I withdraw Mr Assistant Speaker. 
This is a typical Tory party. These guys have had one or two good poll results then what do we have? We have the typical slouching in the seat the swagger down the back and then they use the “L” word. John Key goes out and pronounces that there will be a landslide the biggest since 1951. Here is what Colin Espiner said about this: “And yet Key should be extremely careful about using the ‘L’ word. Besides tempting fate those who use it risk being branded arrogant and complacent by the electorate.” 
I tell the National Party members to read their history. We now have John “Dewey” Key. I refer to Thomas E Dewey the former Governor of New York and Republican candidate in the 1948 US presidential elections. The Republican polls had him doing over Truman. All the media said that he would waltz in; it would be a landslide. The day before the media ran the headline “Dewey defeats Truman”. What happened of course was that Dewey was so arrogant that the people worked it out. 
I say that Tory arrogance is amazing. National members are going to their mates in the Business Roundtable and saying as they did in 1990—as I was there I remember it—“We will say and do anything to win. We will say we will give a tax cut. We will say we will adopt all the promises and all the programmes that Labour has done that are popular and then say we will do even more.” They forget that people are smart. They forget that John Key speaks out of both sides of his mouth. Even the sensitive delicate one over there whom I point to—Nick Smith—knows that. 
Nick Smith is of course an interesting guy. He yells out in the House: “Untruth! Untruth!” when anybody refers as David Parker did on  
Agenda 
 to the fact that John Key had a road to Damascus experience when he had said that climate change was some sort of big international conspiracy but then John Key came back and said: “I am a believer.” When David Parker ran that one on  
Agenda 
 the genius opposite—I will not use the other “L” word—said that. He just makes it up. He thinks that nobody reads what he said. Well very few people read what he says but the commentators do. 
National members will not tell us what they will do in relation to student loans—we have now worked that one out. Will they tell us today whether they will keep apprenticeships? Will they? Will they tell us today whether they will keep KiwiSaver? In 1995 Nick Smith’s Government abolished the Apprenticeship Act. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Never did. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: He says it again. In 1995 National abolished the Apprenticeship Act. Would a National Government maintain the apprenticeship numbers? National members will not say. Would they do what they did in 1975-76 when they pulled the rug out from every pensioner and pulled the pin on the Kirk superannuation scheme? 
I predict this. National members say they oppose KiwiSaver. They voted against the corporate tax cut even though they campaigned on it. In a couple of months they will work out that these are not bad policies and that as a party they should just adopt them; they will work out that they should neutralise it and adopt anything that looks like a good policy because they do not have any of their own. 
When was the last time Nick Smith got off the Diet Coke got off the caffeine and gave us a policy? He should name one. I ask the member to give us his policy on climate change. He does not have one. He is hollowed out as people know.