Cosgrove Clayton: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Cosgrove Clayton: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:606;Page:3372] 
CLAYTON COSGROVE (NZ Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 I rise to support the Prime Minister’s statement. It was a set-piece speech the first up in the parliamentary year. If we analyse the Prime Minister’s speech we can see how it contrasts with the speech made by the Leader of the Opposition.  
The Prime Minister laid out a number—not all—of this Government’s achievements pre and post the election. Those achievements of course include a growth rate of 3.9 percent which is one of the highest in the OECD when many of our trading partners because of international circumstances are having difficulties. She outlined that we now have a 4.9 percent unemployment rate which I think is the lowest for 20 years or more. She outlined the innovation framework again and laid out the set of legislation that will continue the growth and innovation of this country. Her speech was solid and I believe it was what people around the country wanted to hear. They want to hear a Prime Minister who gets up and articulates what the Government has done and will do and justifies why people should have faith in this Government—and they do have faith in it. I do not say that in an arrogant way; it is what the polls state and they speak for themselves. We are at 49 to 50 percent in the polls depending on which one we read. That compares with a tragic and a dismal performance by the Opposition which is wallowing at about 22 percent in the polls.  
Then we had Mr English’s response to the Prime Minister’s speech. I think Mr English is someone of honour. He tells the truth and he told the truth when he said we were going to be a third-term Government. That could also be interpreted as an admission of defeat of course. When he said that his National colleagues all 26 of them cowered behind their desks scratched their heads and looked worried because he had blown it—all except two Gerry Brownlee and Maurice Williamson. I have known Mr Brownlee since he was at St Bede’s College and I have never seen him look so ecstatic in his life apart from when he was a woodwork teacher and got his angles right while building a cutting board.  
Members should contrast the performance of the Opposition with what has been achieved under our Government—3.9 percent economic growth unemployment under 5 percent the apprenticeships scheme and the list goes on.  
People are feeling pretty good about the country. Let us review what happened to the Opposition over the summer. We had the Maori-bashing policy from Mr English. As a result of that Winston Peters is now No. 2 in the preferred Prime Minister stakes ahead of the so-called Leader of the Opposition. We had leadership grabs from Gerry Brownlee and I did not think I would see Gerry run for that position. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member must use a member’s full name. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I apologise. I did not think I would see Gerry Brownlee run for the party leader’s position but he is running all right. He is running for that position and he is in it lock stock and barrel. Even Maurice Williamson whom I count as a pretty learned political commentator on National Party politics— 
Hon John Tamihere 
: Not the most lucid. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: No Maurice Williamson is not the most lucid member but he certainly is the most learned of that crew over there on the National benches. He has admitted that Mr English is a goner. Is it any wonder that Mr English admits Labour will be a three-term Government? He is down in the polls.  
We then had Dr Brash come out and say that unemployed people should line up at postshops to do anything such as cutting grass with scissors because the dole should be abolished. Mr English cringes a bit at that because of course he cannot come to terms with it. The  
Otago Daily Times 
 stated this about Mr English on 7 November 2002: “The mistakes Mr English has made since his elevation have been those of a man not fully in control of his caucus enjoying not much better than indifferent support from casual National Party supporters and little better from its committed membership.” 
John Key 
: He’ll he a Prime Minister for longer than Mike Moore was! 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I know that Mr Key who is a pretty successful businessperson by reputation at least cringed when Dr Brash announced his postshop strategy and his idea to abolish the unemployment benefit. Mr Key could not believe what he was hearing. He knows that that is not possible or doable and he certainly knows that it is not saleable. Mr English is a sort of human dynamo who came into the leader’s role and then was short-circuited halfway through.  
I want to turn to the ACT party. As Mr Burton said we heard an extraordinary speech from the human blunderbuss of the ACT party Rodney Hide. [ 
Interruption 
] He might have been ordering pizza. Rodney Hide had the audacity to talk about working people. Goodness gracious! I ask that member two things: when did he ever give a damn about working people and when did the ACT party ever represent a working-class person who was down on his or her luck? I do not think that Alan Gibbs—and members can correct me if I am wrong—has ever been down on his luck. That is the sort of person whom Mr Eckhoff Mr Hide and the party they belong to represent. Mr Hide talks about people who have real jobs. As far as I am aware the most real job Mr Hide has ever had was working for Tappenden Holdings a company owned by Mr Gibbs. I think he got the bullet from that. This guy by his own admission is the only trained economist in Parliament with a degree from a good university down my way Lincoln University—in zoology! I think that is rather apt given the sort of trained monkeys that he has to deal with in the ACT party. 
Gerrard Eckhoff 
: What is the member qualified in? 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I am qualified in common sense because I am in the Labour Party.  
I want to refer to some of the problems the ACT party has had over the last couple of months. I will not get into them in great detail but I will say that Mrs Awatere Huata has given us an insight into the ugliness the sludge and the grotesque nature of the crew in the ACT party. I will quote from her press statement. She said: “The ACT party quite rightly stood by Owen Jennings”—I think he is called the Pharaoh because he knows all about pyramids—“when he was taken to court and found guilty of defamation. The ACT party stood by him when he lost his appeal and it stood by Rodney Hide when it was alleged that his support for a Fijian investment conference cost investors their life savings.”  
Let us look at the record of the ACT party. It stated it would bust the scams and go after people who used public money improperly. If you look at the litany you see those boys have form. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member must not bring the Speaker into the debate. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: That party has form. It includes Owen Jennings and Rodney Hide the man who when he was challenged in this House to this day hasstill not answered the allegations made by Mr Tamihere and me as to why he did not open his trap to warn New Zealanders and try to prevent them from being fleeced through those dodgy investment conferences. To this day he has not come into this House and said why he shut up. To this day he has not got off his chuff and gone to the police or the Serious Fraud Office to say that he wants to help the people who lost money. He is the great scam buster and now he has a scam on his own doorstep.  
I will not get into Mrs Awatere Huata’s predicament but I will say that— 
Gerrard Eckhoff 
: We addressed it! 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I say to Mr Eckhoff that silence is often helpful in his case. Mrs Awatere Huata talked about natural justice. I can remember when my mates Mr Samuels and Mr Tamihere were being worked over and accusations were flying around. There was no evidence and nothing had been proven yet the ACT party including Mrs Awatere Huata did not hesitate to try to knife them before any natural justice was executed. What goes around may indeed come around.  
I have got stuck into Rodney Hide and Richard Prebble a bit over the last couple of months. But they are not even worth attacking any more; they are yesterday’s people. Rodney Hide has always wanted Richard Prebble’s job. The problem is that Rodney Hide has all the vices of Richard Prebble but none of his virtues—when we can find them. Rodney Hide knows that the board of management of the ACT party will never allow that great genius to get his hands on the leadership of ACT. That is why I predicted—and I think I was the first member in this Parliament to predict it—that Deborah Coddington would become the leader of ACT.  
But if we look at Deborah Coddington’s form and at what she writes we see she is more even more extremist than her colleagues. She is to the right of Genghis Khan and Richard Prebble. We can see that she is way over on the right wing when we look at some of her history. In the  
Evening Post 
 of 20 December 1995 she stated the following about a bureaucrat: “How quickly the bureaucrat moves to defend her fat salary paid by us. She and her comrades are no better than dole bludgers ACC parasites the solo mothers who think it’s their right to procreate while you and I pay for it.” That is what Mr Hide Mrs Coddington and the other ACT members think of people in this country who may need the assistance of the State. Mr Hide should come back take another call and make another speech in order to explain how he will bust the scams within the party to which he belongs.