Ryall Tony: Reinstatement of Business 
Ryall Tony: Reinstatement of Business 
[Volume:628;Page:37] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 This is a carry-over motion from a leftover Government. The morsels are just being warmed up in this motion—they are quite ridiculous. The National Opposition has made it very clear today that this Government is propped up by Winston Peters a man who told the people of New Zealand that he would be their insurance policy and would make sure his party did not sell out. This is what he said about his commitment to stay on the cross benches and not move from Opposition: “It involves for my colleagues a real sacrifice but we willingly make it.” He said: “… post election will be about securing the policies we campaigned on not about pursuing power and the baubles of office at any price.” Well Mr Peters was right. It did involve for his colleagues a real sacrifice. But one member did not sacrifice anything and that is Mr Winston Peters the attack dog who has become a lapdog. 
What about those extraordinary admissions from Peter Brown? The discipline in New Zealand First has completely broken down since Bill Gudgeon went. I bet members never thought they would hear that name again or that of Craig McNair. What a sell-out there has been from New Zealand First. We need only to ask the party president Doug Woolerton about that. Within minutes of Labour and New Zealand First cuddling up together who was the first rat off the ship? It was Doug Woolerton. He did not want a bar of it. The second person out the door was the treasurer of New Zealand First. Why do the New Zealand First members not admit that since then there have been mass resignations from New Zealand First up and down the country because people know that the only honest politician has let them down again? Goodness there is a swirling cauldron in New Zealand First. Mr Peters’ colleagues were prepared to make a real sacrifice and they made it for Mr Peters and his baubles of office. 
I say to the New Zealand First members—to Ron Mark who can just see the title “Honourable” floating off somewhere over the horizon to Doug Woolerton and to Brian Donnelly—that they should stick to their word and vote against those bills that New Zealand First railed against before the election by supporting the Brownlee amendment which will expunge from this motion those bills that New Zealand First members when they stood on platforms said they would oppose. Why do the New Zealand First members not back what they said at the time and expunge those bills from this motion? 
I also want to move an amendment to this motion to exclude all the bills except those that are well founded sensible and promoted by National Party MPs. They are the Law Practitioners (Corporatisation) Amendment Bill the Gisborne District Council (Alfred Cox Park) Validation Bill the Kerikeri National Trust Bill and the Manfeild Park Bill. They should be put in there as well. 
This is the opportunity for New Zealand First to say whether it is in the Government or the Opposition. If it is in the Government it will vote to support the progress of bills it originally opposed. If it is in the Opposition today it will support the Brownlee amendment. But maybe we will have to wait until later next week to see whether New Zealand First is going to be in the Government today or in the Opposition on Wednesday and back to being in the Government on Thursday. I cannot wait until question time to see whether New Zealand First will actually ask any hard questions of the Government. [ 
Interruption 
] Oh its members do not get any questions—that is right they do not get any questions because they are such a mere shadow of what they were in the last Parliament. In fact they are a wafer of what they were in the last Parliament. 
This motion goes to the heart of what New Zealand First will stand for. Its members talked about a real sacrifice they would make to avoid the baubles of office but the minute they got the opportunity their leader jumped in—and left them behind with nothing. Did he say to those members that he thought he might be able to get them some portfolios? 
R Doug Woolerton 
: What are you ranting on about? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Mr Woolerton asks what I am rambling on about. I ask him what he was rambling on about when he quit his presidency of New Zealand First. Why was he trying to take his principled position when the party went and jumped in with the Labour Party after saying it would not go into coalition with anybody? New Zealand First said it would stay in Opposition so what is Mr Woolerton going on about? If he was happy about that why did he not stay there? Is he happy to support a Government with a Minister Lianne Dalziel who does not tell the full story? How are we ever going to believe the answers that Lianne Dalziel will give in this House in question time? How can we ever believe what she says? Are New Zealand First members happy to support Mr Benson Pope as a Minister in this Government—a Minister charged with social policy in this country and with maintaining a peaceful and non-violent community? Do they want to stay supporting that sort of man as a Minister in this Government? 
The New Zealand First members need to know that they have betrayed everything they stood for. But they have an opportunity today to honour the people who were out campaigning for them. The Koos Freswyks of this world who give up every hour of every living moment to campaign for New Zealand First feel completely let down by what it has done. So here is the opportunity New Zealand First has by voting for the Brownlee amendment to throw out the bills it does not support. I have spoken to those New Zealand First people and I can see their body language in the House today. They are always conferring with each other and chuckling away in a nice little group there but it is a group that people are going to see as part of a failed Government. The Clark-Peters Government has no plan—no vision—other than maintaining the baubles of office amongst each other. It is time that New Zealand First showed where it is—in Opposition or in Government—and let us get on with it. New Zealand First has simply been whitewashed by this Government so it is time it showed which side it is on.