Maharey Steve: General Debate 
Maharey Steve: General Debate 
[Volume:634;Page:5635] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Education) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. It is always good to rise before the National Party members who in the spirit of spring with their sap rising are so loud and noisy. Of course their emotions are running high. The whiff of change of leadership is in the air in the National Party once again. I say “once again” because the National Party has had an unbelievable amount of practice at changing not just its leader but its deputy leader and its front bench in a kind of dizzying whirlwind that takes place every few months. But the stunning thing is that this time the speculation is about Dr Don Brash. There would not be one National member who does not look at Dr Brash as the man who restored the National Party vote. Despite that they all know—as every single member of this House and every observer knows—that Dr Don Brash will be replaced as the leader by the end of the summer period. As Dr Hutchison would say why will this happen? Why will the change take place? In the short time I have to speak I will come up with four reasons. 
The first reason is that the National Party can go no further with Don Brash. The whole strategy has been about gobbling up every right-wing vote in the country and there is no more right-wing vote left. Every member of the National Party knows that Dr Brash has reached his limit and that National cannot be the Government if he is the leader because he cannot get any more votes. In addition he cannot work with any other party. He cannot work with New Zealand First members—he has alienated them. He cannot talk to the Maori Party members—he cannot even have dinner with them. Rodney Hide has literally shrunk away from his relationship with the National Party. There is no one left for the National Party to talk to. So no National cannot be the Government. 
The second reason is the ongoing bumbling performance of Dr Brash which is so embarrassing. I will give the House just two quotes. A commentator on Dr Brash said he has “a political death-wish”. Another said that Dr Brash “has now performed the type of pratfall that has punctuated his political career displaying skills more akin to those of a blind man stumbling around a swamp than a sure-footed sportsman.” John Armstrong said: “Don Brash was so underwhelming in his handling of the latest crisis to buffet him and his party that it might seem he has a political death-wish.” I cannot see anybody continuing to put up with one pratfall after another. 
The third reason is division. Dr Brash has marked his period as leader by dividing the country against itself. To take one example his position on race has consistently divided people in ways that have been totally and utterly destructive even to the point where he recently said that no Maori exist because no Maori has full blood. Mrs te Heuheu said in response to this: “It’s not about (blood) quantum at all … it’s about the practices you follow the customs you keep and maintain the languages you speak and the place in the world where those are unique and indigenous to.” Mr Henare rightly said: “(Dr Brash) has his view I’ve got mine. I know that part of my genealogy is indigenous to this nation and nowhere else so I’m quite comfortable.” 
So even the two Maori in the National Party found his position on race to be totally and utterly divisive and unacceptable. That is what he has made his hallmark for the last little while. He is understood now to be a person who can never bring New Zealanders together—he can only push them apart. National Party members know that. They know that as younger National Party members come through and look at the old colonial tea planter there is no way they will sit and be led by that last-century icon. They want change. 
 The fourth reason is that he cannot remember anything. Actually what I have found with Dr Brash if we take the Brethren as the example is that he can always remember what he did not say at a meeting but can never remember what he did say. If he is asked about a meeting he will say: “I can’t remember the meeting—oh yes I can. I can remember what I did not say but I can’t remember what I did say.” If he cannot remember even that he is finished as the National Party leader.