Bennett David: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: General Debate[Sitting date: 15 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:9950. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): I once had respect for the Labour Party. I once thought of it as a party that had principles and stood for what it believed in. But I have lost that respect for the Labour Party. It is a meek group of weak individuals who cannot put up a decent fight in this House. It has been taken over by the Green Party. The great Labour Party of old is gone. The Labour Party of today is a faceless group of factions that has been slaughtered by the Norman invaders. The Normans have come and they have slaughtered the Labour Party and look at it. Look at the policies that the Labour Party has fallen over on in the last couple of months. No. 1 is economic policy. The Normans now govern the economic policy of the Labour Party. The Labour Party is going to print money. It is something that it does not need to do but it has been forced to do it because it has been told by the Green Party what to do. The Green Party would put up the capital gains tax. Do not let any Labour member ever say that they wanted a capital gains tax. It is a Green Party idea. The Green Party wanted it and the Labour Party took it on board because it has got nothing else.Let us talk about another issue: energy—that great energy issue. The Labour Party has given up to the Green Party again. The Green Party’s nationalisation idea has been accepted by the Labour Party.Hon Member: Who is Labour’s energy spokesman?DAVID BENNETT: Actually I had a look at that. It is Gareth Hughes—that great young man from the Green Party! I had to look up who the Labour Party’s spokesperson on energy is. Who is it?Hon Members: I don’t know.DAVID BENNETT: I do not know. I could not find it. It was Moana Mackey. Tell me that. I have never seen her doing anything.The next one is transport—Iain Lees-Galloway. He has got a great future but he has given in to Julie Anne Genter. I do not know why. I do not know why Julie Anne Genter has got it over Iain Lees-Galloway but she has. The Labour Party is giving up on the roads of national significance. It is saying to the people of the Waikato and Hamilton: “We don’t want your votes. Don’t vote for us. Vote for National.” And we in Hamilton are going to say: “Good on them.”But the best is yet to come. The best is yet to come because the next policy off the rank is foreign affairs. Guess who is going to govern that?Hon Members: Who?DAVID BENNETT: Kennedy Graham. Kennedy Graham is the next Minister of Foreign Affairs under a Labour-Green Government. Kennedy Graham is going to bore the North Koreans out of war. Kennedy Graham will be setting up offices in Damascus for this country. That is the next step for the Labour Party policy.But there is more. Tell me who the Labour Party spokesperson on foreign affairs will be. Nobody knows. Here is the next one. Who will be the Labour Party spokesperson on agriculture? Steffan Browning has got it—Steffan Browning has it. He is going to make everybody go back to the communes on the farms and we are going to have these great 10-year plans that the Labour Party will fall into bed with. That is the future of the Labour Party.Treaty negotiations—who should we give that to? I think Catherine Delahunty. I think Catherine Delahunty has served this Parliament well—more than any Labour Party member has—in regard to Treaty negotiations. The Labour Party will give in to Catherine Delahunty. Catherine Delahunty will be setting up the Treaty negotiations policy for the next Labour Party.That is a shame. It is a real shame for that Labour Party—a Labour Party I once thought great things about but now I cannot see why anyone would vote for it. It is the Green Party in drag. The Labour Party is not the real Opposition here; the Green Party is. That is something that is very sad for those Labour members. Look how meek and quiet they are and they have given up. They have got no fight in them. They have got nothing left in the belly. They have got nothing in the tank. They have got nothing there. Mr Cunliffe is smiling. He is smiling because he knows that if they have got nothing in the tank he is next in line. The Labour Party is over. It is a good thing for New Zealand but it is a sad thing for those members over there. For people like Mr Little sitting there who had such a future in this House it is over—it is over. The Green Party is the real Opposition. Thank you.