King Annette: General Debates 
King Annette: General Debates 
[Volume:619;Page:14814] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Health) 
: 
 “It is one thing to be humiliated by your opponents. It is another to be humiliated by your own leader.” Those were the words of John Armstrong of the  
New Zealand Herald 
 commenting on the Don Brash reshuffle. I agree with that. He then went on to say: “Dr Brash tried to portray his new line-up as a Government-in-waiting but it falls a few moves short of that.” I agree with that as well. 
Don Brash has done more than that. He has fanned the flames of discontent that were lit last year when his caucus stabbed Bill English in the back. He started a fire within his own caucus that is now burning out of control. Dissatisfaction and pent-up frustration is spilling out around the parliamentary corridors and the press gallery and in the little smoke-filled rooms. The malcontents are leaking like a sieve. They cannot wait to get out and tell people what they think. 
I will tell members of a few of the things the malcontents said last week. The National Party’s own members are going around and leaking everywhere. The former brat pack and co.—Mr Sowry Lynda Scott Tony Ryall—believe it will be only a matter of months before Bill English is back as leader of their party. He will be back. They are waiting for him to come back because they have never got over the fact that they are now in the hands of new boy Mr Brash and of Gerry Brownlee whom they have never rated at all. The malcontents are now calling the caucus “The Don Brash Show” because only one performer is allowed to hold sway. Dr Brash’s autocratic and absolutely ruthless style—known over at the Reserve Bank—is now in their caucus and they do not like it at all. One of the National Party members was so angry last week that he said that if Don Brash were to fall into an offal pit he would not pull him out. 
Katherine Rich a person with some integrity and talent is opposed to time-limited benefits. She has been told by Don Brash that there will be time-limited benefits. I predict that Katherine Rich will have to make a decision either to stay in this place or to hold true to her beliefs. 
John Carter a person I have a lot of respect for has served his time as the chief whip. He has given to all the National Party leaders over the years. He wanted one thing and one thing alone—the chance should National become the Government to be the Speaker. What happened to him? He was rolled for the price of the Tamaki seat. National will put in a Brash lookalike and that has John Carter seething mad. I do not blame him. 
Clem Simich a man I have great respect for was forced out of his seat by a nasty undermining campaign. He has been promised the Speaker’s job but—listen to this—has not been promised a high position on the list. Do members know why? National does not want Mr Simich back in the House—the plan is that he will lose. 
The former health spokesperson Lynda Scott has really been pushed out of her job. She has been dumped out of her job. She was told that she would not become the Minister of Health should National become the Government so she is leaving. She will become a general practitioner in a primary health organisation. 
Now the fan is being turned up a little more and the eyebrows have gone up a little higher amongst the National Party caucus because Don Brash has just anointed the next National Party leader Simon Power. I quote John Armstrong again: Mr Power is the “future emperor without clothes” with a fig leaf “too small to hide his embarrassment”. He is the future leader who has had to be demoted to be promoted. That is a very strange way of running a caucus. 
Dr Paul Hutchison was tipped to be the health spokesperson. Dr Hutchison is well qualified respected and prepared to listen but he was passed over for a Brash acolyte who has shown no understanding of the health system and even less support for those who work in it. National is in a mess.