Gallagher Martin: General Debate 
Gallagher Martin: General Debate 
[Volume:649;Page:18023] 
MARTIN GALLAGHER (Labour—Hamilton West) 
: 
 I really want to say that Maurice Williamson is an honest man. Maurice Williamson is an honest man. Indeed whoever sneaked into a National Party conference with secret microphones or tape recorders should know that one does not need to do that with Maurice to get an orchestrated litany of truth. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Marian Hobbs) 
: To those of us who were riveted to the television screens I have the bad news that we are still on the general debate which normally ends at about a quarter to five. 
MARTIN GALLAGHER 
: Madam Speaker you said that the bad news was that we were still on the general debate but the good news is that the National Party’s secret agenda for this country is finally secret no more. As I said in the  
Waikato Times 
 to my community the other day I thank Maurice Williamson for his honesty. I thank him for his integrity and for having backbone. I thank him for having the courage of his beliefs. He is not slippery; with Maurice what we see is what we get. Maurice has given us a wonderful insight into the real agenda of the National Party. We do not need some adventurous souls to sneak into a National Party conference with some microphones or dictation machines or whatever in order to get an orchestrated litany of truth. Maurice went on  
Agenda 
 on Sunday and said it how it is. 
Let us consider the toll road issue. There have been articles in the  
Waikato Times 
 such as “Nats eye toll to speed expressway”; there was damage control on all of that. Then there was the wonderful headline to the  
Waikato Times 
 editorial on Tuesday 26 August: “Road work will take its toll”. The real toll indeed has been the integrity of the National Party which thought it could somehow sneak its way—sneaky sneaky—into the Beehive. It thought it could somehow go through an election campaign without revealing what it really stood for and could keep the other 10 or 20 pages of its policy—because it gives the media the one-page release—in the top drawer. It thought somehow it could do nothing be on some sort of autopilot and say nothing. It thought it could hear no evil speak no evil and sneak into the Beehive. 
Fortunately there are people with backbone such as Maurice Williamson who is at least prepared to talk politics. An election in a democracy is about an exchange of ideas a contest of ideas and I think that is wonderful. In terms of the contest of ideas— 
Pansy Wong 
: Where are the ideas? 
MARTIN GALLAGHER 
: Pansy Wong should answer me that. We talk about freedom of speech but what is truly chilling is that Maurice Williamson was due to go on  
Nine to Noon 
 then the thought control police the minders took him off a minute before he was due to go on. Maurice was no more. Then Bill English went into some sort of damage-control mode. It is a bit like someone disappearing off to Siberia. Maurice has suddenly become a non-person. We ask people who Maurice Williamson is and they say blankly: “Who’s he? Never heard of him.”. He has basically disappeared. 
Speaking of tolls I say to the member Sandra Goudie that she is remarkably silent this evening. I challenge her to stand up in the House tonight and tell us her view on the toll for the Kopu bridge. The good Mayor of the Thames-Coromandel District Philippa Barriball would tell her in no uncertain terms what the future for the toll for the Kopu bridge should be. Will that toll be $6? Will there be a “Dr Wayne Mapp $6 toll” for the Auckland Harbour Bridge? If one lives over the bridge and goes to Thames or if one goes home for lunch to Ngatea how much would one pay a week? It would be $60 or $100. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: $120. 
MARTIN GALLAGHER 
: It would be $120. Maurice Williamson said there would be some kind of exemption for local people. I ask Sandra Goudie to stand up in this House and tell us which places the exemption card would cover. Would it cover Thames or Ngatea? Would it cover the coast? Would it cover Whitianga or Paeroa? What is the local area? I ask Sandra Goudie to front up.