Mitchell Mark: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mitchell Mark: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 14 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6599. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney) 
: 
 I am very happy to take a call in this general debate. I have had to listen today to the Opposition going on about how this Government this party is making fun of a serious situation. We are not actually making fun of anything. What I would say is this. For a Parliament to work well it is generally recognised that you have to have a good strong Opposition. We do not have a good strong Opposition in this country. 
I would like to refer to a letter that was received by a constituent of mine and he has given me permission to use it in the House today. Not only is he someone who focuses on keeping the Government to account but also he wants to make sure that he is being serviced by a strong Opposition. 
Hon Members 
: What does he say? 
MARK MITCHELL 
: Well I will tell you what it says but before I do that before I read this letter I would just like to come back and mention something that Minister Coleman said earlier in his speech and that is the fact that actually David Shearer is a good man. I think he is a good man. He has done some great things in his life. He could be an excellent leader for the Labour Party but the fact of the matter is that it is hard to soar like an eagle when you are surrounded by turkeys and I think that is probably the situation that Mr Shearer finds himself in. 
This is the sort of letter that Labour members send out in their leader’s name. This letter is to my constituent explaining what they are planning to do on 20 September 2012: “I can assure you …”—the start is not too bad actually. “I can assure you that Labour MPs are concentrating on their portfolios.” Well they always say to start a letter with a bit of comedy and I guess that he got 10 out of 10 for that. 
Jami-Lee Ross 
: Does it have stutters in it? 
MARK MITCHELL 
: No it does not. But then he went on to say: “We are working on a number of important things at the moment.” Well the comedy has gone too far now. It has got to stop. I will not read you the rest of the letter—the whole letter—because it will probably put you to sleep but I will get to the last part of the letter. It says: “Labour is developing bold new ideas to grow.”—bold new ideas to grow. I would say that a mauling by a white mouse would be more bold than some of the ideas we have seen being generated by the Opposition. 
It continues: “We will be talking a lot more about our plan for the economy in the weeks and months ahead.” Well this was written on 20 September 2012. In all fairness I guess we can say that we are starting to see some policy being announced by the Opposition: turning contractors into employees banning plastic bags in tuck shops reversing employment law change—what does that mean? Picking on poor defenceless hobbits? This is the sort of stuff that is being generated from the Opposition members and that is why if they feel that there has been some fun poked at them they are leaving themselves wide open to it because you are the Opposition— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! Order! 
MARK MITCHELL 
: Sorry Mr Assistant Speaker you are quite right. I would like to come back and just read a quote here from an ex - Labour candidate. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: What’s it say? 
MARK MITCHELL 
: This is what it says: “We’re waiting for David Shearer to give us the Labour narrative. … Where’s he headed? What is his direction?”. That is Josie Pagani in the 
 New Zealand Herald 
. That is what the country is waiting for and it is not getting it. 
The other thing that I would like to do—and I know you are going to be shocked but I would like to recognise David Cunliffe. 
Scott Simpson 
: Why? 
MARK MITCHELL 
: Well I will tell you why. We talk about transparency in this Parliament and I sat up there you know at the back of the House—if I was any further back I would be in the car-park—but it gives me a pretty good look at what is going on in the House and I have to give credit to Mr Cunliffe that he almost missed his question because he was so focused on lobbying Mr Cosgrove for the leadership. I think that to come into the House and start lobbying a colleague like that is something pretty special. 
I am sure Opposition members would like to get up and talk about what is important to them what they are achieving and what they are doing but they cannot—that is right—because there is not really much that they can get up and talk about. But I would say this. Today there is something going on in relation to Mr Trevor Mallard and Andrew Little— 
Dr David Clark 
: Tell us a story about Borat—tell us a story about Borat. Come on tell us a story about Borat. 
MARK MITCHELL 
: I will tell you a story about—