Gallagher Martin: General Debates 
Gallagher Martin: General Debates 
[Volume:606;Page:3800] 
MARTIN GALLAGHER (NZ Labour—Hamilton West) 
: 
 I acknowledge the speech given by my New Zealand First colleague from Hamilton. I do not necessarily agree with all its contents obviously. I think the issue in this debate is to look at the way in which Bill English in the recent speech he gave in the South Island town of Gore—[ 
Interruption 
] Indeed people in Gore want to know who he is. Nearly 3 years ago Bill English gave a speech in Balclutha— 
David Benson-Pope 
: He has closed his office in Balclutha. 
MARTIN GALLAGHER 
: He closed his office in Balclutha but he gave a very interesting speech there. I quote his message to the National Party at that time as reported in the  
Southland Times 
 of 1 April 2000: “His address to the party faithful ... centred on winning back the punters and stopping the party decline. ‘The groups which vote for us are the ones who are shrinking fastest. We lose 1.5 seats each election just on demographics alone. The new voters will be young and brown. If we’re not getting their vote we’re not going to get into Parliament.’” The article went on to state: “Mr English said the young preferred to vote for smaller parties. Same with the old he added. Only one in four of the over-60s had voted for National. ‘It’s a legacy of the mistrust older people now have for National.’” 
I suggest to the House that the reason Mr English is focusing on New Zealand citizenship as it relates to this country’s founding document the Treaty of Waitangi has nothing whatsoever to do with developing a notion of citizenship. Rather it has to do with the incredible hysteria and fear that we know are going on in this very room and in the backrooms of the National Party. National members’ fear is not so much that they are dealing with a Government that is dominant in poll after poll and also in terms of the Prime Minister’s ratings. Rather their fear is about what they now find on the Opposition front bench. If Mr McCully looks along the Opposition front bench who does he see? He sees Mr Winston Peters and his band New Zealand First and he well knows as the great tactician that he was at the last election what that means. I think that Annabel Young had some nice things to say about Mr McCully in that little  
Ally McBeal 
 tacticians’ room.  
But Mr McCully knows what is in store; he knows who has arrived in the nest. The cuckoo Winston Peters is in the nest and he is ready to gouge out the centre-right vote. Let us make no bones about it Winston Peters’ game plan is to replace that lot as the dominant player in the declining centre-right of politics in this country. That is the reason and the only reason that Bill English is focusing on the Treaty of Waitangi. He is under threat not just from Mr Brownlee and possibly Dr Brash but as a long shot from Simon Power. We are running odds on the Opposition side of the House being about Simon Power with Katherine Rich as his deputy. Those are the odds. Some of us are betting people in spite of the Responsible Gambling Bill and we are running some sweepstakes. The odds are beginning to close. National members know that they have to move into the so-called fertile area they think for them of the Treaty of Waitangi because they are—and I am not allowed to use the word for the bovine thing in this Parliament; the expletive is deleted—scared of New Zealand First and what Winston Peters wants to do to them.  
Let us look at the record of National members when they were in Government. In 1995 in an urgent debate on the Waitangi Day protest the Hon John Luxton said: “We can then address the other issues of underachievement in our society as we are required to do under article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi in relation to those in the lower socioeconomic parts of our society.” In 1999 the then Minister of Justice the Hon Tony Ryall said in response to an oral question: “Maori and the Crown enjoy a direct relationship under the Treaty of Waitangi.” Tony Ryall also said in 1999 that “The treaty plays an important role in all aspects of Government in New Zealand”. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.