Williamson Maurice: General Debate 
Williamson Maurice: General Debate 
[Volume:676;Page:21726] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (Minister for Building and Construction) 
: 
 Listening to the Leader of the Opposition go through Labour’s policies earlier really really did reinforce the earlier comment made by the Minister of Finance that some people live in a little world that is in some sort of parallel universe. They are not aware that there has been a global financial crisis from which the entire world’s economy has taken a battering. They think that somehow New Zealand’s figures should still be exactly as they were. They claim that if the Labour Party was in power there would be nothing but sweetness and light. Then the Labour leader went on to document all the saving policies that would save this country if Labour were to get into power. 
Let me deal with one item in the parallel universe. Right now this House—yesterday today and over the last week or so—has been listening to valedictory speeches from members who have chosen to leave this place before the next election. The sad thing about valedictories is that there is a huge number of Labour MPs who will not get a chance to give a valedictory because they will not be here after the next election. No matter how many times their leader keeps promoting the failed policies that Labour trots out it keeps dropping in the polls. I have copies of all the five major polls and the averages of those. As Labour keeps wheeling out policy—and we hope Labour keeps wheeling out some more policy—down in the polls it goes. 
Let us take Labour’s polling on say Sunday night in the TV3 poll. Now TV3 polls are not normally very complimentary to National so we do not ever look at it and say that the results are good. 
Sue Moroney 
: Ha ha! 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Sue Moroney laughs but I can tell members that in the past the TV3 polls always looked like they had a bit of a bias towards the Labour Party. But let us go with it for the sake of the argument. It showed 26.6 percent support for Labour. That means that Labour would have 32 members coming back to this Parliament after the election. 
Hon David Carter 
: That many? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Yes that many I say to Mr Carter. Now let us have a look at Labour’s list because it is just a juicy thing to be looking at. 
Hon Nathan Guy 
: Who’ve they got? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Hang on; let us go through it. First of all there are 19 sitting Labour constituent MPs of whom I think the majority will come back. I think there are a couple of doubts. In the case of Waimakariri Clayton Cosgrove may have some real difficulties coming back. He is sitting on a very small majority of something like 390. If we want an indication of how worried Clayton Cosgrove is let us look at what he has said in the past. Was he on the party list in 1999 when he first stood? No. Was he on the party list in 2002 when he stood? No. Was he on the party list in 2005 when he stood? No. 
But more important listen to what he said in the Christchurch  
Press 
 about party lists. He said that staying off the party list gives him a choice not to be on the list preferring to get a mandate from the people of his electorate to go to Wellington. He said it gives him a degree of independence from the party and makes him directly responsible to his electors. That is what Clayton Cosgrove said. [ 
Interruption 
] 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member but I advise members that interjections should be directed to the member who has the floor. It is not a time to have a private engagement between members who do not have the floor and have a disagreement. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am sorry to interrupt the debate but I wish to ask you whether it is appropriate for the member Tau Henare to give a Mongrel Mob salute or sign in this House. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Speaking to that point I call the Hon Tau Henare. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: This is actually “hang ten” in Hawaii. [ 
Interruption 
] 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Members will come to order. I call the Hon Maurice Williamson to continue. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: But for this election miraculously after all that pandering and saying that he would not be on the list—that he did not need to be and that he did not want to be beholden to the party—Clayton Cosgrove is on the list. This has to be the first example in history of a rat swimming towards a sinking ship rather than away from one—the first example in history. 
But there is more. If we gave them the option of winning those seats—if we gave them the option of winning all the seats they hold plus the three more that they will possibly take it will mean that Labour will get 10 members from its list. There are no guarantees by the way but let us assume that Labour will take three more. Let us assume that Dave Clark wins Dunedin North Megan Woods wins Wigram and Phil Twyford wins Te Atatu. I do not know whether he will but let us assume so. Even if that is the case it will mean that Labour will get 10 members from its list. 
Those members should not be laughing over there. They should not be smiling. I have to say to Mr Stuart Nash that he is way outside the cut-line. He will be gone. When we took Labour on in the mid-1990s when they were polling 16 percent I remember making humour of that— 
Hon Members 
: 14! 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: No no. At the time Labour was on 16 percent. We made a joke about the movie  
The Sound of Music 
 because it had three songs in it that were appropriate. The first one went “I am sixteen going on seventeen”— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: But the most— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will be seated.