King Annette: General Debate 
King Annette: General Debate 
[Volume:652;Page:1849] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
: 
 I really enjoyed Tony Ryall’s little performance at the beginning of his speech—his little dance and hop and the waving of his arm. I think it deserves a nice little song to go with it like the song that was sung to him at the opening of Wellington Hospital which was “If You’re Happy and You’re Healthy Clap Your Hands”. So let us give him a big clap—the clap that he deserves. 
I have to tell the House that the mask is starting to crack. The National Government’s carefully arranged smiley friendly face mask is starting to change; it is on the move. Day by day the cracks are getting wider as the Government’s real agenda is starting to be exposed. National members duped the people of New Zealand into believing that they were not the Tories of the past and that they were not Don Brash’s National Party from a mere 3 years ago. National members said that that party had been killed off and buried. They said that they no longer believed in race-based attacks on Maori that they no longer believed in bashing workers and beneficiaries that the privatisation agenda was gone that their Business Roundtable mates were gone and that they were now “Labour-lite”. 
As John Key said it was a matter of doing whatever it took to get into Government. Our political foes cuddled up to all our policies. They positively embraced and extolled them. One could almost accuse them of thinking they invented our policies. They tried to convince New Zealanders that they could have all of Labour’s policies and a brand new shiny smiley leader thrown in for good measure. They told voters that they now backed paid parental leave; 4 weeks’ paid holiday; Kiwibank; KiwiSaver; early childhood education although minus the word “free”; the Superannuation Fund; affordable visits to the doctor; and our antinuclear policy—the list went on. They told New Zealanders that yes they could have it all. But in the past few weeks large cracks have been appearing in the carefully arranged mask. 
We are now seeing glimpses in Government of the real National Party agenda. That agenda is not being acted out by the National Party leader; he is doing what Bill English says he always does best—just bouncing from cloud to cloud. John Key is the emperor with no clothes. If we take away the smiley face the talkfest the token gestures and the story about the State house and how his mum was a solo mother there is very little behind that. The real agenda is being acted out by the old National Party members. They never went away. They are the movers and shakers in Cabinet and they have the same old policies the same old rhetoric and the same old results for New Zealanders. It was only a matter of days before the National Government brought in the first bill to bash workers—the fire-at-will bill. It was not long before they attacked public servants and it was not long before they wanted to fiddle with the superannuation scheme. 
We have the old apparatchik Bill English. He is still there; he has not changed. He never changed his mind about privatisation. The mask almost slipped down completely during the election campaign when he said that National would sell Kiwibank but not just now. It is his job to soften up Kiwis for the fire sale that is coming. Then we have Tony Ryall. He has not changed his mind about carving up the public health system. He has not changed his mind about the people of New Zealand paying more to go to the doctor. Then there is Nick Smith. Before he even became the Minister for ACC he was planning to privatise accident compensation. One has to say that his extravagant language and over-the-top frenetic behaviour in the past few weeks must be aimed at scaring New Zealanders into accepting a second-rate scheme privatisation and cuts. Then there is Judith Collins. It did not take even 100 days before she got into privatising the prisons of New Zealand. Then there is the old plotter himself Murray McCully—the mover and shaker of all National Party agendas. He has been busy destroying New Zealand’s international reputation regarding overseas aid. 
You see this Government has not changed its spots because old leopards cannot. I tell New Zealanders to look out because Don Brash Mark II is back. John Key might be the face—the mask—they are looking at but behind that mask the same people are there. I say “Look out!” to Pacific Islanders women union leaders workers beneficiaries Labour supporters environmentalists and artists. This is Groundhog Day.