Gosche Mark: General Debate 
Gosche Mark: General Debate 
[Volume:620;Page:15479] 
Hon MARK GOSCHE (Labour—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 Anybody unfortunate enough to listen to the Opposition speeches in this debate today would be wondering whether there is an Opposition in New Zealand. That is a very sad indictment. As we have heard today opposition is a vital part of the democratic system of this country and many other democracies throughout the world. 
Instead we have the National Opposition members wailing and gnashing their teeth because the Government is locking up too many people. That is something that they pretend is a policy of theirs and something that their leader Dr Don Brash made speeches about—but he has been strangely silent on it since—but the next word we get from National Opposition members is that the Government has had the audacity to lock up too many criminals for their taste! 
I suppose that goes hand in hand with all the other contradictory statements. On the one hand Dr Brash says one thing about tax and on the other his spokesperson on finance who is languishing somewhere on the mid-to-back benches is saying he would like to see the top tax rate bracket increased. 
Then there is the National spokesperson on health. The  
New Zealand Herald 
 did a poll asking people who was on the Auckland Regional Council. If one asked them who was in the National Party and what was the name of its spokesperson on health one would get the same result: they would say they did not know. Who is the spokesperson on health for National? I inform anybody who is listening that it is Judith Collins. Judith Collins wants to revisit Dr Brash’s pledge to scrap primary health organisations which are a very very successful new initiative by this Government to allow New Zealanders to have better access to health care and in the longer term to cut back the costs of the more expensive public hospital system. So Dr Brash is saying he will scrap them and Judith Collins—whoever she may be—says maybe not. 
Then of course there is Mr Bill English who got it all wrong in his literacy policy. At least he recognises the fact that we have a literacy policy that is working and that has put New Zealand up there at No. 3. Dr Brash thinks we are down below No. 16. 
What utter confusion there would be if one was trying to establish what that Opposition party’s policies were on anything! It reshuffles from time to time—probably every few weeks—and the poor members opposite end up in a job they do not want. Yesterday Dr Wayne Mapp paraded in the House his absolute lack of knowledge of industrial relations by saying that workers should not get days in lieu when they work on a public holiday and that that was outrageous. The fact that it had been the law for 9 years of a National Government which did not seek to change it and did not say it was wrong shows us that Dr Mapp does not really have his heart in the job. And Simon Power who was quoted in the paper the other day as saying: “I really do want to work on industrial relations. That’s my love.” is the whip! What a shambles! It is an absolute shambles of an Opposition. Any democracy— 
Simon Power 
: Is that the best the member can do? 
Hon MARK GOSCHE 
: It is so uninspiring over there. One likes to come to these debates and feel that there is somebody on the other side whose pulse one could take to prove that he or she was alive but no. Even the ACT party which is running around Auckland wanting to take its own pulse to see whether it is still alive occasionally comes up with a decent debate in the House. New Zealand First scratches around a bit and occasionally hits the mark. But not the National Party. 
Dr Brash is best at the art of opposition when he is in Australia bad-mouthing New Zealand because there is nobody there to question him. The Aussies always like to knock us and Dr Brash likes to join their national sport of knocking Kiwis so he goes over there to practice the art of opposition. When he comes back he sits looking completely bemused and cannot figure out why New Zealanders are insulted by a Opposition leader heading off shore to bag his own country. That is where he does it best. 
There is certainly no evidence that he knows what he is doing in this House. He should take a lead from the Labour Party which has introduced Modern Apprenticeships where people learn on the job. People are taken on and told: “This is how you do it.” Mr McCully should have Dr Brash on a Modern Apprenticeship. He should say to him: “This is how Parliament works Dr Brash.” Then he might actually be confused with a member of the Opposition and a leader.