Woolerton R Doug: General Debate 
Woolerton R Doug: General Debate 
[Volume:624;Page:19656] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 I must admit that New Zealand First members have taken a great deal of joy from looking at recent events as they have unfolded between the National Party and the Labour Party. In fact we have been laughing so much that it has held up our policy releases. So we will have to ask the Labour Party when it intends to call the next election. 
One thing that concerned me as I read through the John Tamihere exposé was the words he applied to some of his colleagues. The particular word that I could not get my head around was “tosser”. I am intrigued by my National colleague and previous speaker Maurice Williamson because I thought that coming from the National Party he would know what a tosser is. Evidently he does not. He had to go to the dictionary. For my part I had to go to our researchers. I asked them: “What is this word that John Tamihere is applying to his colleague Chris Carter?”. 
Simon Power 
: What did they say? 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: They told me what a tosser is. They had some other words for it which I do not want to repeat. Quite frankly I was shocked and I said: “This cannot be.” I cannot imagine for one minute a person who has been a Cabinet Minister in Her Majesty’s Government saying these sorts of things about his colleague. Yet evidently that is what he did. 
Rodney Hide 
: But is it true? 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: It could well be true. I do not know whether it is true but that is what he did. He went on to describe other members of the organisation as “butch”. He talked about the Labour Party through the 1993 election which was a wee while ago—I want to know when the next election will be rather than what happened back in 1993—and cast aspersions on most of his colleagues which after we got over the laughter we decided was very very sad. 
What we are seeing now as we lead up to the election is a battle between National and Labour. It is not a battle of wits or of ideology; it is a battle for power. This is purely and simply a fight for power—one to hold on to it and one to gain it. I am sad that this is what the forthcoming election is turning into. I hope that the people of New Zealand are watching this battle very very carefully because there are alternatives. New Zealand First is the alternative that people need to look to as we go through this battle. 
Serious things are happening in this economy and this country—things that New Zealand First has predicted for many years would happen. They are coming to fruition now. It saddens us that we are seeing these two old parties bereft of ideas and just slagging each other. In fact they are not even just slagging each other they are slagging themselves and fighting amongst themselves. One party is riven from within. It has at least three leaders whom we know of. The other party is riven between the boys and the girls as we see it. We do not think that is what an election should be about. 
New Zealand First puts out a challenge to both the Labour Party and the National Party to give us some ideas. What are they going to do about the $9 billion deficit? What are they going to do about immigration? What are they going to do to get the productive sector of this country going? What are they going to do about these things? Mr Hide who is trying to interject would not know. We do not have to ask these people what is happening for our sake; we are asking on behalf of New Zealand. New Zealand First will be out there not only highlighting the problems but also providing the solutions that we hope to take to this country. We are very very confident that New Zealanders will say: “Yes New Zealand First is the party we want to take us into the future.”