Finlayson Christopher: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Finlayson Christopher: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 14 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6587. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Attorney-General) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. For the record note that there is no written speech. I am not reading any speech. This is a speech that is given from the heart. 
I am very interested in history and I am particularly interested in the history of the Labour Party. That was why a couple of years ago Chris Auchinvole and I went to Blackball to learn all about the Blackball strikes. Darien Fenton refused to speak to us but one or two trade unionists were actually very pleasant. And that was why I was so interested to hear about the New Zealand Fabian Society seminar  
The Kirk Legacy 
 which we are told in this pamphlet was 3 years of courage and achievement. We have here dear old Norman as the centrepiece—I do not whether the photo was taken when he was shooting pigeons from the third floor of Parliament—we have a photo of Fred Dagg and we have a lovely photo of Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan a wonderful woman. It was my privilege to get to know her in recent years. She was treated appallingly badly by the Labour Party. Helen Clark treated her like dirt. Then we have a very nice photo of another person I really respected Bill Rowling a good man. He was a really very nice man also treated appallingly by his colleagues in the Labour Party. 
When I read this pamphlet I initially thought it was out of  
Private Eye 
 but apparently there is an organisation called the Fabian Society. It is organised by some historian—or self-styled historian—guy in Auckland who runs a dairy in Mount Roskill and I understand— 
Hon Annette King 
: So what’s wrong with that you snob? 
Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON 
: —that it is mixture of myth-making and airbrushing people out of history. I would say this to “Her Honour”: just keep quite and listen. 
The introduction was by this fellow called Gerard Hill. I was very surprised that Michael Bassett was not invited to speak. He wrote a very good book on the history of the Labour Party and a very splendid book I thought called  
Working with David 
—was it working with David or against him—a history of the Lange Government. [ 
Interruption 
] Oh it was Cunliffe’s book. Then we had a contribution “Big Norm Big Labour and Big Ideas” by Colin James who was an apologist for the luvvies then and is now. We had a contribution “Mururoa and Nuclear Power” from Kennedy “I charge you with ecocide” Graham a lovely guy; it is just a shame he immatures with age. Then we had Bob Tizard 90 and going strong. And then “The Future”—the future belongs to Jacinda Ardern the Labour MP. 
Like all Labour publications or Fabian Society publications it is replete with falsehoods. For example we are told that Labour established the Accident Compensation Corporation when we all know that it was Jack Marshall’s Government in 1972 that started it up when David Thomson was the Minister of Labour. I see that some of the third-grade apparatchiks on the other side look confused because they do not know their party’s history. Then we are told that the Treaty of Waitangi process which Norman Kirk promoted has been an unqualified success. Well we all know that the years 1999 to 2008 were a disgrace in Treaty settlement terms because they achieved nothing and we also know that Mat Rata walked out of the Labour Party. Norm Kirk established our international environmental reputation? Well that is rubbish because Jack Marshall appointed the first Minister for the Environment. “The establishment of a New Zealand national shipping line was also a statement of independence.”—and also economic lunacy! Then we have the “inspiring action” of Martyn Finlay—and they could not spell Martyn Finlay’s name properly. It is in the pamphlet as M-a-r-t-i-n F-i-n-l-e-y when anyone who knows anything knows that it is M-a-r-t-y-n F-i-n-l-a-y. 
So what we actually have is a most amazing attempt to airbrush people out of history. As I say where was Michael Bassett? Where was Roger Douglas who was such a fine Postmaster-General in the time of Norman Kirk? These people were here as Winston would know. These people could have made a contribution. 
So what sort of seminar are they going to have when they look at the years of David Shearer in years to come? This history of the Labour Party from 1972 to 1975 brings us to the history that will be occurring at this weekend’s Labour Party conference because David Shearer and the leadership are history. Their future propagandists will not have to airbrush out Shearer’s loyal troops because they will be moved to the sidelines just as Labour moved Peter Fraser to the sidelines for many years.