Power Simon: Veterinarians Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Power Simon: Veterinarians Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:945] 
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 I have been looking forward to taking a call on Part 4— 
Darren Hughes 
: He wants to go on the council! 
SIMON POWER 
: Mr Hughes chips in and says that I want to be on the council. It seems to me there are a fair number of candidates on the other side who would make excellent lay people on the Veterinary Council not the least of whom is dear old Paul Swain there—one of the good centrists and moderates of the caucus who is about to gracefully exit. This would be a good way for “Swainy and the boys” to make a few dollars on the side when they leave Parliament. We would support his nomination. If he puts his nomination in National will support Paul Swain going on the council. I tell members that the thing that worries us about good people such as Paul Swain who are sliding out of the Labour Party is that we will be left with a whole lot of lefties over there with none of the sort of sensible middle-of-the-road guys like Jim Sutton and Paul Swain. We always know. We can smell it coming. And poor old Swainy who is well regarded on all sides of the House is on his way out. He has done the honourable thing and decided he will move on before the axe falls. I tell Swainy to come on over. If he wants to be on the council we will sort it out for him. 
Of course we have plenty of other candidates to choose from although none of them are as good as Paul Swain and Jim Sutton. But I could imagine Dianne Yates on the council. She knows a lot about taking tails off dogs. She would be an ideal person for this particular committee. Or Jill Pettis would be an excellent person to have on the committee. Martin Gallagher sits at the back there smiling and shaking his head. But we all know that secretly he wants to give away the chair of the Law and Order Committee and get himself on to the Veterinary Council. I tell members that it would be easier for him to manage that than the Law and Order Committee where he has to rely on Ron Mark turning up some time in the first 10 minutes to make sure he has a quorum. Poor old Martin Gallagher is struggling in that job. This is a job for him. Let us get Martin Gallagher on to the Veterinary Council. He could sit there with Swainy and Jim Sutton. They would make a great team. 
What about Russell Fairbrother? Poor old Russell Fairbrother. He was on the way up. He got the suicide posting of having to chair the Fisheries and Other Sea-related Legislation Committee. He was a future Attorney-General and Minister of Justice but he was swatted in Napier and now he is destined for the Veterinary Council. Poor old Russell Fairbrother! Whatever happened to him? 
What about that nice Rick Barker? Whatever happened to him? I say to members that of all the Ministers that this Government has had he signed JPs’ nominations better than anybody else when he was in charge. 
Hon Paul Swain 
: Rick Barker should be on the council. 
SIMON POWER 
: Paul Swain says that Rick Barker should be on the Veterinary Council. [ 
Interruption 
] With a name like Barker that is quite right. If we had Swainy on the council we would have more of those little quips. I say well done to Paul Swain and I think Rick Barker should chair it. 
What about poor old Moana Mackey? I have to confess I think Moana Mackey makes an intelligent contribution to this House. Unfortunately she is languishing at the bottom of the Labour list. She is gone. I think she would make a valuable contribution to the Veterinary Council. I think that would be an ideal place. She could talk about the effect of student loans on cats. I think it would be an excellent place for her to be. She has a big future on the Veterinary Council along with Martin Gallagher if he gives away the Law and Order Committee and along with Paul Swain who is gracefully trying to retire. 
What about Shane Jones? I tell him to cut out the middleman and go straight to the Veterinary Council. He should forget about Cabinet and go round the Finance and Expenditure Committee and straight on to the Veterinary Council. National will even support his nomination if that is where he wants to go. I figure that David Parker’s workload is so small that if he was put on the Veterinary Council sure he would refuse to do media interviews about the appointment for a month but in the end he would get on to the council and do some serious and real work because he has made such an impact on the transport area and on climate change—he has been the Minister for 3 weeks and carbon tax has gone. 
So that is what the composition of the lay people on the council would look like. We would have a rotating system of lay people like Dianne Yates Jill Pettis Russell Fairbrother Moana Mackey Jim Sutton and Paul Swain—a man who I believe could make a seriously valuable contribution in that arena.