Twyford PhilPHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): On 30 April 1973 Richard Nixon accepted the forced resignations of Harry Haldeman and John Ehrlichman in the vain hope that blaming others and playing dumb would save his reputation and his administration and kill the story. But the Washington Post and the New York Times and the networks were not buying it. The media was doing its job and it kept on doing its job while Nixon dissembled and diverted. He inverted every legal and moral challenge that was thrown at him and threw them back. He prided himself on his prodigious memory. Nixon never stooped to the I cannot recall" defence. He thought that such a pathetic line diminished his office. It took another 466 days until he arrived at the inevitable truth of the consequences of his carefully constructed cover-up. In the end he did the honourable thing. He lived up to the pledge he made before God and to the people who gave him the power and the privilege of his office. It was 9 August 1974 and I remember the day because we listened to his resignation speech over the intercom in my form 1 class at Glenfield Intermediate.Bill English is standing at a similar crossroads. Will he match the vestiges of decency that Nixon finally mustered at the end and honour the solemn oath that he swore? Will Bill English submit to the Watergate principle that it is always the cover-up that gets you? Or will he try to run down the clock for another 94 days? Will he signal to the police to reopen the investigation that he was complicit in thwarting in the first place so that they can step in and save his arrogant crumbling Government; so that he can try to hide behind the commissioner and say "I can't comment; there's a police investigation."; and so that this broken Government can limp on showering the electorate with more money promises of things to do over 30 years and new poll-driven targets that it has ignored for the last 9 years?Arrogance conceit and hubris—we are watching the decay of another tired National Government. The true state of the English-Joyce Government is now on view. Alfred Ngaro naively revealed how those members think and talk behind the spin. Then Nicky Wagner doubled down on the hapless Ngaro. Do you know what the backbench members are saying now? "Bring back John." That is what they are saying now. That is what they are thinking. That is what they want. At least John Key knew how to run a cover-up and come out of it smiling. Remember Muldoon after 9 years? He was bloated entitled tired and emotional broken bereft of ideas and clinging on to power for its own sake. The game was up and they abandoned him just as Nick Smith and Anne Tolley refused to back their colleague and leader's account—his account of the latest version of events. That was extremely telling.History repeats. Bill English is sliding towards the same fate as Jim McLay and Jenny Shipley before him. This country needs a fresh approach; a fresh approach to housing that will see hard-working Kiwi families get a warm dry home that they can afford not living in a broken-down caravan or one of Nick Smith's rat-infested boarding houses. We need a fresh approach to immigration that will give our biggest city a breather while infrastructure catches up. We need a fresh approach to mental health so that families are not left alone to cope with a family member who is mentally unwell and cannot get treatment. Just like in 1984 just like 1999 this crowd have run out of ideas. They have run out of excuses. They have had 9 years and this is what it has come to.Andrew Little and Jacinda Ardern and the Labour team are ready. New Zealand needs a fresh approach and it needs a new Labour-led Government."