Fenton Darien: General Debate 
Fenton Darien: General Debate 
[Volume:650;Page:18711] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 There we have it! There has been a big storm going on in this House but things have quietened down a bit. Today I saw a desperate National Party trying to divert attention from all the problems in its own ranks. It is not really surprising that leaks are happening especially when we think of all those unhappy National MPs who have been sidelined by John Key. They have been left out and they have not been consulted about policy. They have come out and told the truth and then they have just been sidelined embarrassed and humiliated in public. 
Chris Tremain 
: Name one. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: I will name them—Bill English over Kiwibank Kate Wilkinson over KiwiSaver poor old Maurice Williamson over the $50-a-week toll and Tony Ryall over an increase in doctors’ fees. Soon there will not be anyone in the National Party who has not been ridiculed in public by John Key as he continues to dumb down National. 
How many National policies have been leaked in the last week? Is it two? 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: It’s more than that. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Four. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Four? 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: No five. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Five! That must be why National rushed out its housing and building policies yesterday to prevent another leak— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: But I didn’t have the housing one. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: That is interesting but that release was a little bit late. We have another day another leak. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Another week another two leaks. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: OK! 
Then there was the Lord Ashcroft cover-up. I am very interested in that because that was leaked by a National Party insider. Lord Ashcroft is a massive contributor to the Conservative Party in the UK and he has used his political connections to ruthlessly advance his own interests. Mr Ashcroft has a 50 percent share of the Belize shipping register known as a flag of convenience. What is a flag of convenience? That is where countries can attract foreign shipping because of their poor labour and safety standards. So if Lord Ashcroft is giving money to the National Party I wonder what the price is going to be. I notice that he also owns a large part of the Belize Bank—is that where Kiwibank would go? Is that who National might sell it to? 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Belize? 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Yes to Belize. No one believes that silly story—that National’s policy papers were accidentally lost by an MP but that does tell a story about the shambolic state of the National Party and its caucus. 
Today it is the biggie—it is National’s health policy. What a scary document that is! It is a bit of a re-spinning of Tony Ryall’s admission that National would remove the cap on doctors’ fees. Instead we see that cheaper doctors’ fees and prescription charges will be “kept in the short term”. Well that is really worrying. I feel worried for families. I say to the previous speaker Gordon Copeland that he should be worried for the families that he says he is concerned about. Families depend on lower doctors’ fees and prescription charges and they will not be able to depend on them by the sound of it if National becomes the Government. 
The other thing I will talk about in the health policy is something that Tony Ryall has gone on and on about and that is reducing bureaucracy in the health system—using the usual offensive National Party term for hard-working New Zealanders. Today at lunchtime I met with some of the representatives of the 7000 clerical and administrative workers in the public hospital system. Those 7000 people keep our hospital system ticking over. They answer the phones they meet the patients on arrival they manage the booking systems they keep the records and they provide a valuable public service. If it were not for those clerical workers health professionals would not be able to do their jobs. Those front-line staff—nurses and doctors—would not be able to do their jobs because they would be diverted into administrative tasks instead of caring for people and therefore efficiency in our public hospitals would dramatically decline. I doubt that Tony Ryall thinks about these things because in National’s view these good women and men are faceless non-people whom that party continues to demonise. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: And attack. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: I am really really offended by National’s attack on these so-called bureaucrats when we are talking about real people who carry out very real jobs. 
We have said in this House today that John Key has a big problem. The public do not trust him. They think—in fact they know—he has a secret agenda and they can also see that he has no conviction. They know he will just say whatever it takes. Even in his own electorate of Helensville which I have a small interest in at the moment he is not fronting up. Genesis wants to build a monstrous great thermal power station in their backyard and the residents are very concerned about it but John Key was too busy to meet with his constituents. Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker.