Smith Nick: General Debate 
Smith Nick: General Debate 
[Volume:630;Page:2507] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 The only sure bet is that this Government is on the ropes and on the way out. It is a tired divided Government that is reeking with scandal. We just look through the lack of moral authority that it has to govern by going through its front bench. We can look in terms of Trevor Mallard and the mess he has made of young people’s scholarship and examinations. We can look at Steve Maharey and the mess he has made of tertiary education which has to be cleaned up by Dr Cullen. Then we look at the Prime Minister with “paintergate” with “corngate” with “Doone-gate” with “speedgate” with the pledge-card mess and now the Auditor-General’s report on the dodgy arrangements for buying off the Green Party’s support. Now we have the splits at the highest level of the Government between Dr Cullen and Helen Clark which show the degree to which the Government is on the way out. 
The problem for the Government is that every single one of its front-bench Ministers has a track record of messing things up for ordinary New Zealanders which now sees the reputation of those Ministers in tatters. 
I just want to highlight further the debacle that has occurred over Kyoto in just 1 year. A year ago we were to believe that New Zealanders were to make hundreds of millions of dollars from the Government’s decision to ratify Kyoto. Then it had to admit prior to the election that not only had the numbers reversed to negative but New Zealand faced a $560 million bill as a consequence of ratifying Kyoto. Then today the Minister responsible for Climate Change Issues Pete Hodgson the master of this mess more or less admitted in the House that it was not $500 million but a billion dollars. Then he said that that was not very much. So a billion dollars is not very much! It actually comes to $250 for every man woman and child in this country. We face that huge price because Prime Minister Helen Clark wanted a pretty photo opportunity in South Africa with her left-wing mates by early ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. That is what it came down to. 
Hon David Carter 
: Sold New Zealanders down the drain. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: She sold New Zealanders down the drain. We now have a huge price. Then in the House today Pete Hodgson made another amazing comment that if we pay a billion dollars to the Russians the weather will be better. How many members believe that? Maybe if we pay $2 billion to the Russians Pete Hodgson will be able to guarantee the weather for New Zealanders. 
But it is more serious because this week we have a senior scientist within the Ministry of Economic Development saying that it was not officials who had goofed the numbers but it was at Pete Hodgson’s direction. Let me read out what Dr Kevin Patterson had to say about who was responsible for this mess: “The energy modelling team at the time did all the work working out what the projections were going to be. Then they came up with a final number and they had this big whack taken out of it and that was Pete Hodgson’s initiative.” The reporter asked: “So you’re saying Pete Hodgson stuffed it up?”. “That’s right.” the senior official said. So not only do we have a billion-dollar mess-up not only do we have this Government covering it up—that is what the Auditor-General said—but also we now have the knowledge that it is actually a billion-dollar problem. The reality for the Government is that the chickens are coming home to roost. They are coming home to roost in terms of the breakdown in the relationship between Prime Minister Helen Clark and Michael Cullen. They are coming home to roost in terms of the mess that was made with the Tertiary Education Commission in respect of Kyoto etc. It is time this Government gave it up so that a decent Government could take control.