Horan Brendan: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHoran Brendan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 29 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15629. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BRENDAN HORAN (Independent): John Key has presented New Zealand with an election year message. It is a triumph of corporate spin that pretends to deliver for New Zealanders when in reality it does nothing of the sort. It pretends to deliver on jobs on health and on our environment on our rivers and on our oceans when it does nothingof the sort. I can assure you that the voters are not pulled that easily. That is the message that I am getting from Mount Maunganui beach from Papamoa fromGreerton fromŌtūmoetai fromArataki.Yesterday for the first time that party demonstrated that perhaps it can think long term in its headlong rush to congratulateLorde who will not be able to vote until the election after next which is in 2017. So clearly that is National’s idea of long term anyway.But in the Prime Minister’s statement where is the vision to take our children our people to 2020—2020—in terms of trade and education and people’s health welfare and well-being? Where are the educational programmes to teach children to learn to learn to learn? Where are the educational tools to bring our schools into the 21st century and to inspire teachers to teach to teach to teach and to learn? Teachers touch lives for ever but we do not need executive principals lead teachers so-called expert teachers. We simply need democracy—openness honesty and transparency; inseparables—and it has to come first and foremost from the leaders in our society.We have the ludicrous situation where here in Parliament the Government changes the constitution but parliamentarians and those who work within Parliament do not enjoy or live by those rights or work by those rights. How can we have one rule for Parliament and another rule for the rest of our nation? Party politics have provided platforms for party leaders to construct sense-making frameworks that constrain MPs to do their party’s bidding not that of their electorates—the very people who elected them.I will read a quote from Plato: “One of the penalties for not taking an interest in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” In the last election over 800000 people voted with their feet so disheartened were they with the succession of parties that have led New Zealand and that have written legislation that has affected every waking and sleeping moment of every New Zealander’s life. The sad fact is that if I constructed a “Let’s Not Vote Party” it would probably get more votes than the one million votes that National got in 2011 and that shows just how disenfranchised New Zealanders truly are.I take this moment to thank New Zealand First because there is no way that I would be able to stand here and speak on democracy—to talk on true inclusive democracy—if I had not been so undemocratically dumped by the New Zealand First Party. It is a tragedy of our political system that such a party can be captured by one man who did not even stand in an electorate. I can hear the cult screaming now: “But we voted for him.” But what of those people who voted for the principles of New Zealand First which include an MP’s first duty being to the people of New Zealand and their electorate and having an open and accountable Government and what of the fact that New Zealand First campaigned for a fair go? What of those voters who believed that that party would give people a fair go? Ask Ben Craven the party’s youngest candidate in 2011—Andrew Williams: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. This is the debate on the Prime Minister’s statement. This honourable member is not speaking at all to do with the Prime Minister’s statement.Mr SPEAKER: Order! This is a very wide-ranging debate and the member is certainly speaking within the Standing Orders.BRENDAN HORAN: Thank you. As I was saying ask Ben Craven the party’s youngest candidate in 2011 and ask Josh VanVeen whether they got a fair go when they were sacked on a rumour with no investigation no disciplinary hearings and no chance for them to say what really happened—just sacked. This breaks every labour law in the real world but not here within the walls of that political party.So what really happened? Well like most victims of workplace bullying neither of them will talk. But people who know the full story will not be silenced. It turns out that they dared to question the integrity of Mr Peters’ director of operations Apirana Dawson. There was a promising young man who was led to the dark side taken astray by his leader.Mr Williams you must remember this article here: “MPs trade slurs over blog ratings”. Here is a beautiful picture of the honourable Richard Prosser—he looks young and vital—and also a very good-looking Denis O’Rourke. “MPs trade slurs over blog ratings”. I am talking about the same Apirana Dawson who leaked confidential emails between New Zealand First MPs to his friend working for the ChristchurchPress—Andrew Williams: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Surely this is not within the Standing Orders to be getting into personal matters relating to individuals and individual Parliamentary Service staff—surely not.Mr SPEAKER: Well I am afraid that on this occasion when we are having the debate on the Prime Minister’s statement it is a free-ranging debate. The member making these statements needs to do so responsibly. I cannot in any way cease a speech or rule it out of order at this stage.BRENDAN HORAN: Thank you Mr Speaker. This is the same Apirana Dawson who not only leaked confidential emails between New Zealand First MPs to his friend working for the ChristchurchPress in 2012 but also traded expressions with the media using the false name of Bruce Bayliss and also filed Official Information Act requests about an MP using that same false name of Bruce Bayliss. Would taxpayers approve of their money being used in this way—this dabbling in the dark arts? What happened to the principles of that party?One asks what the New Zealand First MPs are doing for Ben Craven and Josh VanVeen the two young researchers unceremoniously and unfairly sacked on hearsay the innocent victims of plots and subterfuges all overseen by the leader of that party. What have New Zealand First MPs done about this injustice? How would one describe a New Zealand political party that would unfairly sack its most loyal staffers in favour of keeping its dodgiest? Is this another demonstration of a political party leader’s serious lack of judgment? How can anyone in that party speak on workers’ rights and be taken seriously or believed?Look closely: you are witnessing the demise of New Zealand First. The question is will New Zealand First MPs have the courage and conviction to take the step that was forced upon me and then broadcast their points of view? I remind those New Zealand First MPs of a quote from Albert Einstein: “Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”But there is a change coming—a fresh new welcome breeze on our political landscape a breeze that promises hope strength integrity and a democratic voice for all New Zealanders. The New Zealand Independent Coalition is being formed and we realise what the rest of the world realises which is that ultra-fast broadband will revolutionise trade education and people’s health and welfare—occupational welfare individual welfare employment welfare spiritual welfare health welfare and wealth welfare.In 2020 there will be 75 billion devices connected to the internet and over 6 billion users. The New Zealand Independent Coalition will prepare our children to learn to learn to learn; to exercise imagination knowledge vision wisdom and judgment; and to pave pathways of prosperity for our people here in our country New Zealand. We would dramatically increase the pace of the ultra-fast broadband roll-out so that New Zealand can compete on an equal basis worldwide. In 2012 at Skycity at the CommerceCommission conference on ultra-fast broadband the statement was made that at current rates in 2017 New Zealand will be where North America was in 2010—