Coleman Jonathan: General Debate 
Coleman Jonathan: General Debate 
[Volume:635;Page:6519] 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (National—Northcote) 
: 
 If ever a member were headed for the knacker’s yard quite frankly it would be the member whom we have just heard from Jill Pettis. She is probably too tough to turn into glue. She has been in Parliament for three terms but no one knows her and she does not even know the Standing Orders. I can tell Mrs Pettis that very soon she will be able to collect her pointy hat jump on the broom and head back to Wanganui for good. Normally I would be telling her campaign manager to do plenty of radio but in this case I do not know whether it would be a good idea. 
We have heard today that this is the Government of ideas. And it is. It is the Government of stupid ideas; it is the Government of middle-class welfare; it is the Government of retrospective legislation; and of course it is the Government of an unplanned stadium with no site no costings and no guarantee. I ask members to picture the day of the final of the Rugby World Cup 2011. The former Minister for the Rugby World Cup the now disgraced High Commissioner for Niue is sitting in the high commissioner’s residence eyeing that bottle of Heineken on the table rueing the comments he made in 2003 about John O’Neill and turning on his TV to see the All Blacks run on to Homebush. That is what we are headed for. On that day it is quite possible that down on the Auckland waterfront we will have a half-submerged half-built stadium and a $1.5 billion bill for the New Zealand taxpayer. 
Of course that is what has happened throughout this whole thing. Mr Mallard has approached this whole Rugby World Cup issue with a loose wire connecting his brain and his jaw. He got very excited heading off to Dublin. He was fulfilling his boyhood dream rubbing shoulders with the International Rugby Board and wearing his New Zealand Rugby Union tie wherever he went. He loved being up there on stage with Tana—members should have seen him last week with Jock Hobbs—he loves the limelight. He has been captured by fulfilling this childhood dream. But that is the problem. This stadium is all about politics; it is not about sport and it is not about what is best for New Zealand. 
Contradictions are running right through Labour’s approach to this issue. Four months ago MPs were invited to a confidential briefing on Eden Park with the non-existent Minister with responsibility for Auckland Issues. She was saying that we had to get behind this stadium and that it would be fantastic. Who is the Minister with responsibility for Auckland Issues? We were hoping she would be taking a call in this debate because she has had a lot to say. But I guess she has pretty much been told to shut up and hide away. At that stage the Government wanted Eden Park and everyone had to get behind it. It had to be a cross-party thing; we had to be totally supportive. Now the tack has changed and I want to know why the Government did not come up with this proposal for a waterfront stadium a year ago. It has had plenty of time. But it is so craven that it will do anything to win the next election. Helen Clark hates rugby; I do not know why she wants this waterfront stadium. Why is it? I will tell members the reason for it. 
Jill Pettis 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Given the—[ 
Interruption 
] Sit down! 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will be seated. 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Yes mum. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will now stand withdraw and apologise. 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: I withdraw and apologise. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I know that the member is new but I say to him that points of order are heard in silence. 
Jill Pettis 
: That member has made a statement about what is a very important and topical issue. He said the Prime Minister hates rugby. I ask the member to withdraw that remark because it is totally untrue— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will be seated please. That is a debatable issue. 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: As I say this stadium is not about rugby; it is about Helen Clark building a monument to herself. She wants to be able to go into the next election and say: “Hey we’ve fixed Auckland. We’ve transformed the waterfront and we’ve done all this other stuff.” But what a miscalculation—it is backfiring. Members just have to read the  
New Zealand Herald  
each day. No one in Auckland wants this stadium. The councillors on the Auckland City Council want Carlaw Park. This is a failure of leadership. Why did the Government not just make a decision and take the responsibility? Why hand it back to the people of Auckland? The Government will get no decision. 
So now we have two options—as my colleague Murray McCully has said that is what the Government is offering. We have taken the sensible path. We are saying that yes we will support legislation for Eden Park because the stadium can be built we know the costings and we have to have the World Cup final played here—we cannot lose it to Australia. But there is no way that we will write a blank cheque to give this Government license to build the “Clark-osseum” down on the waterfront to burn taxpayers’ dollars and to end up losing the whole thing to Australia. 
Of course the reality is that we know where the stadium really should be and I do not know why the Government is not considering this. As my colleague Mr McCully said and Dr Mapp will agree the stadium should be at the home of the Ranfurly Shield—North Harbour Stadium. We have the land it is what my constituents in Northcote want it will cost only $250 million it will be the heart of the region for the future and that is where we would like to see it.