Peck Mark: General Debates 
Peck Mark: General Debates 
[Volume:608;Page:5474] 
MARK PECK (NZ Labour—Invercargill) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. Let me set the scene. When I got elected to Parliament in 1993 I broke a generational tradition in Southland whereby all the south was blue. Indeed at No. 3 The Crescent three National members of Parliament resided. They were in those days Norman Jones Rex Austin and the Deputy Prime Minister—I was going to say Hugh Templeton but it was not him—Brian Talboys. Mr Talboys was replaced by Mr English and Mr Austin was replaced by Jeff Grant. What is important about that is that that particular office is owned by the National Party and there were three rentals going to the National Party office. Well it has fallen on tough times—very tough times. 
What we have now is the Leader of the Opposition going around worrying about the Maori seats. Let me tell him one thing to start with. The four Maori seats that existed in New Zealand from the late 19th century were a sop to Maori to actually give them the rights they had already been granted under the Treaty of Waitangi. Indeed at that time Maori should have had 15 seats. The member should do his history. 
But worse than that the member is seeking divine intervention. This is the once-proud National Party. I am holding a photograph of the National Party office in Invercargill. The problem I have is that my electorate office is run off its feet doing Mr English’s work. People are now ringing me and saying: “How do we get hold of him?”. Well let me go through it. 
Let us have a look at this photograph. This is a big substantial building. What do we see? The photograph shows a sign near the doorway stating “Elim Pentecostal Church”. That church runs services on a Sunday at 10 o’clock in the morning and 7 o’clock in the evening. That was where the big sign was that said “Bill English Member for Clutha”. It used to say “Member for Wallace”. It used to say “Jeff Grant Member for Awarua”. It used to say “Rob Munro Member for Invercargill”. That sign has gone. The National Party does not exist there any more. It has gone. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: They’ve pulled up their stakes. 
MARK PECK 
: It has pulled up its stakes. To make it worse my staff got a phone call the other day from one of Mr English’s constituents. That person who wanted a meeting with Mr English had been told a couple of things. That person had been told that Mr English did come down to Invercargill occasionally and he had been down at Easter so the constituent had just missed him but the constituent should not worry about it: sometimes Mr English meets people at airports so his constituent could get an appointment at Dunedin Airport or if his constituent was really lucky he or she might get an appointment at Invercargill Airport. 
But hang on it gets better. It is such a big electorate that Mr English drives around it. If people ring and leave their name and phone number he might drive to see them. I wonder whether he drives around his electorate in the Crown representative car. But hang on how big is that electorate? We have Balclutha Gore Clinton Riverton Otautau Tuatapere Te Anau Manapouri Milford Owaka and so on. We have huge areas of population. We have Milton Tokomaru—the whole lot there—and what happens? Where does Mr English have his office? He has one office in Gore. Guess how long it is open for? It is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and that is it. 
But hold on let us give the member some credit. People can meet him at Invercargill at the Invercargill National Party office. But hang on let us go back. People cannot meet him there. They would have to put up with the “happy-clappies”. I want to ask Mr English this: has he given away the papal authority of Catholicism for the Protestant preaching of Pentecostalism? It is very clear for all to see that he has lost it.