Joyce Steven: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeJoyce Steven: General Debate[Sitting date: 10 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:11859. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development):Well we know what Grant Robertson was doing last night. In between his desperate denials on Twitter he was watching the JONES! channel. That was the inspiration for his speech today. It was his JONES! channel. The only thing is that he should have been Sergeant Schultz today because he is the one running around saying “I see nothing. I know nothing. There’s nobody challenging for the leadership of the Labour Party. I know nothing at all.” when the reality is that there is a Jones channel and the Jones channel is the channel by which the leadership challenge of the Labour Party is being conducted.It has been a fascinating 24 hours in the identity politics of the Labour Party. First we had the man ban then we had the ban of the man ban and then very nearly we had the demise of the man who banned the man ban. That is where it nearly got to last night and it is where it is heading again today. Despite the denials—the many many denials—the reality is that there are three of the men who were going to be banned in the man ban who have decided to take their opportunity and step forward. I say stand up those men who are against the man ban—Shane Jones Andrew Little and Clayton Cosgrove—the red meat men of the Labour Party who are as we speak either circulating or not circulating or denying they are circulating a letter of no confidence in the leadership of the Labour Party. That is what is going on right now. The red meat division has decided that this is its chance to get its own back.But those members did not quite succeed. All they succeeded in doing yesterday was causing a massive Twitter explosion last night. There was a massive explosion on Twitter where nearly all the Labour Party caucus except Shane Jones except Andrew Little except Clayton Cosgrove and except a bunch of other Labour Party members were on Twitter last night saying “No there’s nothing happening here.” and Annette King was even on the radio this morning saying: “No there’s nothing happening here.” Well you know what you say about denials. “De Niles” is a river in Egypt and the reality of the situation is that the Labour Party is heading towards a leadership revolt.Mr Shearer of course is desperately trying to shore up his leadership and today he has made a significant bid in that regard. He has decided that the vote for jobs and growth tomorrow will be a conscience vote for his caucus and he welcomes people who want to vote for the New Zealand International Convention Centre to do so tomorrow.Hon David Parker: That was the Speaker’s ruling.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The Speaker has ruled—absolutely right—but go and check. There has been a statement released by your leader this afternoon where he hassaid that if members of his caucus want to vote in favour of the convention centre tomorrow they are welcome to do so. Of course most of them will not be voting in favour but it will be interesting to see who does and I think it is yet another test of this man’s leadership.On this side of the House it is pretty clear. On this side of the House we are in favour of jobs and growth for New Zealanders. Every day this Government proves that and tomorrow is just another day when we prove that we are in favour of jobs and growth for New Zealanders. But not the modern Labour Party. It used to be like that. It actually supported a convention centre being built in a very similar arrangement 10 years ago but not today—not today. Those members are caught up in identity politics and are focusing on the man ban. Well tomorrow a few of them—the few middle-of-the-roaders left—have an opportunity to stand up and say: “Actually no. We are in favour of jobs and growth and we should go forward and say so.”There are three or four of them who might do that. Obviously they would then have to turn their backs on Grant Robertson and David Parker and so on. But for example the “fab four” who attended the Eden Park discussion with Skycity in the corporate box—[Interruption ]—or was it six or was it eight—will have the opportunity to do so and we will know whether there is anybody left in the Labour Party who supports jobs and growth or not. So tomorrow is a test of Labour Party caucus members. It is yet another day of a test of the Labour Party leadership—Grant Robertson: This is a very long 5 minutes Mr Speaker.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: —and I will finish by saying that I thought that in the audition for Mr Grant Robertson just now he got more laughs in 5 minutes than his leader has had in 18 months.