Williamson Maurice: General Debate 
Williamson Maurice: General Debate 
[Volume:664;Page:12317] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (Minister for Building and Construction) 
: 
 What a great pleasure it is to take part in the debate today. I was going to refer in my speech solely to the unbelievable progress that this National Government has made in the field of law and order because the list of achievements is impressive and exciting but I feel that I cannot let the leadership issue go past without exposing something I have stumbled across in regard to not just who the next leader of the Labour Party will be but also the timing for that change of leadership which I have found secretly encoded in that leadership candidate’s own writings. Members need to listen carefully because I refer to a poem written by the Hon David Cunliffe. In my view there is no doubt—and I do not think there is any doubt in his mind either—that he is the next leader of the Labour Party. I do not want to refer to the “I am Harvard” poem although it was an interesting one where he said: 
For some year or two 
I suckled you 
With potent milk 
Of truth and learning.  
It gets a bit sickly towards the end. I think that the better poem that David Cunliffe wrote was a poem called “Seasons”. I ask members to listen to this poem very carefully. I know that Darren Hughes the power broker behind the leadership coup knows what is in this poem and how to translate the words. I will go through the poem and take it carefully. The poem is called “Seasons”. 
Spring comes suddenly in New England. 
Almost without warning 
Branches that just a few weeks before were dead dry twigs— 
I think he is talking about some of his colleagues. 
—are crowned with the lushest green foliage. 
I think there is a clue there: it is to do with a Green coalition he is looking to get together. But hang on it gets better. 
But spring is brief 
As a delicate balance between irresistible forces 
Wrestling for control. 
It gives way explosively to summer. 
Here in lies the clue and members will get it—[ 
Interruption 
]—no it gets better; it gets really good. 
Summer is sweet and delicate as a butterfly’s touch or a skylark’s dance 
Summer is a glory which no one who has not lived through— 
That is really interesting. I am going to read it again. 
Summer is a glory which no one who has not lived through a northern winter— 
It is not really good is it? It is not really good. 
—can ever understand. 
The Minister of Education says she is lost. Mr Cunliffe might have lost on the national standards but this is what he wrote. It gets really good. It says: 
So what of summer? 
Is it just a pointless part of an endless repeating cycle of seasons 
Forgotten again amid the golden leaves of autumn 
As the icy blasts of the first snows? 
No. No. Each summer changes history. 
There can be no better example that the Hon David Cunliffe’s plan for the leadership bid is exposed in the poem. He wrote it knowing what it meant. His own followers read the poem at night tucked up underneath their duvets with their torches on knowing that summer is not far away. We are in winter; we have only spring to go. Then spring gets rid of the dead twigs the dead branches and it is all on. So let me repeat it again: 
Each summer changes history. 
It adds new wood to the trees 
New generations to the world 
And weaves itself into the fabric of our lives. 
Look this is absolutely unbelievably clear with regard to the Hon David Cunliffe’s plans for a leadership coup. I think it is quite clear—and Simon Power gave a very good exposé on it—that no one else is in the running. Yes George Hawkins and Ross Robertson may be power brokers for one of the factions; I think they are power brokers for the South Auckland faction. Yes Ashraf Choudhary and—what is the name of the former Families Commission man? 
Nicky Wagner 
: Rajen Prasad. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: —Rajen Prasad may be power brokers for the ethnic communities of the Labour Party. But if we go through the list we see that there is only one candidate for leadership. Trevor Mallard is not a leader. He will not be the leader nor now will Shane Jones or Chris Carter after what has happened. So David Cunliffe has it. He has it clearly. Anyone who wants to read his poem will know that summer is when it will happen.