Brownlee Gerry: Reinstatement of Business 
Brownlee Gerry: Reinstatement of Business 
[Volume:628;Page:29] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 Notwithstanding the interpretation that the Deputy Prime Minister puts on this motion the reality is that this is the Government’s work programme for the next 3 years. These are the Government’s bills so anyone who votes for these today—[ 
Interruption 
] Well OK there are a few exceptions such as members’ bills but the vast majority of these 2½ pages is the Government’s programme carried over from last time. It is the stuff that Labour wanted to do and could not do or did not get done. It wants this House to say: “Right—we want to pick it up now and run with it again.” So the United Future party and New Zealand First and anybody else who chooses to support the motion choose to buy into the Government’s programme. 
We know that the New Zealand First Party spends endless hours telling everybody that it is not part of the Government that it is only there on the odd day that one day it will be part of the Government and the next day it will be part of the Opposition and that it will probably vote against the Government frequently. Of course New Zealand First does not want to be considered as part of the executive. Mr Peters wants to be able to say that he is not part of the executive but the Prime Minister is saying that he is. We will see how that issue plays out in the future. 
 The real point though is that included in this motion are a number of bills that I would have thought New Zealand First members did not want to see advanced. We know they are desperate to differentiate themselves in this House and we want to help them. We are going to move an amendment to exclude the following bills from the motion: the Arms Amendment Bill (No 3) the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill the Courts and Criminal Matters Bill the Legal Services Amendment Bill (No 2) the Human Rights (Gender Identity) Amendment Bill the Employment Relations (Flexible Working Hours) Amendment Bill the Rail Network Bill and the Police Amendment Bill (No 2)—all bills that Winston Peters stood up in this House and fought against. 
Winston Peters told this House that all those bills were of no value to the New Zealand population and of no value to the country as a whole. I suspect that Winston Peters will now say that all those bills are fantastic because they got him a very nice motor car. That is the situation we are facing here. So we are moving an amendment which has been placed with the Clerk so that New Zealand First can show that it is not a party attracted by the so-called baubles of office and that it does have an opportunity to stand by the votes it cast just a few short months ago. 
The same would apply to the United Future party. Today we heard that United Future is likely to vote against the Government more often than it will vote for it. So one would have to ask why United Future members are going to vote for this motion to go ahead today. Why does United Future not have an amendment that pulls out some of the things it is so particularly opposed to? It is important that we understand that this is effectively the first confidence vote—[ 
Interruption 
] There is a lot of disruption in the House. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: There normally is. People do tend to chat. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Well they are not supposed to stand in the aisle and have a discussion. 
We know that Clayton Cosgrove has been dispatched down to New Zealand First’s most difficult member Mr Woolerton to have a chat to him to make sure that his vote stays in place. [ 
Interruption 
] Madam Speaker this is quite outside the Standing Orders and I would like you to do something about it. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Would the member please resume his seat. He is not a whip. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: It is extremely important that we understand today that this is the first confidence vote that the Government faces. It is effectively where the Government says to the Parliament: “These are the bills we put into the process last time and want to carry over.” The Government is going to require its coalition and supporting partners to vote for it. They will sit there and smile but they need to know and the public needs to know that they will be voting for bills they voted against just a short time ago. [ 
Interruption 
] We just heard another member from down the back Mrs Pettis from Whanganui. We told her she was going to lose her seat. She lost it splendidly. I congratulate Chester Borrows. We welcome him here. I forgot to add Jill Pettis to the long list of Labour Party members lining up to take a diplomatic posting and likely to exit this Parliament very shortly. Mrs Pettis had a short career but never mind she did well anyway! 
I return to the motion and say that National has this amendment and wishes to find out whether New Zealand First is serious when it says it will vote with the Opposition sometimes and with the Government at other times. Is this a time when it will vote against itself when it is in Opposition or in favour of itself because it is in Government?