English Bill: General Debate 
English Bill: General Debate 
[Volume:648;Page:16900] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 The member started out in a somewhat political vein and that is the first time I have seen Labour allow a Maori member to start the general debate for many many years. I want to join with the member in acknowledging the huge achievement of the Treaty settlements that have occurred this week because it does point to a positive way forward. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member may be mistaken but he has certainly misled the House in what he just said. Maori members have led the general debate every year in Maori Language Week. That member does not like it but he should tell the truth. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: That is not a point of order. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I just want to make sure that that rude exchange does not come out of my time. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The Speaker will be the judge of that. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: OK. I want to acknowledge the huge achievement of the settlement that has been made today. It was unfortunate given the sentiments that have been expressed on a bipartisan basis throughout this whole process that the Minister of Maori Affairs decided to indulge in such petty politics. But I will make this point to him. It is precisely because of the new forward-looking positive attitude among Maori leadership that Maori are moving away from the Labour Party. That is why it is happening. 
I also acknowledge the contribution—[ 
Interruption 
] Well that member whose electorate covers Te Wai Pounamu will have to work very hard because Ngai Tahu have grasped the settlement National made with them and that means he will almost certainly lose his seat. I also want to acknowledge the role that Dr Cullen played. Dr Cullen figured out that after 8 years of inaction from the Labour Government on Treaty settlements something needed to be done. He used his status and his considerable capacities to work with many other people in now bringing together what is as he himself has said a historic week of settlements. Well Dr Cullen at least then has a legacy and he looks like a man who is pleased with it—his settlements and his KiwiSaver. 
Dr Cullen has done his best for the Labour Government by delivering tax cuts in the Budget and now it all hangs on Helen Clark. It all hangs on Helen Clark. The Labour caucus is sitting there in its meetings each week waiting waiting waiting for Helen Clark to pull a rabbit out of the hat. I need to tell those members that there is no rabbit and there is no hat. Helen Clark mostly gets it wrong which is why Labour is doing so badly. How did the fantastically competent leader of the Labour Party manage to lose so much Maori support for Labour? How did she manage to achieve that? It is because she is out of touch. She is out of touch not with political tactics—she is full of political tactics—but with the aspirations of New Zealanders. 
Today we have one simple question: why does Helen Clark stand between the New Zealand people and a referendum on the anti-smacking legislation? Why? We know that the smacking issue is controversial and complex and that in this Parliament many members gave fiery and fine speeches about it. But the one group of people who have never had a direct say in it are New Zealanders. There is an opportunity in the next 3 months for them to have a say and Helen Clark will not let them have it because she believes that they will do something that she cannot control that she is not on top of and that might get out from under her span of control. That is why Labour is taking such a pasting in the public opinion polls. The nanny State is telling us everything from telling us which light bulbs we have to buy to distributing badges. It is no wonder that those members are losing Maori support when their Maori education strategy consists of badges with “Wassup!” written on them. How aspirational and ambitious is that? “Let us get down with the 14-year-olds.” says Labour. “Wassup bros!” is the standard and the expectation. Those are the limits that Labour imposes on Maori. 
The settlement that the member Parekura Horomia referred to today has come about from the Government side simply because Labour knew that it was electoral suicide to go into this election with no settlements after spending 9 years in Government. That is why Labour did it. Of course Labour is grabbing a tiger by the tail because now as we know iwi with assets control a sense of destiny and a sense of aspiration do not vote for Labour. That is what happens because Labour is all about dependency and locked-in votes.