O'Connor Damien: General Debate 
O'Connor Damien: General Debate 
[Volume:640;Page:10697] 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister of Corrections) 
: 
 I will take these few moments in the House today to ask two basic questions. The first is: “What is the National Party?” and the second is: “Who is John Key?”. We acknowledge that the National Party has had its time in the limelight over the last couple of months. It has seen its poll ratings go up a little bit it has its chest puffed out and it has seen the future in a positive frame of mind. But it has a leader who we are not quite sure of. It is not just the Government who is not sure but each and every New Zealander is not sure. 
Who is John Key? When John Key goes to the marae at Waitangi he is the social worker—the carer of all the poor underprivileged in this country— 
Steve Chadwick 
: The guardian. 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: —and the guardian; that is right. When he goes to the West Coast he is the champion of the loggers and the miners. He promises to use every bit of Department of Conservation land for economic purposes. Well like the good people of Waitangi the good people of the West Coast were not for a moment fooled. 
I can offer some sympathy to the Maori Party. Those members saw John Key as the great rangatira who was to come in and bring them the seabed and foreshore—deliver to them on a plate what they have stood for in this House for so long. Well like the people of Waitangi and like the people on the West Coast Maori Party members have been conned. They still ask the question: “Who is John Key and what does he stand for?”. 
Just the other day John Key went to a Federated Farmers meeting where one would think he would be in an area of traditional support for the National Party. He used an analogy that really exposed what he is. He is no farmer; he is a money trader. He said to the Federated Farmers conference with regard to property rights: “You might own a farm but that does not mean you can go and build a 40-foot skyscraper or apartments. They always come with conditions.” What a strange strange analogy. It shows that John Key does not know who a farmer is. 
If John Key continues to go around this country with the smile of a Cheshire cat and the appearance of a chameleon then no one in this country will know who he is or what he stands for. If he does not know what he stands for and he does not know what principles he stands on then ultimately he will end up tripping himself up. And that is exactly what he has done. 
I would ask why Bill English would use such an analogy as “John just bounces from one cloud to another”. It is a strange thing perhaps but I guess John Key went to a meteorological meeting somewhere and said that he was a cloud—because he has been saying to all New Zealanders regardless of where they are and of what they do that he is just like them. Well he is not. He is a very wealth money trader who has come back into this country and who wants to be Prime Minister. 
New Zealanders are not fools. New Zealanders can work that one out fairly quickly and that is indeed why his poll ratings are going down the gurgler as are the poll ratings of the National Party. To use John Key’s own words: “In the end they will all have to judge me on the actions that I take the policies that I promote and the people that I have around me.” National members have no policies. They have absolutely no policies. 
I would ask: “Who are the people around John Key?”. Well Bill English is one of his trusted lieutenants—or un-trusted lieutenants; I would be very careful if I was John Key and Bill English was as close as that behind me. 
I ask whether one of his lieutenants is Simon Power. Simon Power is John Key’s trusted lieutenant. Simon Power promised this country corrections policy in March of this year. It is now July and we have seen absolutely nothing. But he has tried. 
What happened was that Simon Power and a few National Party people held a meeting in Christchurch. Eight people turned up to a meeting that was supposed to announce key National Party corrections policy. What does the policy say? It says National is going to privatise prisons and abolish parole. What a ridiculous position to stand on.