Brownlee Gerry: General Debate 
Brownlee Gerry: General Debate 
[Volume:621;Page:16803] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. The Prime Minister has called in all the information from the focus groups. She has called in all the polling background information and she has panicked because she knows that the message that Dr Brash gave this country in Orewa in January of this year is as resonant in people’s thinking as it was back then. So she has changed her views on all sorts of things and done what is commonly known in the political arena as a bit of triangulation and come up with the idea that we will have a new look at the New Zealand constitution. I think that when New Zealanders find out the Prime Minister’s record in this regard they will be extremely worried. 
I refer members to a speech given by Helen Clark just a few years ago when she said: “We will want to work through with Maori over time the terms of the new constitutional settlement which will be necessary when New Zealand becomes a republic.” 
That is what Helen Clark said just a couple of years ago and it is the agenda she is trying to sneak in the back door right at the moment. Why is she doing it? It is because she wants New Zealanders to be distracted from the incompetence of her Government. It has made a complete hash of the seabed and foreshore issue. It will not be able to get that back in the House next week because if it upsets the Greens and it does not get Mr Dunne or Mr Peters then it has no capacity to pass the bill. The Government is in the unenviable situation— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Would members who are carrying on other conversations please leave the Chamber. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: That is an outrageous interruption of my speech Mr Assistant Speaker. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I am sorry. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Those people were leaving in a quite orderly fashion. Goodness me! When does my time start again? I cannot be on my time now after that interruption. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: No it has been stopped. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Is it starting now? Thank you. I will attempt to get back in my stride. If Parekura Horomia and the Prime Minister manage to trundle over to the Green Party and do a deal over the foreshore and seabed they will lose the support of United Future. If they keep United Future happy they will not get New Zealand First. If they get New Zealand First the Greens are gone. So they have nowhere to go. 
 The only parties in the House that are not being captured by the Government or starting to fall for the Government’s flattery are the National Party and the ACT party. They are the only two parties that are saying we should make this a true constitutional issue and that we should make this something that we go out to the people on not some issue that we push into a tidy little committee of Parliament—a partisan committee of Parliament; a committee of MPs handpicked by Helen Clark designed to inoculate this Treaty of Waitangi issue that is causing so much angst in New Zealand today. 
We know that the Prime Minister is right now writing letters to prominent New Zealanders—or at least to people whom she believes are prominent New Zealanders—like Sir Paul Reeves and company trying to get them on board so that they can be some sort of flying squad to go around the countryside telling New Zealanders that we will have new constitutional arrangements. We know that not only will Paul Reeves be supported by people like Gregory Fortuin but that all manner of other Labour Party lackeys will be out there doing the same bidding for the Government. It is just not acceptable that something as important as this becomes the pet project of a few politicians of the left who consider their view of New Zealand far superior to that of ordinary people. 
I want Mr Horomia to take a call this afternoon and tell us that Maori are not worried about this and that Maori are quite happy to see the reference to the Crown removed from the statutes in this country. The Government is quite happy to see as Helen Clark said some latter-day discussion with Maori about the place of the treaty once the new republican constitution is put in place. Mr Horomia will not take a call because he is sitting in Cabinet. He is part of the collective responsibility—part of the group that will foist republicanism on to New Zealanders. 
When we hear from Helen Clark on Saturday at the Labour Party conference there may well be a soft side to the message but it will be a thin veil over the desire by Helen Clark Margaret Wilson and Parekura Horomia to turn New Zealand into a republic without reference to the people.