Finlayson Christopher; Carter DavidHon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Attorney-General): Each year I say it is great to be back and indeed it is great to be back. I am very conscious that last year in the course of my speech on the Prime Minister's statement I mentioned my great hole in one so it seems only fair that this year I should acknowledge that I had far too many treble bogeys. For those who do not understand golf that is the sort of golfing equivalent of Labour's candidate selections. Frankly my putting sucks—I totally missed the mark just like Iain Lees-Galloway's questions in the House.So it is fair to say I had a shocking summer—I agree with Andrew Little that Wellington had a shocking summer—and what I was forced to do was spend a lot of time reading. Because we are on the verge of the centenary of the Russian Revolution I spent a lot of time reading about the Russian Revolution. The first book I read was all about Rasputin—now there was a chap who had more staying power than Winston Peters. Did you know that it required five cakes laced with arsenic five bullets and he needed to be tossed into the Neva River before they could get rid of him? I am sure Winston would not be as hard to get rid of.The other book I read which was very interesting was a book called Lenin on the Train which told the story of the perfidy of the Germans who let Lenin leave Switzerland in a sealed train and travel across Germany so that he could get into Russia where of course as Churchill said he was nothing more than a plague bacillus who gave Russia and indeed the world nothing more than a massive calamity probably the worst calamity of the 20th century. Of course Lenin's views are utterly discredited except for in North Korea and for the few Marxist-Leninist lunatics that there are around the world who sometimes emerge from time to time.I want to read the House a couple of statements that were recently made by such people: our struggle for social justice brings us into irreconcilable conflict with the capitalist mode of production and all other forms of class society. This requires us to take a strong stance on the struggle of the working class." and then: "capitalism is a violent and antagonistic relation between workers and those who exploit them. As workers … we experience perpetual violence and that this violence must be brought to an end. We therefore fight to bring about the end of capitalism." So did these words come out of Pyongyang? No. Did they come from the mouth of Stalin or Lenin? No—they came from the Green Party in New South Wales. Those are the sorts of sentiments that you get from Green parties around the world. Were we to have our own equivalent of the October Revolution—a calamity here—with the Greens in Government those sorts of views would be exhumed here.I do say to the Labour Party and Stuart Nash would understand this: remember what the Bolsheviks did to the Social Democrats. That is what the Greens want to do to Labour. They regard the Labour Party as nothing more than a party of useful idiots that can be liquidated in the fullness of time—and that memorandum of understanding means nothing. It may seem that—Hon Gerry Brownlee: It's very hard to disagree with that.Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: It is. It is hard to disagree with any of my fundamental propositions. I say to this: do not be deluded by the dirty dirty deal that has been done in Ōhāriu because there are dirtier deals that the Greens have in store for the Labour Party. One of the best things about standing in the great seat of Rongotai this year is not necessarily that Annette King will not be my opponent—because she is a formidable opponent—it is that I will not have to put up with Russel Norman going on in that Australian twang of his talking about "dirty deals" because there is nothing dirtier than the dirty dirty deal in Ōhāriu.I just want to say this: we have had a fascinating last few months. This Government has successfully changed leaders. We are a happy and united team—as I look across at my beloved colleagues. Our opponents cannot even sort out the ranking of list candidates. But I particularly want to say that I admire Poto Williams who is a strong and decent member of Parliament. As John F Kennedy once said it takes a lot of courage to stand up to your enemies; it takes even more courage to stand up to your friends. That is what she did—admittedly with the help of a PR person but that is what she did and she had to face the music. Mr Jackson is not fit to be a candidate for anyone. He is a disgrace and the comments that he made about Grant Robertson a few years ago were totally and utterly disreputable and inappropriate. You can argue with people over the issues as Annette and I have done over the years and as Winnie Laban and I did in Mana but you can still like the person and not resort to the kind of gutter tactics that we had from Mr Jackson.I can admire my opponents. I thought the member for Mt Roskill Michael Wood made a very good maiden speech and I wish him all the best for the future. Stuart Nash is a good bloke. But sometimes the line is crossed and people like Mr Jackson—Fletcher Tabuteau: The touch of death Nash.Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: —I am being charitable—have nothing to contribute to this place.We are an infrastructure Government and I say it is great to be back because I approach this year with the same enthusiasm that I have approached every year since I was so lucky and privileged enough to become a Minister. When you look at what we have achieved in the last 8 years frankly it is mind-boggling. As you would expect an Attorney-General to say the legal infrastructure is steadily being updated. Mark my words Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill is true legal infrastructure reform and the day will come when people will truly recognise the wonderful contribution that the Minister for Māori Development has made in this area. It is worth billions to the economy. It has been a huge task—it was started off by me in 2011—but it is worth the effort.I look across at the member for Ilam. Of all my colleagues I have to say—I do not think I have ever said this to you—the member is my favourite colleague. He is an outstanding Minister. He has rebuilt Christchurch—Hon Gerry Brownlee: You've just disappointed 58 people.Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: Well that is the way of the world because Mr Brownlee has been an outstanding Minister. He picked up the issue of a totally wrecked city and has done a fabulous job. It is the second city of the country and he is going to be remembered for that wonderful contribution just as the work that he has been doing in Kaikōura is going to be recognised. Look at the roading infrastructure that Mr Brownlee worked on and which has been picked up by Mr Bridges in recent times.Tomorrow of course the Kapiti Expressway is open. That is something we can be really proud of but we are not stopping there. After Peka Peka it is going to be opened up to Ōtaki. Look at Transmission Gully. Look at the Waterview project that is shortly to be opened. These are exciting projects and if you go back to 2008 they were not even dreamt of. We would achieve a lot more in Wellington if the city council would stop acting like luddites get off their chuffs and start focusing on a bit of infrastructure because the Basin Reserve is easily sorted out but it is going to require a bit of leadership from the Wellington City Council and in my experience in recent years it cannot even get cycleways in Island Bay right. Even the tramways union wrote to me about that and I found myself agreeing with what the tramways union had to say.Just today boards of inquiry have been announced for major roading infrastructure in Auckland and just today the Minister for Communications has been talking about the work that we have been doing on ultra-fast broadband (UFB) infrastructure. The UFB uptake is up 13 percent on the last quarter. There is so much good there to talk about that in the immortal words of Mrs Thatcher I could go on and on and on—the minute I mention Mrs Thatcher of course Judith Collins' head popped up because she is one of the heirs of Margaret Thatcher—but let me say I approach this year with the same positive view and the same enthusiasm that I had when I first became a Minister.On 13 January I met with Ngāpuhi in Auckland and it is going to be Ngāpuhi's year if they knuckle down put aside personality difficulties and focus on the issues. Then the following week I was visiting Ngāti Maniapoto Te Whakatōhea and Te Whānau-a-Apanui. It was a tremendous week getting out there talking to iwi and talking about their aspirations. I approach my ninth year as Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations with that same positive view that same can-do attitude. I love working with my colleagues in the Office of Treaty Settlements and my Crown negotiators—a couple of whom are former Labour MPs—and anyone over there after this forthcoming election is welcome to approach me because I am sure they would make great negotiators.Mr SPEAKER: I understand this is a split call so I will ring the bell at 4 minutes—Dr Kennedy Graham."