Carter John: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Carter John: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1130] 
JOHN CARTER (National—Northland) 
: 
 We have just had a delivery from someone called Maryan Street. I have to say that I am pleased to follow it because I will bring a bit of life into the House as a consequence. We will put a bit of spirit back into this place which it needs. The National caucus led by Don Brash is here to be a force. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am sorry to interrupt my colleague. I think that the House should welcome back John Carter. He has been very ill. Members may recall that prior to Christmas last year he was away for a period of time. He has recovered fully from an illness. I would like the House to acknowledge John’s wellness and his participation here tonight. 
Hon Rick Barker 
: I want to associate myself and the Labour Party and I believe every member of the House with those words. I like other members was very sad when I heard that John was ill. I worked with John over many years as a senior whip. I like everybody else found him to be a person of integrity a good person to deal with and a great contributor to this House. It is good to see John back after Christmas and we are looking forward to one of his firebrand speeches where he will talk mainly to his mother I think is it? Welcome back to John. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: May I ask—because I interrupted the speech and I should have stood before Mr John Carter took the call—whether his 10-minute address could start from now. I seek leave for that course of action. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: Leave has been sought for that course to be followed. Is there any objection? There appears to be none. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Thank you and can I just make the point that if no one else had mentioned it I was going to welcome myself back. I think it is very important that I acknowledge myself as being here although I do want to tell the House that I am dangerous. I am feeling so good that I am really dangerous. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: I’d better shift then. 
JOHN CARTER 
: I am not as dangerous as that! I say to Lindsay that I am particular about being dangerous. I want to thank the House sincerely for the support it gave me during my time of challenge. I am pleased to say that I have recovered fully. I had a full clearance on Thursday of last week. 
I am pleased to hear applause from all sides of the House because those members on the other side will probably not feel so good when we have finished. But that is beside the point. I am here to do what members of Parliament in Opposition do which is to hold the Government to account. I will do that along with my colleagues right across this side of the House because we know we are sitting here watching a tired old Government. 
 During the course of my parliamentary career I have had the privilege of being in the Opposition I have had the privilege of being in the Government and—sadly unfortunately—I am in the Opposition again. I remember the last term of those 9 years of being in Government. 
Simon Power 
: Nine good years. 
JOHN CARTER 
: They were 9 good years but the last term in particular became hugely challenging when things did not work out when it all started to unravel and when those things that were good just did not work out no matter what we did. I will sit here and watch this Government which is in its third term slowly unravel. That is what will happen. 
I put on record tonight that we are watching the demise of this socialist Government as it is finally starting to unwind. I tell the Government side of the House and this country to be prepared for the next National Government which will lead this country to the future it deserves. This country should be prepared for a Government led by Don Brash going into the millennium and beyond. That is what will happen. That man has brought a whole lot of new colleagues into this House. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: 23. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Bless my soul 23 brand new fearsome members who will make a difference to this country. 
I have been given the honour of being the Opposition spokesperson on local government in the National caucus. There are no other Opposition spokespersons. There is only the National caucus and the Government. The rest do not actually matter too much. They are just players in a game; they are hardly relevant. I say to local government that Don Brash has put with me a team of people—Richard Worth Sandra Goudie and Mark Blumsky—and the four of us are going to make sure that local government knows that the National Party is here to support them to help them and to work with them. 
There are a number of issues that local government is very concerned about and that the people of this country are very concerned about. This Government since 1999 has continuously changed the way in which local Government works. It has continued to impose regulation and law and ask local government to do things for their people but has not provided funding. The Government has put an impost on the people of this nation through taxes but more important through local government it has added compliance costs and costs to this nation through legislation and through rates and it has done nothing at all to support local government. 
I say to local government that the National Party is here for them. We are here to listen. We are going to do the job. We are going to make sure that local government gets the support it needs because it does need it. My colleagues know that. Don Brash knows that. We are here to make sure that the people in Local Government New Zealand get their opportunity to have a party that actually cares and worries about local government and ratepayers. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: And that’s the National Party. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Of course it is the National Party. If we take things like long-term council community plans what sort of cost is that? How can somebody sit here and say what will happen in 25 years? Well Mark Burton expects them to be able to. 
I invite Mark Burton the Minister of Local Government to take a call tonight and tell the House what he will be doing in 25 years’ time. He will not even know what he is doing in the next 25 minutes. He never has. When he was Minister of Defence he did not know where his guns were going to go in 25 minutes’ time. How would he know what is going to happen in local government? Yet he is expecting mayors councillors and ratepayers to know what will happen in 25 years. It is stupid it is dumb but that is the Labour Government folks. What else would we expect? 
I listened to the speech made by Don Brash tonight and he said of the Government: “This Government has hauled down the flag of integrity and instead run up a Jolly Roger of political piracy.” He is absolutely right. I have to say I have never in my 18 years in this House and indeed in my life of 55 years in this country seen a Government that has been so bothered to push every rule to turn everything over to misuse to manipulate to abuse to be slippery and to be nasty. To have a Government that does this to our country is an absolute disgrace. 
I say to my colleague opposite— 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Which one? 
JOHN CARTER 
: —Shane Jones the new member; the future of the Labour Government so some people say. But Shane knows he has about as much future as I have—that is not that much longer. He knows that with the Labour Government he does not have a lot of future because it is going into Opposition because it cannot deliver the things people expect of it. 
The people know that only one party will fulfil the needs of this country and it is the National Party folks. We know that this Government has misused taxpayers’ funding—the pledge card. What an absolute disgrace ladies and gentlemen. This Government used taxpayers’ funding—the Parliamentary Service Commission. 
That member Mark Burton is on the commission. I along with my colleague Simon Power have on a number of occasions raised the issue of using taxpayers’ funding of political issues. Mark Burton has sat there as a member of that commission for nearly as long as I have—not quite as long. There are not many that have. Actually when I think about it none have. But he has sat there for a number of years and allowed this to happen. He has allowed his Prime Minister Helen Clark to misuse and abuse taxpayers’ funding. 
Don Brash said tonight that Helen Clark should stand up and be held accountable. The real worry with this issue is this: here we have a man called Bob Clarkson. He was called to account by Winston Peters because Winston Peters suggested that Bob Clarkson had overspent his budget. That is the issue—it is as simple as that. How come Bob Clarkson had to stand up and be counted— 
Chris Auchinvole 
: In court. 
JOHN CARTER 
: —in court publicly with all the publicity around it with everything chucked at him with all the political diatribe and all the rubbish and the nonsense that goes with it? He had to stand up and front up about a question of $20000. Yet Helen Clark can spend 400000 taxpayer dollars and not have to account for it—what about that! 
I say there is one rule for National and one rule for Labour. That is not acceptable. We will change that in the future. We are on our way to becoming Government. Stand back and watch; we are here to be counted.