Cosgrove Clayton: Voting — Correction; General Debates 
Cosgrove Clayton: Voting — Correction; General Debates 
[Volume:608;Page:5703] 
CLAYTON COSGROVE (NZ Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 I thank you Mr Assistant Speaker for your balance and protection regarding this side of the House. I say from the outset that I welcome the Opposition’s interjections. I eat them for breakfast as we all do on this side of the House. Every time they open their mouths they are condemned. It is just another illustration to the New Zealand people of what a bereft useless group of whingers and whiners they are. All they can do is squawk from that side. All that the deputy leader of the Opposition—the little squawk box formerly from Otaki—can do is sit there and squawk away. Well I eat him for breakfast and I enjoy it because it shows them up for what they are. 
As for the ACT contribution I would never in my wildest dreams accuse anyone in the ACT party of being a crook especially Mr Hide—the only honest man in politics! Mr Shirley stood up and talked about integrity and truthfulness. What a laugh it is to be hearing about integrity and truthfulness from that lot when we recall Owen Jennings and pyramid schemes Rodney Hide and dodgy investment schemes physical indiscipline and intimidation by Mr Hide on Waiheke Island—in the odd toilet I am told—Donna Awatere-Huata and her scandal and the Pipitea Street scandal. That genius from the ACT party thinks he is being credible. He thinks he is convincing New Zealanders that he is a credible bloke and that the people should back his party when he stands up and talks about integrity and truthfulness. Give me a break! I am absolutely gobsmacked. I am speechless on that count. 
Today’s general debate is another example of the stark contrast between the party that is bereft of ideas—that is the National Party; a party of whingers and it is hard to attack a party that has no ideas—and the Labour Party which has notched up substantial achievements. Labour enjoys—and I say this not in an arrogant but a very humble way—the support of 50 percent of our countrymen and women. 
Jill Pettis 
: It has 52 percent. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Oh it has 52 percent support—I lose count—up against a party of mediocrity. 
The deputy leader of the Opposition took the first call for the National Party because the Leader of the Opposition did not want to. The deputy leader is the trumpet boy for the National Party. Could he tell us the secret of his success over the last couple of years?He complained about the interjections from Mr Darren Hughes. If I were Mr Sowry I would too because it was Mr Hughes who buried him at the last election. Maybe in a couple of years Mr Hughes’ housekeeper or somebody else will stand and bury him again. Mr Sowry—the “Al Bundy” from Otaki—should go back to Hannahs and sell shoes because I am sure he is an expert at that. He is not cutting the mustard in here and the people of New Zealand see it every time he gets up. They just giggle as we do over here. All the Opposition can do in a general debate is complain and whimper about interjections. Well come on team! Where are they? Let us hear them. They are all very silent. They are like stunned mullets. 
Let us look at National’s leadership. There is a leadership crisis in the National Party and we know it. Mr English is on the rocks on the skids. Don Brash wants the job and would crawl over powdered glass in bare feet to get it. He wants to be the first statue to fly over the pigeon and he might well be. He will get there. National members have tried everything for weeks. Do they have any policy ideas? No. Have they made any policy announcements? No. All they have done is try to attack the Prime Minister on every little minor issue. They will have a go at every little grubby bit of dirt. The one thing they have not been able to do is knock her off her perch and convince the people of New Zealand to lose faith in her. The people of New Zealand have faith in the Prime Minister and that has been demonstrated. The Opposition should give up—they are on a loser. They have tried it for months; they blew an election apart trying it. I say to Opposition members: “Attacking the Prime Minister team does not work.” 
Maybe Mr Sowry the great genius of the Opposition can go back with that other genius and tactically brilliant general Mr McCully who did a brilliant job at the last election and circle the wagons for Custer’s last stand. Maybe they can actually work out that their tactics are not working for tomorrow we will write another Budget. Tomorrow there will be yet another opportunity for us as a Government in a humble but not arrogant way to show the stark difference between the Labour Party—a party of ideas a party that keeps its word a party that delivers 4.4 percent economic growth a party that delivers the lowest unemployment for 15 to 20 years a party that delivers 5000 apprenticeships for our young folk—and the National Party which has been blown apart and decimated.