Finlayson Christopher: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFinlayson Christopher: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 11 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15760. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Attorney-General): It is great to be back for what will doubtless be another action-packed year especially in the area of Treaty settlements. Just last Friday I signed a deed of settlement in the far north with Ngāti Kurī and I want to acknowledge the support and presence of Mrs Turia Shane Jones Hone Harawira Claudette Hauiti and Mike Sabin at that very important ceremony and I ask Mr Harawira to pass on to the troops up north that the Te Hiku Claims Settlement Bill is going to be introduced to the House within the next couple of weeks.Over the break a number of my colleagues indicated they were intending to retire from Parliament and I want to wish them all the very best. They are fantastic colleagues and friends and I am sure they are going to do very well in a post-parliamentary life. Before the year gets too partisan Mr Assistant Speaker Robertson I also want to acknowledge your contribution. You are beyond doubt an outstanding member of Parliament have been a great Assistant Speaker and I want to wish you all the very best for the future. There are a number of others whose retirements are being reported about at the present time and so in advance may I wish Dave Clendon Steffan Browning and Rajen Prasad all the very best for the future.I hope honourable members are pleased with the progress on the National War Memorial Park—I certainly am. The concreting of the floor has started and it should be covered by August and the tunnel will be open by September. In fact it is hard to believe that Helen Clark was going to have a highway going through the park right next to a school—Grant Robertson: Always nasty!Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: Oh the unpleasant member for Wellington Central cannot contain himself. Every statement he makes is unpleasant. I do think it is most unfortunate.We had a very busy end to 2013. Just before Christmas the Prime Minister the Minister for Economic Development and I announced new film incentives and that the next threeAvatar sequels will be filmed in New Zealand. It seems that the Leader of the Opposition was apparently opposed to this wonderful announcement though Jacinda Ardern at least appeared to be pleased. I have heard it said that Labour supporters in Rongotai are saying that Annette King had a role in getting theAvatar sequels here. Well that is of course a complete falsehood. The self-styled “MP for Weta Workshop” had nothing to do with that announcement just as she did nothing in 2011 when trade union thugs were trying to destroy the film industry.Hon Annette King: What a lie. Your nose is growing Chris and I’ll beat you a third time.Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: I hear the honourable member interjecting. I think she is saying that she knows something about James Cameron’s films. She remembers the filmThe Abyss. I think she thinks it was a documentary about what happened to the Labour Party when she was deputy leader and Phil Goff was the leader but I am afraid that is not correct.On the subject of these two venerable members now in their fourth decade here it is worth noting something about their careers. In the 1980s they were zealous Rogernomes in a neo-liberal Government. In the 1990s-2000s they reinvented themselves as social democratic spendthrifts. Now in their fourth decade here they are tribunes of theworking class in a far-left Labour Party. In fact it has been quite a journey. It does not matter whether they are administering liberal policies or social democratic policies or far-left policies—so long as they are the ones administering. They stand for nothing except for self-interest. They are the worst form of careerists.But looking at the Opposition today as I do one is left with one conclusion: Labour members are heading for an extinction event when they sell out their party’s great heritage to a coalition with the Green Party. One has only to look at the experience of Tasmania. Having entered a coalition with the Green Party in Tasmania the Labor Party in that state is morris dancing its way to oblivion. Listen to these words from the national secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union. He said: “There’s no advantage in Labor and the labour movement being aligned with the Greens. The Greens’ … views and ideologies are contrary to the views and ideology of the labour movement. … I can understand why Tasmanian workers would be concerned about the destructive and negative role the Greens have played in destroying parts of the Tasmanian economy when they go to the ballot box” because that is the experience in Australia of a coalition with the Greens.The current stewards of the Labour Party are betraying their party. I think of some of the greats from the Labour past—people I greatly respect: Peter Fraser Norman Kirk Michael Bassett Roger Douglas Fran Wilde Paul Swain and that wonderful wonderful friend of mine Winnie Laban. One could never imagine those people walking out on the traditions of the Labour Party and doing a deal with the Greens. The Greens are out to destroy them and the Greens regard them as Lenin would have said about the kulaks as nothing more than “useful idiots”. That is going to be the fate of the Labour Party as it turns away from its traditions and betrays its traditions.In the last couple of weeks there have been a few articles in the press about my outstanding style guide. The style guide is actually very helpful. It is modelled on actually—in fact someone sent to me—Tom Shand’s style guide from 1967 which was very very similar. The key points about speech writing are these: use plain English avoid waffle at all costs get to the point quickly state the point and move on. That as you can see from this speech is exactly what a style guide should be—where there is a need for clarity.Of course elections are about choice and elections are about clarity. The people deserve to know where the parties stand on various issues. Waffle is of no use as Mr Cunliffe found out last week when he tried to be tricky over the “baby bonus” announcement. Among the policies dumped by Mr Cunliffe has been his policy of letting Dr Norman have a podium next to his at announcements. But do not be fooled; everything is not as it seems Members opposite are listening very carefully because they are worried. What we see now is a Labour Party that is selling out on every single policy.So we need clarity on some of these points for example. The Greens support internet freedom whereas Labour wants to shut down Facebook. The Greens want to legalise cannabis but Labour is opposed. The Greens want to print money; Labour does it the old-fashioned way through borrowing and raising taxes. Russel Norman wants to be Minister of Finance; David Cunliffe says no but there could but a role for him in some of the broader economic portfolios. We are entitled to know what the true position is on these and other issues.My advice to the Labour Party—friendly constructive advice—is that as we approach the election season use plain language get to the point quickly state the point and then move on. That is certainly the approach that I am going to be adopting in the great seat of Rongotai later in the year when the venerable Annette King and I front up for another fight. She just about lost the party vote in 2011—Hon Annette King: But she thrashed you Chris—11000 votes.Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: She did thrash me in the electorate vote but so what? As the great Judy Kirk said it is the party vote that matters. I say to Annette King—fond of her as I am on a personal level—that she is hopeless. I am very much looking forward to a good scrap in Rongotai in 2014 as she stands there for the 40th time.