King Annette: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Annette: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 12 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1552. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour):Kia ora tātou and welcome back everybody for the Parliament of 2015 and I just want to say that it has been a wonderful long hot summer break. In fact it has been an “f” of a summer break for me and the Labour Party: it has been family it has been fun and it has been food—food for the body and food for the mind. And I have to tell the members opposite that the “f” story continues because Labour has come back and we are fighting fit. We are full of fortitude and the winds of good fortune are now blowing our way.You know when you have got the Government on the run and you know it because the Prime Minister’s speech was more about the Leader of the Opposition than it was about his own achievements his own vision or his goals. He spent 10 minutes slagging off Andrew Little with a whole series of prepared jokes and pathetic little insults combined I have to say with a number of malicious fabrications. Well Andrew Little scares the hell out of John Key and he is also scaring the hell out of the National Party and I can tell you why. It is because its polling will be telling it the same thing as ours is the same as TV3’s is and the same as the New Zealand Herald’s is. It is saying that Andrew Little is making Labour relevant again. He is connecting with New Zealanders. His favourability is rising rapidly. Yes those members are afraid. They have had it too easy for too long.His message is one of straight talking—his no-frills approach of going to the heart of the problem and having the guts to talk about the real issues. It is not hiding behind the window dressing and the candyfloss that you get from the Prime Minister. Andrew Little is talking about jobs and housing unfairness and the Government’s double-speak and its arrogance. You know New Zealanders like the cut of his jib. They like the cut of his jib and increasingly they are comparing it with the jibber-jabber of John Key—the jibber-jabber that we get daily in this House that does not make sense. I am having great difficulty understanding anything the man says these days. Well John Key we are coming after you because we are going right to your heartland. Andrew Little combined with a number of our members is right out there amongst the businesses of New Zealand. You know what they are saying? They are saying that this is a breath of fresh air. We have got politicians willing to listen. They are willing to engage and businesses are saying: “We want to engage with Labour because this is a tired Government we have now got.”When I came back into the House for the first day on Tuesday all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed wanting to be back in here debating with the members opposite what did I see? I saw some dull eyes some weary uninterested Ministers and some very bored backbenchers. They were far too important to be wasting their time sitting around in this Parliament. We get dismissive answers. We get evasive behaviour. It is a third-term Government and it has got “third-term-itis”.I went through the Prime Minister’s statement. I was looking to be uplifted by the power of his words. I was looking for his vision and a programme and an agenda that would take New Zealand forward to address some of those issues that are closing in on us rapidly. What did I find? I found a skite sheet from a dirty flash Government. That is what my mother would call it—a dirty flash Government. You see the members are flash on the outside. There are plenty of photos of them selfies at every occasion wearing the appropriate clothes for whatever it is whether they are at the cricket or the rugby or the Big Gay Out. Appearances schmoozing and endless reports and committees—that is the dirty flash Government. It is flash on the outside but just look inside this Government. It is enmeshed in sleazy deals cover-ups poor standards of governance and the shallow leadership of John Key.He now fronts up only if he looks good. Otherwise it has to be the faceless Mr Eagleson the chief executive officer of the Prime Minister’s office the guy who is the fall guy for every mistake the Prime Minister makes. I have to wonder how this poor man has ever kept his job because he has been blamed for so many cock-ups that he ought not to still be in the job. Whenever the Prime Minister fails to know about something we hear: “Oh his CEO forgot to tell him. He did not tell him on time. He waited 2 weeks. It slipped his mind.” Well I think that the truth is going to come out. A different version is going to come out in the future. I think that the truth will come out when Mr Eagleson takes up his new job in the business sector. Then we will find out how he became the fall guy for a Prime Minister who would not front up to his own foibles.For years the National Party has banged on about a divided Labour Party. Well I have got bad news for the Government. We have got our act together. We are a united team behind Andrew Little and some very talented members of Parliament who are determined to take this Government on. But you know what I am observing? It happens over time with a Government that has been around for a while and has got too cocky. The instability starts to rise in its own party. Some of us have been around long enough. We have seen it all—the instability in our party and the growing instability in its own party. You only have to look at Judith Collins. Judith Collins was the fall guy for the Prime Minister during the election campaign. You know what she is doing now? She is talking to the ACT Party about joining it. She is talking to the ACT Party about joining it because she knows she will never be the leader of the National Party. I have to say I stopped for a moment when I heard that. I was told by a very reliable source. I had to stop for a minute and I thought: “My God. Imagine the co-leadership of that party when Judith is on board. You would have the captain and the cabin boy together.” That would be the leadership of the ACT Party.What we are seeing is a widening rift between Bill English and the Prime Minister. Bill English is a hard-working decent man with principles. I have always admired Bill English because I know he lives his principles and he believes them. He now has to deal with a Prime Minister he once said bounces from cloud to cloud. But unfortunately for Bill English and his colleagues John Key now bounces from cloud-cuckoo-land to cloud-cuckoo-land. That is what is happening to the Prime Minister. You cannot believe what he says any longer. Then we have Nick Smith. Government members put him up to front their inadequacies in housing policy. They think if he talks long and loud enough we will not remember what the message was. Poor old Nick Smith—totally isolated in his own party scoffed at by his own colleagues.Then we get to Steven Joyce the most talked-about man—behind his back—in the caucus. He is widely disliked for his arrogance and his bullying. You see I actually quite like him but then I do not have to share the Cabinet room with him. But members opposite with the widening rift between them can see that this man wants the top job. But others have got their eye on it. The woman who has just sat down Paula Bennett is so puffed up now because some bloggers wrote that she has taken over from Judith as the next leader of the National Party. Well of course she is eyeing Steven Joyce. They are nudging each other out of the way trying to find their place as the next leader of the National Party. What we have seen over these last 6 years is a passing parade of Ministers who have left who were incompetent and who were involved in underhand activities and cover-ups. Mr Deputy Speaker I am very disappointed that you are not still in a ministerial role—a man of integrity and hard work. I cannot say the same for those who have come and gone.This Government does not have any solutions. What it has is just jibber-jabber. That is what we will call it—the “Jibber-Jabber Government”. We are going to see plenty more of it. Every speech I have listened to in this debate has been nothing more than a whole lot of slogans that do not address the issues facing us. Where are the real solutions to the problem in Iraq? All we are doing is putting up our hands and saying: “Wherever the US goes we go.” Why not put down some real concrete things we could do to help the people in Iraq those who need humanitarian aid those who need medical assistance those who need refuge from that country? What do we get? “Yes if America invites us we will go.” Well let us be honest and open with the public of New Zealand. Real policies and real debate—I am not expecting that from this Government.