Cullen Michael:  
Cullen Michael:  
[Volume:622;Page:17308] 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Deputy Prime Minister) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. There was a 19th century US presidential candidate who ran on the slogan “Forty-four forty or fight”. Well for National the poll is now 50:30 and there is still no fight from the members opposite in the National Party. It is not often that a major political leader gets to write his own epitaph but Dr Brash did just that earlier this year when he said: “I’ll be leader until the ratings go down.” Well the ratings have gone down and the time has come for Dr Brash to move along and for there to be another leader of the National Party—no doubt Mr Gerry Brownlee. Why—[ 
Interruption 
] Indeed whenever Mr McCully is not actually— I cannot quite say that but when he may be somewhere else it is usually because he is counting the numbers for the next leadership coup. 
Why has National got into the parlous state that it is now in? In one word it is weak—weak as a party and weak as an Opposition. In two words it flip-flops. It has flip-flopped on every issue of any significance. In three words it has no new ideas. And so in four words it is time for a change. National’s strategy has combined five fatal ingredients: firstly the moral strength and purpose of Murray McCully secondly the firm hand of Tony Ryall thirdly the stability and reliability of Nick Smith fourthly the intellect of Gerry Brownlee and finally the oratorical skills of Dr Brash himself. With all that the wonder is that the party still had 30 percent support in the latest opinion poll. Of course Dr Brash took solace in the fact that the latest poll indicated what he called “volatility and fluctuation”. He almost sounded comfortable with the result. The problem is as his great hero Sir Roger Douglas once said it is volatility around a downwards trend. That is exactly what is happening to the National Party. The National Party now reminds me for the benefit of those of us who watch such things of the latest Steriogram video—the one where they are driving along in a Triumph 2000 and bits keep flying off the car. Eventually all the passengers float out of the car as well and disappear and float around in the air in a purposeless fashion. That is what the National Party is up to. 
Now that National has a clear record of flip-flops it is trying to avoid further damage. Firstly the National members had the great speech programme. In January there were to be five main speeches on five main topics. By September there had been one and they decided to wait until next year before having any more of them because the speeches were so good we had to wait for them. The truth of course is that those members cannot agree on the content of the speeches. Secondly there was the superannuation flip-flop. What a doozy! It was a better retreat than Rommel ever organised in the North African desert. National’s leader said the Superannuation Fund was all smoke and mirrors and that it was a serious mistake. Nothing has changed as Mr Hide rightly said—except for the National Party’s position. The National members now support a mistake that is all smoke and mirrors. Well if those members support Dr Brash of course they support a mistake that is all smoke and mirrors! What they meant was that their leader has been rolled by John Key. On the Civil Union Bill only a week ago Dr Brash was saying firmly on Radio Rhema that he was not willing to prostitute his conscience for any vote and that if that meant voting for something that was unpopular or against something that was popular then so be it. One week later Dr Brash’s only reason for changing his mind was that he thought his position may be unpopular. He had no other reason at all for that and he did not even tell his caucus that he was going to make the announcement in that particular respect. So much for the strength of purpose that Dr Brash was supposed to represent! 
The National members are all over the show on tax cuts. They give the impression in their body language that they will have tax cuts—but for whom? It used to be for the rich but then John Key said that was not good politics so he persuaded Dr Brash to say it would be for middle-income earners.” Then John Key said the tax cuts had to be for the rich. They both then said there had to be a cut in the corporate tax rate. Next they both said that tax cuts had to wait until they saw the numbers from me and then that they would have them anyway. Then they tried to have it all ways—that they would pay down debt have tax cuts and have extra expenditure on health and everything else. National is a disaster as a party at the present time.