Williamson Maurice: General Debate 
Williamson Maurice: General Debate 
[Volume:640;Page:10482] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (National—Pakuranga) 
: 
 One of the greatest adages in life has always been that if one does not learn from history one is doomed to repeat it. For those of us who have been around this place for some time there is absolutely no better case to look at than that of the Labour Party in 1990 to see the absolute similarities to what that party is going through in this particular term. 
A lot of people will say that that was a different Labour Party back then. Actually it was not. Helen Clark was the Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen was the Associate Minister of Finance and Phil Goff Trevor Mallard and Annette King were Ministers on the front bench. [ 
Interruption 
] Oh yes they were! They were Ministers. Guess what? In 1990 as the rot set in no matter what they tried to do they had gone past the tipping point and Labour ran headlong towards annihilation—so much so that we in the National Party had something dreadful happen to us. We won seats we did not expect to win. We won seats that I think in hindsight we actually wish we had not won because we got a couple of fruit loops on the team at the time. We won seats like Roskill off Phil Goff which we had never expected to win. To my colleague over here Chris Auchinvole I have to say that we won the West Coast and I think we will win it again this time with Chris Auchinvole as our candidate. 
I have just been up in Otaki. Let me tell members that the entire group of people that we met in Otaki today said across the board that Nathan Guy will be the next member of Parliament up there. That is what they said. So I came back to the House this afternoon and I thought “Boy are we into a case of retire now and avoid the rush!” That is what we are into. It was Paul Swain and Dover Samuels yesterday and now like rats deserting a sinking ship the list has started. 
So I thought that what I would do now is to look to the luminaries. Where are the new lights—the fresh blood—that might save the ship? That is what one often does; one turns to anywhere there is any sort of hope of keeping the ship afloat. I keep looking at stuff like the columns of that incredibly impartial columnist Colin James who says that the two stunning new lights of Labour are the two Davids: David Parker and David Cunliffe. Really? Oh really? They are the two leading lights? They are the two luminaries? David Parker gives truth to the old adage that behind every great man stands an amazed mother-in-law and David Cunliffe’s motto is that eagles may soar but weasels do not get sucked into jet engines. That is his motto. 
I tell members that David Cunliffe’s performance as a Minister has been appalling. The first thing he had to do as Minister of Communications was to deal with the issue of getting broadband into New Zealand. I ask members to work with me on this one. The first thing he always says at every meeting is: “It’s the National Party’s fault”. That is what he says. I can accept that argument if we are talking about roading which was an issue around the time back when National was the Government or the electricity network—I can accept that because it was an issue around then. 
But I tell members of the House as they have probably forgotten—I know Paul Swain will not have—that broadband did not come to New Zealand until just at the end of 1999 as ADSL was rolled out and that is when National left office. Any roll-out of broadband over the last 7 years has nothing to do with National because there was no broadband in New Zealand when National left office. There was no broadband anywhere. If members go to the OECD tables they will see that the broadband tables start from 1999 because there was no broadband before that. It is a new technology; it is a brand new technology. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: It’s our fault! 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Yes it is true. I admit now that National delivered no broadband because during its 9 years in Government there was no broadband. But now David Cunliffe is the master and he is going to deliver it. I ask members to let me read from a release that came out yesterday. They will love this; it is my personal favourite: “A new OECD report shows New Zealand is still lagging well behind other developed countries in its broadband uptake.” It says that we are “fifth from bottom” of the 30 countries. We are fifth from the bottom of the 30 countries. Now where did we start out in 1999? We were 22nd out of the 30 countries and now we are 25th due to that man’s magnificent management of the broadband issue.