Cosgrove Clayton: Commission for the Family Bill — First Reading 
Cosgrove Clayton: Commission for the Family Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:617;Page:13114] 
CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 I rise to oppose the Commission for the Family Bill. In the words of my predecessor in the Waimakariri electorate this member is a day late and a dollar short. Mr McNair sits on the Finance and Expenditure Committee with me and I think he is a reasonable bloke but I do not hold him responsible for this bill as it should have been pulled. The senior members of New Zealand First—and I see Dail Jones the Arthur Daly of New Zealand politics is here—hold the leadership role in that party. Dail Jones should have advised the new member to pull the bill. He should not have stuck the member out on a pole tonight—and I have some sympathy for Mr McNair but for different reasons from Ms Coddington’s. I have some sympathy for him and say he should not have been stuck out on a pole tonight and told for the sake of political expediency the politics of envy and reasons to do with jealousy to have a go at United Future because it got there first and worked constructively with the Government. Mr McNair should not have been stuck out on the ledge; he should have been told to pull the bill. So I do not hold Mr McNair responsible for this situation. 
I think United Future deserves—as the Hon Steve Maharey said—a huge amount ofcongratulations on the way it promoted this policy. The Families Commission was a flagship policy for the United Future members. They came to the Government after the last election and said it was one of the flagship policies they wanted. They worked with us and now we have a Families Commission. They deserve credit for that. The commission will become activated in July and $28 million or more has been put up for that. It is a concrete step rather than the flippant puffery that members hear from Dail Jones. I know members will hear that again tonight because Dail Jones cannot resist getting on his feet and putting his foot in his mouth. He should have shown leadership and advised his colleague to pull the bill but he did not. Perhaps if Winston Peters had been in charge of the New Zealand First members tonight—if one can put it that way—I think he would have advised the member to pull his bill. But they have the B team in the leadership role tonight and they did not front up to do that. 
I want to briefly address Ms Coddington’s comments because it was the usual ACT diatribe from that member and the rest of the ACT team. I think she said that they would not support any legislation to assist families except for their mates’ families. That means except for the families with Mercedes-Benzes and flash places in Remuera— 
Hon David Benson-Pope 
: The ones who pay their GST. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: The families who pay their tax—some do; some do not—are the sort of families that party would support. Those members are not interested in what the Families Commission will do which is to support those who need assistance to reconstruct families where appropriate to give advice and to support families who are in need of that support. No no—to quote from another colleague the ACT party is interested only in the “big end” the silver-plated end of town. That is the group the ACT members represent because they know they do not get their 2 percent of the vote—or is it 1 percent—from the battlers who need assistance. They get their support from the “big end” or the silver-plated end of town. 
In summation this bill is as a few other speakers have said a well-intentioned bill from Mr McNair. I will give him credit for that. But it is ill-advised and when one is in this place—and I have not been here in Parliament very long myself—one does look to the senior people in one’s party for advice and leadership from time to time. I go back and say again to Mr Jones and Mr Brown that they should have shown leadership tonight and advised Mr McNair that he had missed the bus. He was a day late and a dollar short. They should not have stuck him out on a pole for the sake of political expediency downright jealousy and the politics of envy. All that has been accomplished tonight is that the New Zealand First members have vented their spleen by trying to have a crack at United Future. Well I am sorry to tell Mr Jones and Mr Brown that the sad thing for those members is that United Future can stand up with credibility along with this Government and say it has done it—established the Families Commission—and that in July the commission will become operational with $28 million in funding. That Opposition party can say it did not contribute to the debate on the Families Commission and did not put policy up but had a crack at the issue at the eleventh hour. All that that has generated for the New Zealand First members bluntly is a degradation of their integrity and some humiliation.