Curran Clare: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Curran Clare: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 17 June 2009. Volume:655;Page:4382. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South) 
: 
 If I learnt one major lesson during last year’s election campaign for the seat of Dunedin South it was to never assume—not to take for granted that I would win because it was a safe Labour seat. I felt I had to earn the position and prove that I was worthy of getting people’s votes and I did. I also know that I have to prove that I am worthy of keeping those votes. None of us are elected as of right. We do not have an entitlement. We are here because we are expected to represent the people of New Zealand. Last year the National Party earned the votes of enough New Zealanders to become the Government. It was a tough campaign hard fought on both sides. National deserves credit for its win and Labour needed to learn from its loss. That is what we have been doing for the last 7 months: listening to people taking stock doing things a bit differently being committed to reconnecting with people and groups and seeking out new groups to engage with. 
Members might not have seen it but there is a really good example of this. It is called Red Alert and it is a Labour MPs’ blog. Members can Google it and have a look. The blog is the voices of Labour MPs on issues that we care about. It is new it is different and it is about actively engaging with people. We are also committed to solid grassroots campaigning and we demonstrated that last Saturday. 
Labour does something else well and that is solidarity: standing together and standing by each other. That is why we won the Mt Albert seat. In this debate I do not want to talk about why Labour won Mt Albert but rather why National lost and lost so badly and what the lessons are for National. John Key must take responsibility for Melissa Lee’s defeat last Saturday. Why did he not show up to support her? Labour does not abandon a candidate because he or she has made a mistake. We do not abandon a campaign because it is clearly not getting traction and is not going to win. We know how to show real leadership. 
We do something else well: Labour’s leader does not run away and hide when there is a failure; he sticks around stands up for us and takes responsibility. That is what a leader does. That is the mark of good leadership. When I look across the House as I have done every sitting week for the last 7 months three things stand out for me: arrogance incompetence and an agenda. Now there is another one: cowardice. The arrogance is palpable. Of course all parties and probably all politicians are guilty of arrogance at times and Labour is not immune from such criticism. But crikey not on this scale! It is the sense of entitlement that gets me. The public do not get to see the naked display but it is there all the time in this House. John Key and his Government are arrogant after only 7 months in Government. They are arrogant by their refusal to allow Aucklanders to have their say on the Auckland super-city proposal—incredibly arrogant. John Key is also being arrogant and cagey in terms of the Richard Worth saga by not telling the public why he lost confidence in Worth as a Minister. 
Incompetence—we see it every day in the House and we are seeing it with the mismanagement of political issues. We are seeing it with the debacle of the Mt Albert campaign the debacle of the super-city and the debacle of the Richard Worth saga. Then there is the agenda—the real agenda or as I prefer to call it National’s rhetoric versus the reality. It says one thing and does another. There were lies about tax cuts. John Key lacked the courage to front up to New Zealanders before the election and when the legislation was pushed through under urgency to admit that the tax cuts were fiscally untenable. He made a pledge to the New Zealand people to never touch their superannuation. But what did his Government do? It slid around that promise and stopped contributions to the Superannuation Fund pushing this huge problem into the future for another generation of Kiwis to deal with. He and his Government are also pushing a radical deregulation agenda that is designed to reduce compliance costs for business by trading off Kiwis’ democratic rights and laws that protect the environment and the public interest. 
Then there is courage or lack of it. It was most blatantly on display last Saturday when neither John Key nor any other senior officials or leaders— 
Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. We have frankly listened to enough abuse and lies but one thing we will not take is that last point. You know as Assistant Speaker that one cannot accuse a member of that. These members know that and I ask that member to withdraw and apologise. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: The member does not help himself by putting lots of strong language in his point of order regardless of how he feels. I accept the member’s point of order that he is objecting to the use of the phrase “lack of courage” as unparliamentary. The member is correct in that. Clare Curran will withdraw the phrase and apologise. 
CLARE CURRAN 
: I withdraw and apologise. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I take offence at the words used in the point of order by Dr Coleman. You have reprimanded him but I ask that they be withdrawn and apologised for as well. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: The member is correct. The member will withdraw and apologise. 
Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: I withdraw and apologise. 
CLARE CURRAN 
: It was most blatantly on display last Saturday when neither John Key nor any senior officials or the leader of the National Party would front up and be counted. I feel sorry for Melissa Lee—not too sorry but sorry that her leader and her colleagues have not stood beside her. I do not like much of what she has to say. I found a number of things in her maiden speech offensive. But at least she says what she thinks. My message today to Mr Key and his National Government is that despite the Mr Nice Guy thing and despite the rhetoric and the spin the people see through it and they will see through it.