Swain Paul: General Debates 
Swain Paul: General Debates 
[Volume:610;Page:7243] 
Hon PAUL SWAIN (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 I wonder what the other MP from Whangarei Brian Donnelly thought of that speech. I think Mr Donnelly would have been embarrassed to think that someone from up his way would have said something like that. Mr Heatley said that 10000 people were visiting his website. Well have not the National MPs been busy over the last little while? Their research unit their members of Parliament and the half dozen members of the National Party are now all on the website day and night trying to get the numbers of people up to 10000—but no one of course believes that. 
There should be one standard of membership in the National Party but unfortunately we now have two standards: Koru Club members who are those who support Bill English and the economy class—the ones down the back—who are Maurice Williamson supporters. I would venture to guess that those two members over on the other side of the House Phil Heatley from Whangarei—I bet he is a Koru Club member and voted against Maurice Williamson— 
Phil Heatley 
: Are you a betting man? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: I am a betting man. Did he vote for Maurice Williamson? He will not say that. What do members reckon about Simon Power—a man with an eye for the future? If he is the future leader God help the National Party! Did Simon Power vote for Maurice Williamson or not? No he is not saying either but I reckon both of them put their finger up. They tested the wind and—well we will not go there. But Simon Power would have tested the wind and both of those members would have voted against Maurice Williamson. That is a shame and a tragedy because we have not come here to bury Maurice Williamson. We have come to praise him because he is somebody who does understand the new modern economy. He is the only one actually who understands anything to do with information technology communications or anything new. The National Party is locked in the last century and without Maurice Williamson it does not have a hope. 
What was poor old Maurice Williamson’s crime— 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: Telling the truth. 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: His crime was exactly that—telling the truth. Simon Power voted against Mr Williamson because he told the truth. Maurice Williamson said that in business excuses do not get accepted. No one cares if people have been working hard and putting out lots of brochures and other material. If their sales are low they will not be kept on. He was proposing a performance agreement. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: Did Murray McCully vote for him? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: Murray McCully would not have voted for Maurice Williamson. Murray McCully used to be a friend of his but Murray McCully is an old yachtsman—the wind shifts down he ducks over goes the boom and he heads off the other way. He is not going to say either but we know that he would have voted against his old mate. What a shame! Does mateship not count for anything more in New Zealand? He probably does not know—one sells one’s mates out. But Murray McCully has no hope in hell of getting back a decent job in the National Party. In the next reshuffle he will be sitting out in the lobby and in the one after that he will probably be out in the Grand Hall. He is on the way out yet he would not stick up for his mate. 
Maurice Williamson proposed a performance agreement that required Mr English and his front bench to lift the party to 30 percent voter preference by Christmas and to 35 percent by the middle of next year. If they failed the party was to look for new management. What is wrong with saying something like that? Well in the National Party one gets dicked. Maurice Williamson then went on to say that when the ship was sinking it was a bit rich to blame the assistant tea-boy rather than the captain and the first officer on the bridge. That is absolutely right. The National Party is in disarray and should do something on behalf of all New Zealand. It is a tragedy. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.