Gosche Mark: General Debate 
Gosche Mark: General Debate 
[Volume:627;Page:22060] 
Hon MARK GOSCHE (Labour—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 I will not respond to that speech because it is not right to speak ill of the dead. But I would like to speak about the flip-flopping National Party leader who is very rarely seen by members of the Government. This is the man who said on television the other day that he is a very good manager of people. That he said was one of his strengths as the Reserve Bank governor and of course his comment brings to mind the names Katherine Rich Lynda Scott and Georgina te Heuheu. He is a great manager of people that former Reserve Bank governor! 
He said he was mainstream because he had been the Reserve Bank governor. Some members of Parliament can remember going up to the Reserve Bank. I am not aware of many mainstream New Zealanders who have their own chef and get everything brought to them on a silver tray in a wood-panelled room. But that must be mainstream when one is Dr Brash. He says he will be the Prime Minister. He wants to be the Prime Minister. That jovial little fellow called Duncan Garner asked him a question: “There’s a war that’s broken out in Iraq. Can you tell us what you will do when you’re the Prime Minister?”. “No I can’t. It’s not the issue today.” said Dr Brash. “I’m here to talk about something different.” Does that not give us a great deal of confidence in the man who wants to be the Prime Minister! He is the man who says National has five different positions on that policy alone—on whether we go to Iraq! It is like the  
Karma Sutra 
—there are more positions on Iraq and on nuclear policy than there are in the  
Karma Sutra 
 when it comes to Dr Brash. He is unbelievable. 
It is just extraordinary how many times he flips and flops. Do members remember that he was going to do away with the benefit for women who had more children? We do not hear much about that any more but we have seen the departure of Katherine Rich and the introduction of that very warm human being Judith Collins. Well managed that one! That is someone who has a great personality. It is interesting that if we went out and asked the public who the front-bench members of the National Party are Bill English would probably be the only one they could name. It is a pity he got booed and heckled at Victoria University when he talked about the taxi-driver who drove him up there called Kevin or—who was it? 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: Trevor. 
Hon MARK GOSCHE 
: Trevor or Kevin—he could not remember the name of the taxi-driver about whom he was so concerned that he wanted to give him a tax cut. Kevin or Trevor or whoever it was might have family members who have a student loan and do not want to have to pay double what they would have to pay back if National were the Government on the promise of a tax cut that nobody is allowed to see yet. We can see it in 4 weeks’ time. We are allowed only 4 weeks to look at the small print—because it is a con. National cannot give a tax cut and give students no interest on student loans. We cannot have more families saying: “You can go and study because we’re eligible for a student allowance.” 
This Government says it is great policy. It is wonderful that National and ACT have studied it so intensely and have come up with their Treasury-speak that says: “People will go and borrow all this money because it’s there.” Oh come on! They will use it to pay their fees so they can study and get a good job. Then they will pay the country back by staying here and working—the nurses the doctors the lawyers the plumbers; all of those people who at the moment have to run away offshore to get their student loans paid. Is it not galling for the National Party and ACT that we have such a wonderful policy which is there because we have run an economy that actually can afford to pay for it! Yes taxpayers say we will spend more money on education and health if it is well spent. Well it could not be better spent. 
We also have a National Party leader who said he does not care who owns the schools. National does not care who owns the State houses because it will sell them too. National members want to sell our schools to pay for tax cuts. They are going to sell State houses like they did last time to pay for tax cuts. They will not build them up like this Government has done and will continue to do. That is how National funded tax cuts last time. National sold 13000 State houses threw people out on the street and charged market rents to those who were left. That is how National will fund tax cuts. That is what we can expect if Dr Brash the “mainstream New Zealander” with the chef the silver tray and the pyjamas his mother gave him—I must not get personal. Oh no we do not want to get personal. We must not have photos of the Prime Minister on the hoardings. Oh no—that is personal.