Guy Nathan: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Guy Nathan: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 28 November 2012. Volume:686;Page:6866. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister of Immigration) 
: 
 What we heard then was Annette King trying to promote Labour’s wonky shonky housing policy. I think it was a policy pitch that came out of Labour’s conference. What we did not hear this afternoon from Annette King was talk about the internal machinations at the Labour Party conference. What we did not hear from Annette King was how she and Trevor Mallard had to get on the phone on Saturday afternoon and call in all the favours that they possibly could in their caucus to get a vote for David Shearer. 
What happened at Labour’s conference was that its wide-ranging constitutional review actually ended up in the power of the unions. Now the unions will be able to elect who the Labour Party leader is. Why would you want to have the unions being able to elect the Labour Party leader and why would you have the caucus being diluted in the way that it currently is? This is a shambolic proposal that came through on the floor of the conference. I cannot believe that Labour members allowed this to happen. 
Now of course we have David Cunliffe who got a little bit crazy on the evening of the Saturday night because he could not believe that the proposal went through in its current form so he could not turn up in front of the TV cameras and say that he was supportive of the current leader. David Cunliffe found within the space of about 24 hours that he was standing in a bit of liquefaction. He thought that he had the numbers secured to roll David Shearer. But when Annette King Phil Goff and Trevor Mallard got on the phone and called in a few favours and actually pressured people in their caucus—put on a lot of pressure—[ 
Interruption 
] Yes indeed it was threatening. I heard from one of my contacts over there that Trevor Mallard was threatening on the phone: “You need to back Shearer or else!” with all the power that Trevor Mallard supposedly has in their wonky shonky caucus. I cannot believe that this deal was allowed to get through. 
Of course what we have with David Shearer now is we have him sitting on the right side of the caucus and that is the problem with the party membership and the union affiliates who want to drag Mr Shearer across to the left. What we have heard recently is that Mr Shearer’s problem is that he came out actually endorsing the welfare reforms that Paula Bennett is proposing. He talked about a sickness beneficiary on the roof painting his house and he said it was not fair. He said he had little tolerance for people who do not pull their weight. This is the right side of Mr Shearer. Of course he got hammered in the left-wing blogs for those comments. 
The other classic comment—wait for this—is this: “We need every teacher in our classroom to be a good one. The vast majority are. But the truth is some are not. … we can’t afford to have bad teachers in our classrooms.” This came from Mr Shearer the leader of the Labour Party—well the current leader maybe until February. He finished off by saying: “As a parent I want to put badly run schools on notice.” Well Mr Shearer should be over this side of the House supporting national standards. 
We are all waiting for the big jackpot in February. It will not be anywhere near Waitangi Day; I do not even know whether it will be near Valentine’s Day. But you wait—you wait for the phone call from the middle part of January onwards. I do not mean you Mr Speaker; I mean the Labour caucus. You can bet your bottom dollar that from about mid-January onwards the cellphones will start ringing. You know it will be one of the Davids trying to work the numbers before the February vote. 
Right now though importantly in Wellington is the showcase of  
The Hobbit 
. I think it is an outrage that Labour members voted against our proposals to ensure that the contractors were able to stay as contractors and not employees. They rallied against that. They still rally against it. They want to reverse that if they get the opportunity and let us hope they do not get the opportunity to do that. If Labour had been on this side of the House the likelihood is we would not have got  
The Hobbit. 
 It would have gone offshore the $3 billion would have gone from our economy and we know and the New Zealand public know that Labour members are truly the hobbit 
haters.