King Annette: General Debates 
King Annette: General Debates 
[Volume:609;Page:6348] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Health) 
: 
 Do members need a good recipe? I have a recipe for them. It is recipe for a good old-fashioned coup. Let us take a pinch of opportunity: Bill English leaves the country. Everybody warns him of the dangers of leaving. Let us look at the history. Whenever a National Party leader leaves town they gather around to form a good old-fashioned coup. So the opportunity is there. Bill English has left the country. People told him not to go. In fact the old coup-master himself Murray McCully said: “Billy don’t go. Don’t go Billy because if you do they will be scheming they will be plotting and they will be planning.” Matt Robson put it into perspective this week when he said: “Leadership coups traditionally occur when three events coincide: the leader is out of town McCully is in town and the party’s support is half that of Labour’s.” What a mix what a recipe! 
Add to that a cup of cold opinion polls—that is what the National Party has been facing month in and month out for the last 4 years. Let us look at those polls. Of course National members decided that none of the polls were any good because none of them show that National is improving. They said: “We don’t like the NBR poll; it’s useless. We don’t like TV3’s poll; that’s hopeless. The only poll we like is Television One’s poll; that poll we can trust.” What did the Television One poll show this week? The Television One poll showed this week that Labour is on 54 and National on 28; Labour up National going nowhere! I want to know whether National members still think that Television One’s opinion poll is a good poll—or are they going to write their own? In fact I believe that they will have to write their own. 
They said that TV3’s poll was no good. They were going to give TV3 a second chance I think but I wonder what will happen if they go down in the polls in TV3’s poll tonight. What will happen if they go down? What will happen to Bill English if he goes down in tonight’s TV3 poll? So we can add to this recipe a cup of cold opinion polls and we can mix into this recipe desperation and a potential coalition partner dogged by scandal. That is the ACT party—a desperate potential coalition partner dogged by scandal. 
Let us look at the scandals. There is the matter of Donna Awatere Huata. They would have washed their hands of her—if they could. But not a single New Zealander believes that she is not an active member of the ACT party and they were right behind her until she embarrassed them. Then she was no longer part of them in the meantime. The second scandal is that Rodney Hide stands up in this House day after day attacking the Minister of Maori Affairs but he has not had the fortitude to leave this Chamber and go outside and say some of the things he said yesterday. Let us see where the real tough strong ACT party is dogged with scandal. The third thing— 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is longstanding tradition in this House that one cannot challenge the courage of another member which is what the member who is speaking just did. It has long been agreed that the word “fortitude” is totally unacceptable. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is right. The member will withdraw that comment. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I withdraw that comment but I do want to tell the House about the third scandal of the ACT party. I wonder whether many people have read ACT’s latest newsletter written by Richard Prebble. Richard Prebble said this: “Dunedin heart patients are being sent home to die because they are white.” What did his own health spokesperson say? She said: “He’s gone too far. I don’t believe what he has said. He has gone too far.” She declined to back Mr Prebble. There we have it mixed in this recipe: desperation and a potential coalition partner dogged by scandal. 
All we need to do now is to stir all that with a long-handled ladle and that is exactly what is happening. In this mix we have Gerry Brownlee in his corner of Bellamy’s plotting with his little tiny group of supporters and we have Roger Sowry and the ones they used to call the Young Turks or the young whatever they were. They are in their corner of Bellamy’s having their little plot. What is going on? They are looking for the big coup. When will it happen? Who will it be? “Nobody knows who it will be” those members are saying “but let’s have a coup anyway.” Put it in an oven let if fester and serve it up cold.