Foss Craig: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Foss Craig: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 24 October 2007. Volume:643;Page:12661. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
: 
 It did not work for the All Blacks; it failed. In fact it failed absolutely miserably. But now Prime Minister Clark is bringing in a new rotation policy. It has finally dawned on her that her 1999 team is long long past its best—not that the benchmark was ever set particularly high. In fact many Cabinet members when they reflect suddenly realise how low that bar was and that they jumped over it. Many many names have been bandied around about who is going up who is going down and who is going sideways in the Labour Cabinet and caucus so let us have a look at a few of these names. 
Labour’s junior whip Mr Darren Hughes has been talked of as a new high-flyer and I believe that he is coming in representing the rainbow coalition with his penchant and attraction for all things orange. He may well be New Zealand’s first child Minister. Apparently at Mr Hughes’ student flat he had copies of  
Hansard 
 on the walls and on the shelves. When we were all out having real lives I believe that Mr Hughes was studying up for his future career. At least we have had real lives. But in fact his ministerial career is not off to a very good start. His Paraparaumu Airport bill has him in deep trouble not only with the locals but with Labour Party president Mr Mike Williams I understand. But one person will be cheering loudly if Mr Hughes does get the promotion to Cabinet and that of course is Mr Nathan Guy. As we all know marginal seats are not good places for Ministers to try to defend their turf from. 
Mr Shane Jones has also been mentioned. He has also been christened “Parekura Lite”. Mr Jones can get up and speak for 10 15 20 minutes about any matter whatsoever yet after he sits down we wonder what on earth he has said. We have no recollection of anything important whatsoever other than that a fair bit of oxygen has been chewed up. Mr Jones wandered into Parliament on the list of course. He double-dipped for a few years to the tune of about $100000 per annum I think. Now he wants to waltz into Cabinet and as we discovered today I believe that he wants to carve up the meat industry once he is in Cabinet. When Labour loses at the next election apparently he wants to leapfrog over Phil Goff and take over the Labour party leadership once Helen Clark resigns. 
Mr Charles Chauvel has also been mentioned as one of the up-and-comers. Mr Chauvel is indeed a very nice chap and a most eminent and very good lawyer. I know that because Mr Chauvel told me so. Maryan Street is another cool customer coming up and she is being talked of widely. It will be interesting to see what knowledge she brings to Cabinet. 
Many MPs are also being talked of who are on the downward and outward list. One of those is the Hon Rick Barker who was rightfully shown the red card by the good and very sensible voters from Tukituki in 2005 alongside his colleague Mr Russell Fairbrother who was shown the card by the good and sensible voters in Napier. Currently Mr Barker is preparing for his next career as we see him on Saturday mornings driving around Hawke’s Bay in a big red bus which belches black smoke into the atmosphere as he practises his new role as a bus driver. Apparently he is standing again for selection but I suggest to him that he keeps an eye out for his former union mates. Actually to indicate how out of touch some of these Ministers and MPs are I can tell the House that Mr Barker recently submitted to the Representation Commission on changes proposed to Tukituki’s boundaries. He wanted the name of the electorate changed from Tukituki to Hastings totally forgetting and basically insulting all of the people in Central Hawke’s Bay Flaxmere Havelock North Clive Te Awanga and Haumoana. How out of touch can a member get? 
Of course Mr Burton has been spoken about. He was quite frankly invisible to me until his recent hapless hopeless defence of the Electoral Finance Bill and his defence of that bill will tar him and his legacy for good. His use of curious interpretations of Canadian and Ontario law to justify the most Draconian bill New Zealand has seen in many many years—if not ever—will tar his legacy for ever. 
Mr Maharey announced his intentions last week but what really is not widely known is that he got the kiss of death from the Prime Minister on 11 October this year. On that date the Prime Minister and Mr Maharey opened a new electorate office in Palmerston North. There was glowing and wonderful public relations with gushing endorsements of each other then only 8 days later Mr Maharey announced his intention of resigning.