Heatley Phil: General Debate 
Heatley Phil: General Debate 
[Volume:643;Page:12865] 
PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) 
: 
 It has been a very telling couple of days in this debating chamber after the Prime Minister’s shake-up of her very very tired old Cabinet. We knew there was not much depth at all in terms of the Labour Government. I am not talking about age; I am simply talking about energy enthusiasm and ideas. 
What was most telling today I have to say was the new Minister of Health’s statement about who was in charge and who was running the show. It did not take him long. Tony Ryall was quite right. It was 48 hours before David Cunliffe stuck out his chest pointed his craggy finger across the Chamber and told the Opposition to shut up and stop keeping the Government accountable on behalf of taxpayers because he is running the show. That is what the Minister of Health said. All the while we see meltdown in every district health board and hospital in the country where nobody’s grandmother can get a hip replacement nobody’s grandfather can get cataract surgery and nobody’s sister can get Herceptin or cancer treatment within 6 12 or even 18 months. 
What was more telling than David Cunliffe’s saying who is in charge here or who is running the show was when the previous Minister of Housing Chris Carter stood up—not once but twice—to protect new Ministers. First of all he stood up as the previous Minister of Housing to protect Maryan Street as the new Minister of Housing. The second time he stood up as the previous Minister of Conservation to protect Steve Chadwick the new Minister of Conservation. I have to tell members—and I want my National colleagues to know—that if they ever feel the need to stand up and protect me they should please please not send Chris Carter. They should not send Chris Carter. He is not dangerous. Chris Carter is not dangerous. It was a huge surprise to us and I guess to the country to see him move to the front bench. 
The country is saying that the reason why Labour Ministers like Steve Maharey—and about 10 other Labour MPs like Jill Pettis and so on and so forth—are throwing in the towel is that they are rats leaving a sinking ship. That is right. Steve Maharey is leaving the sinking ship. He sees the  
Titanic 
 going down and he has a lifeboat. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: He can get out. 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: He can get out. Steve Maharey has found a lifeboat. What is incredible is that there are all these other Ministers as well. We can picture the  
Titanic 
: the back end the stern is sticking up; the bow is down in the water; and Ministers and Labour MPs are holding on to the rails at the top hoping they can get a raft and get off the sinking ship. 
But the most incredible vision in this picture is not those people falling off the sinking ship or Steve Maharey rowing away from the sinking ship on his life raft. It is the vision of the only guy in a boat heading towards the  
Titanic 
 saying “Let me aboard! Can I jump on?”. Here we have David Benson-Pope on his life raft heading towards the  
Titanic 
 saying: “Let down a cable; I want to climb on to the sinking ship. I will lead you forward.” We have Steve Maharey rowing away. We have the rest of the Labour caucus and Ministers clinging on to the stern of the  
Titanic 
. And we have David Benson-Pope rowing furiously towards the  
Titanic 
 asking Labour to send him a life raft.