Barker Rick: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Barker Rick: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1122] 
Hon RICK BARKER (Minister of Internal Affairs) 
: 
 We have seen this afternoon a prelude to how this Parliament will unfold over the next 3 years. It was very interesting to compare the speech of Helen Clark with those of Don Brash and Winston Peters. It was very unfortunate for Don Brash that he had to be sandwiched between speeches of substance and style of which he had none. Don Brash has to show himself as a leader in this House. Although he puts this House down and says that it is unimportant to people outside it the fact is that John Armstrong in his poem states the House is important because this is day by day where parliamentary foes oppose their enemy. 
Today Don Brash had to take up the spear and take it to this Labour Government effectively. But he did not; he did not do it at all. He was overshadowed by Helen Clark who set out a programme for New Zealand that builds on 6 years of fantastic work—6 years that are a direct contrast to the previous National Government’s record. That National Government in 9 years managed to double the number of registered unemployed in this country. There were 9 years of hard work while the National Government doubled the number of registered unemployed in New Zealand. I ask members not to forget that. Nine years of hard work by the previous National Government saw the abolition of apprenticeships saw the stripping away of vocational training and saw young people being dumped on the unemployment scrap heap with no future whatsoever. Nine years of that National Government saw student fees skyrocket out of control. There was no control whatsoever. 
Under this Labour Government we have seen unemployment fall to the lowest ebb it has been at for a long time. In fact we have the lowest rate of unemployment in the OECD. Although the National Party whinges on about business situations the fact is that the World Bank rates New Zealand first out of 145 countries in the world in terms of the ease and convenience of doing business. The World Bank is not known as a socialist left-wing organisation by any means. The World Bank states that New Zealand is first out of 145 countries. But the National Party does not like good news; it hates good news. It learnt that there was a slight adjustment in New Zealand’s stellar economic growth from the rate we had over the last 6 years when we grew faster than almost any other OECD country. Our growth rate has outstripped Australia’s and we now have a slight easing of that. 
Mr Eric Roy can lament the prices he is getting for his lambs but everybody knows that one cannot stay at the top end of a wave all the time. There are such things as business cycles. As for Mr Eric Roy his credibility was lessened considerably when he said that he did not know anything about the Exclusive Brethren. He was just aping the words of his leader who for 3 days said that he did not have meetings with the Exclusive Brethren. Don Brash did not say that he had had meetings with the Exclusive Brethren until he was confronted with incontrovertible proof that he had. Then he fessed up and said that he had. 
I tell Don Brash that leadership is about having credibility. The point about Don Brash’s credibility is that it was shown to be wanting here in this Chamber today. Helen Clark beat him on substance hands down Winston Peters beat him on style and the only people who were grinning at Don’s performance were several members of the National Party front bench. We are all now seeing the signs of a leadership struggle in the National Party. Who leaked to the  
New Zealand Herald? 
 Winston Peters figured Gerry Brownlee did that. Gerry Brownlee took a point of order supposedly in denial of it but members should read the record. He did not deny one word of it; he retracted not one word of it. Gerry knows that the closer it gets to the election— 
Lindsay Tisch 
: I raise a point of order Mr Deputy Speaker. 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: Mr Brownlee knows— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: He has corrected that. 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: Mr Brownlee knows— 
Lindsay Tisch 
: Mr Brownlee is deputy leader of the National Party. 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: Mr Gerry Brownlee knows that the nearer it gets to the next election the safer Dr Don Brash is. Dr Don Brash is being pressured by the elements in his party because they are answering the oldest question in politics: “Why not me?”. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: You’re in dreamland Rick. 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: I tell Mr Auchinvole that my name is Mr Barker not Rick. His whip has just pointed out that we cannot refer to members in that way. 
Mr Auchinvole knows that the back bench will be the last to be told what is going on. The power play is being played by those at the top who will use the back bench as cannon fodder. They will want to destabilise the leadership of Don Brash so that it gets to the point where it is obvious to everybody including the back bench that he cannot lead them any more—that the National Party will not make it past the post next time. National is deluding itself with the belief that it got so close to winning last time that it will automatically win at the next election. Lots of teams came close to beating the All Blacks in the first test and were creamed in the second test and the third. Just because the National Party got close to winning once it does not mean to say that it will win the next time. I say to the National Party back bench that it should think on that. 
While National’s back bench is thinking on that the plotting and scheming is going on on the front bench. Mr John Key knows that it is all there for him. Bill English realises that the longer John Key stays in this Parliament the more credibility he gets and the more Bill English will be seen as yesterday’s man. Time is running out for Bill English; the balance is shifting. He is getting close to the point of being past his use-by date. He has played a very cunning hand he has worked very constructively and he has supported his leader. I suggest to members that Bill English has supported Don Brash like the hangman who supports the person in his or her tender care. Bill English knows that when Don Brash falls over it will all be there for him. 
We have had the other wonderful sight in the House tonight of Simon Power. 
Hon Chris Carter 
: Another aspirant. 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: He is another aspirant for leadership as my colleague has identified. We watched him moving around the back benches in the House chit-chatting away and throwing in the odd interjection. Simon Power is greasing himself up because he knows that his chances are coming too. It is like the running of the bulls in Pamplona: they are out the front and they are charging. The bulls are on the loose. 
But the point that most of the National Party back bench do not realise is that they are witnessing a spectacle. I hope they will take a diary and write it down because day by day the situation will change. The people who are on the front bench in the lead of the charge know what they are doing—a careful leak there a grease-up here. The stage is being set on a very carefully orchestrated leadership spill. It is coming and I say to Mr Auchinvole that he should take some notes on it and that he should do so day by day. In 2 years’ time he will go back and reflect on them because he will have then identified the anatomy of a coup. It will happen. 
What is the National Party looking to do? Well it wants to reinvent itself for the next election. It wants to get itself on to the Government side of the House. The most important objection the National Party had to what the Prime Minister said was that it was Helen Clark who delivered the Prime Minister’s statement. When Helen Clark the Labour leader gets up and delivers a Prime Minister’s statement there is only one conclusion that Opposition people can draw: they are in Opposition for another 3 years. That is the part that grates. 
The National Party wants to be in Government but what does it want to be in Government for? It is very hard to define what the National Party stands for. It says it stands for principle. Let us look at an issue of principle: nuclear-free ship visits. One is either on one side of the line or the other. The National Party turned up and said— 
Hon Member 
: What happened at the caucus? 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: Well what happened in that meeting was going to be “gone by lunchtime”. We are not quite sure what it was but we know the National members wanted to make a change and they tried to dress it up as best they could. They said the general public could make the decision. They said they would have a ballot but that they would not do anything until they have had a referendum—that they have no position on the issue. But the public knew exactly what the National Party stood for. The National Party wanted to get rid of the nuclear-free legislation but it did not have the courage to say so. National has waffled on about subject after subject and that is the reason the National Party will be on the Opposition side of the House for the next Prime Minister’s statement.