English Bill: General Debate 
English Bill: General Debate 
[Volume:625;Page:20671] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. Today we heard from the Prime Minister the new motto of the Labour Government. Members might remember that a week or so ago she said in the House: “By definition I can’t leak.” The new motto for Labour is: “By definition we can do no wrong.” Whenever something goes wrong Labour Ministers say: “I didn’t do it.” It does not matter that Trevor Mallard was the Minister of Education for 6 years overseeing the wreckage and trail of destruction of so many young New Zealanders’ aspirations. He just says: “Nick Smith did it.” It is now 8 years since Nick Smith was the Minister of Education. So that is the new motto. If something goes wrong then it cannot possibly be a Labour Minister who did it. 
Well let us look at the accumulated record of the last 2 weeks. I went through a list of what has happened and I thought— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I seek leave to table documents showing that Nick Smith was Minister less than 6 years ago not 8. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: That is not a point of order. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: If that Minister cared one bit about young New Zealanders he would have read the documents given to him by his ministry telling him that New Zealand Scholarship would be a shambles. If he cared one bit about young New Zealanders he would not be sitting here; he would be fixing the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) which again in 2005 will cheat 130000 New Zealanders. That is what that Minister should be doing instead of trying to sling dirt around the place. Labour’s motto is: “If I did it and it went wrong it wasn’t me. I wasn’t there.” It does not matter how big the mess is. 
Of course it starts at the top with Helen Clark. I see there is more media-grovelling today about her great management of David Benson-Pope. I tell the media that she might have dug the grave quickly but it is still a grave. I do not know what that man did at school but I do know that he was a lazy incompetent and arrogant Minister who when he became Associate Minister of Education on 20 December 2004 said: “There are no issues in education.” That is what he said and Helen Clark believed him. 
So what has happened to the once-proud Labour Party that used to see itself as the defender of State education—the one that cared about students; the one that knew how to do it? In the space of 2 weeks the following has happened. A damning report on the 111 system was released which has resulted in the Commissioner of Police and the Minister of Police totally losing credibility. They will both go. The chairman of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority has resigned. The chief executive of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority has been sacked. A damning report has come out on the New Zealand Scholarship. Of course most people do not realise that the real report—the one about the NCEA—is yet to come and it will affect 130000 students not 2000 as in the scholarship report. Then there is the Doone affair and all the twistings and turnings. Has it not been exquisite to watch the cunning of that intelligent and articulate Prime Minister as she has wrangled her way around some basic contradictions? She told the court one thing and the Parliament another. That is the guts of it. 
Here is the question: what is it that Helen Clark is managing? I ask the House to consider what significant issue Helen Clark has said anything of interest on to the nation this year. What is a significant issue that she is pushing? What is she leading? I tell members that the last thing she said that anyone heard was in her prime ministerial speech and it was that young women with young babies should go to work because they are holding back the economy—and we know how popular that was. The nation is working out this fundamental point—[ 
Interruption 
] 
I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is customary that we have interjections of a rare and witty sort but I notice that the Hon Trevor Mallard has been interjecting which tells us that they were not rare or witty. Could you ask him to at least do it rarely. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: I thank the member for raising that. The interjections were well beyond what is acceptable. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The nation is working out one fundamental fact about this Government. It is that Labour’s values are not New Zealand’s values. That is what it is coming down to. Not only is Labour incompetent but its values are not New Zealand’s values.