Finlayson ChristopherGENERAL DEBATEHon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Attorney-General): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. Can I begin by thanking the Rt Hon Winston Peters for describing me as Lord Denning. All I would say in response to his virulent attack on me is that at least I was never fired by Russell McVeagh after 6 months.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. As the record will prove that is an outright lie—Mr SPEAKER: Order!Rt Hon Winston Peters: —and I want an apology.Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. [Interruption] Order! It is now the general debate and that is very much a debating matter. If the member thinks that he has been misrepresented it is not to be done by raising it as a point of order in the House. He is to refer to the Standing Orders particularly Standing Order 359.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: I hope—well no I just need to give the member a very clear warning. I have ruled on that matter. If the member wants to raise any other issue that is absolutely his prerogative but if he is continuing in any way to relitigate the statement I have just made with regard to his previous point of order I will take a very dim view of it and be likely to be asking the member to leave the Chamber.Rt Hon Winston Peters: The reality is that the rights of minorities are important in this House. The reality is that I am taking offence at a statement that goes to the very character and record of a person's working history. To say that you—Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! The member is in danger of being asked to leave. I have said that the matter was into debate. If he feels that he has been misrepresented I have advised him how to do it.Hon Members: He's taken offence to it.Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: Oh if he has taken offence—Mr SPEAKER: Oh—Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: —I apologise so that I can get on with my damned speech.Mr SPEAKER: If the member is saying he has taken offence—oh I did not pick that up in the statement that was made. The member has taken offence. Would the member kindly withdraw the last part of his statement.Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: I withdraw the last part of the statement and I will go and indulge in some self-flagellation later on. Before the Speaker came into the House—Grant Robertson: Nothing unusual there then.Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: —quite a normal activity—Mr Robertson whose views I so greatly respect called out to me and asked why am I not standing for the leadership. I did say to him that I have the dream team: me as leader and me as deputy leader. But unfortunately there have not been any takers and I have been told to concentrate on winning Rongotai in 2026. Now that Mrs King is standing down I believe that opportunity will be upon me in 10 years' time.I came in here in—[Interruption] I thought that would wake her up. I came in here in 2005 and what a gloomy place it was then. It was a gloomy country because Helen Clark tended to spread gloom around the place. The Rt Hon Winston Peters had his problems with Simunovich Fisheries. We had the Electoral Finance Act of which Mrs King was the author and was the prime mover behind it. It really was such a miserable place. We campaigned in 2008 on bringing New Zealand a brighter future. And what a wonderful future the outstanding John Key has brought New Zealand. That is why I am so proud to stand in this House and say that he is New Zealand's greatest Prime Minister and that it has been an absolute honour to serve under him.I come to 2008. As soon as we came in there was a global financial crisis and the team worked on that. There was no zealotry. There was no mother of all Budgets". There was no—Iain Lees-Galloway: Thank you Michael Cullen!Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: Oh that was our lot. There was no need for punishment. It was a sensible moderate liberal-conservative path which this great Prime Minister led his team on. Time and time again in whatever portfolio I held one could see the Prime Minister's very determined yes—professional yes—but true leadership skill shining through.I come to the golden years of arts and culture for example and he was so supportive of me as Minister for the arts in that time. I recall for example just a little example the Arras Tunnel—it was the Prime Minister's idea to do it well. They got Mr Brownlee to go and talk to Mr Robertson because Mr Chauvel did not like me and they thought if I went and saw Mr Chauvel nothing would get done. But there is an example.In the Treaty negotiations area as I said this morning I would be nothing without the enthusiastic support of the Prime Minister. Groundbreaking hugely innovative settlements like the Tūhoe settlement and the Whanganui River settlement—they were because of that Prime Minister and his support for his Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Another Doug Graham here you know.Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: I know that the right honourable Mr Peters does not like Treaty settlements because he lives in a negative backward world. He dreams of a country that never was and never could be—utterly miserable and utterly negative doomed to ask questions and do nothing more. He has nothing to contribute unlike our great Prime Minister.Then we move into the area of infrastructure. Mr Robertson of course as the member for Wellington Central knows full well the need for proper infrastructure in this country. In 2008 Transmission Gully was a pipedream. The Kapiti Expressway was not even contemplated. In 2016 we are talking not about the Kapiti Expressway but the Ōtaki expressway.I will never be prouder of this Prime Minister than when the Christchurch earthquakes struck. He was down there with Bob Parker immediately. He was working with Amy Adams Gerry Brownlee Lianne Dalziel and the other Christchurch MPs to make sure that our second city could be rebuilt and he has been an outstanding leader in that regard.So although I am personally very sorry—[Interruption] I have just started. Although I am very sorry that he is going I acknowledge his leadership. Whatever area he has done he has done brilliantly and there is a lot more for him to give."