Henare Tau: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Henare Tau: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1192] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 First I want to put to bed one of the falsehoods that Nanaia Mahuta has just raised—that she has the first stand-alone wharekura in her area which was opened under the Labour Government. I thought it was Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Hoani Waititi wharekura which was opened under the National Government. It is interesting how people rewrite history just to suit themselves. 
I want to congratulate Jim Sutton from the bottom of my heart on the sterling job he has done over the last 6 years. I think he has done a great job for New Zealand and our kids to come and their kids to come. When one has a good person on the team one does not get rid of that person. One has to ask oneself why when one has a really cool guy doing the job for the country— 
Simon Power 
: A well-liked person. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
:—a well-liked person well-respected even by some members on this side—would one get rid of him? It has nothing to do with the fact that he may be getting on in age because we respect that in a lot of people. 
However I want to talk about a constitutional outrage. It is about Ali Baba and her 50 thieves. Ali Baba and her 50 thieves purloined $450000 out of the taxpayers’ pocket—not out of their own pockets or out of the coffers of the Labour Party but out of the back pockets of working-class New Zealanders. This was after the stingy Minister of Finance rustled up only a 67c tax cut—the chewing gum tax cut What did we see on the TV tonight? 
Gerry Brownlee 
: That’s gone. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: That is gone. Why? The Government cannot afford 67c because Helen Clark the Prime Minister maxed out on her credit card. 
Also I want to say that when something is rotten one really knows it; one can smell the stench. Well members should have a smell of this. These Ministers have been referred to the police: Dover Samuels Phillip Field Ruth Dyson David Benson-Pope and John Tamihere. I have a bit of advice for the Labour Party. Why not just refer the whole party to the police and get it over and done with? And that is exactly what is happening now because it purloined $450000. 
Nanaia Mahuta makes light of the prison issue. I remember campaigning as the Minister of Maori Affairs in 1999 at Simpson Park Hall in Moerewa. There was a guy there who was after my seat who actually won it. His name is Dover Samuels. Do members know what Dover Samuels said to the public meeting at Simpson Park Hall in Moerewa? He said: “There will be no prison in the north—over my dead body.” How much more does the public need to have? It goes back to 1999 it continues today and what we see is the slowly rotting carcass of a poor old party that used to be good and full of principles. 
I want to turn my ammunition and my guns on my former leader Winston Peters. I have four things to say about Winston. 
Pita Paraone 
: Four is a very magic number. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Absolutely. Our Minister of Foreign Affairs thinks that Fiji is part of Polynesia; it is actually part of Melanesia. He does not know his geography. But he also thinks—and this is the doozy—that the President of Argentina is “Manual Labour”. The only Singaporean he ever talks about retired 10 years ago—Lee Kuan Yew. To top it all off—and this is the best one especially as the Prime Minister has been talking about national identity—our Minister of Foreign Affairs reckons he is Chinese. How is that? And he can get away with it. Do members know why? It is because he—no one else—is the laughing stock. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: What’s he going to do when he goes to Turkey? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: We can all surmise what he might do. One can always tell when the Government is on the ropes by the stench of a rotting carcass. 
Here is something else. In my mind the biggest failure of this Government is that prior to Christmas kindergartens nationwide went on strike for better pay and better conditions as workers are wont to do now and then. Yesterday the brilliant news came through that the kindergartens and the Government had settled. I thought to myself well done! Good news for everybody. Our kids will be safe. 
Well what was the settlement? This is what the union on behalf of its members settled for: absolutely nothing. They got nothing zilch and zero. All put together that makes a big fat zero. So what was the strike about? It was actually about policy on the hoof by Trevor Mallard and Steve Maharey who said: “Crikey how are we going to win this election? Not only have we have purloined $450000 out of the taxpayers’ back pockets but we have also offered 20 hours free to those union kindergartens that support us.” 
Darren Hughes 
: Teachers union. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh no no. Then all of a sudden there was a hue and cry from all the private providers so during the election they upped the ante and said there would be 20 hours free for every teacher-led early childhood centre. So what was the strike about? Actually the settlement was to settle on a working party for the next 12 months to figure out how the Government will implement this policy. One would have thought that the policy and the implementation programme had all been worked out in the 2004 Budget and that bang on a certain date it was there. But the unions went out on strike. What was that for? Was it a diversionary tactic to take the heat off the poor rotting stench of the carcass over there? It was exactly that. 
So the members of that union the teachers of our children and our grandchildren were used as pawns in the silly little Labour Government’s plan. There is only one word for unions that do that—scab. The union scabbed on its own mates and everybody knows it. All one has to do is to look at the settlement that was released yesterday. Who won? Was it Labour that won? Was it the New Zealand Educational Institute that won? No one won. The biggest losers on the night were the workers the teachers in those kindergartens. They did not get any new conditions and they did not get better pay. They went out on strike. They used their might as workers to strike for better pay and conditions but all they got was a 12-month agreement for a working party to figure out how to implement a Government policy. That has to be the worst settlement I have ever heard of in this country. 
Darren Hughes 
: What would you do? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: In the minute I have left I will tell the member what I would do. I would directly target those 20 hours at the poor families that need them instead of giving them to the families in Remuera that do not need them. It is simple economics I say to Darren Hughes. It is simple: stop bribing the public stop pinching money from taxpayers’ back pockets and we will all get on better. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The time of New Zealand First is split into two 5-minute slots.