Maharey Steve: General Debates 
Maharey Steve: General Debates 
[Volume:612;Page:8980] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 For members who are listening that was yet another leadership bid from the National Party. One can always tell. That was one of the people who is now a contender for the leadership of the National Party. One can tell from that angry overacting that took place for the last 5 minutes with that member trying to do better at what Bill English has been trying to capture himself—the constant screaming the raising of the voice the sound of false anger and desperation that comes through from one speaker after the other. National Opposition members are just so chronically unhappy and angry all the time. 
The worst person at that of course is Mr Bill English. I want to take members back to the last session. It must feel like déjá vu—they are back here again. At the last session Bill English was screaming and yelling about the situation in this country. I said at the time that I thought the problem for Mr English was pretty easy to spot. The first was the poll rating. I remind people again how successful Mr Bill English—“Mr Angry” as we call him on this side of the House—has been. When he took over from Jenny Shipley after rolling her too early—and we know that now—he was polling at 5 percent for preferred Prime Minister. Would anybody like to take a stab at what his preferred Prime Minister stake is now? It has risen within the margin of error to 7. With all that work in all that time with all that screaming and so on his poll ratinghas risen to 7. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: What did he peak at? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: He peaked at 21 and he has just gone on sliding. 
I think that he is angry as well at all the people who keep on picking on him in the National Opposition. I mention Mr Maurice Williamson. Three weeks ago in the House I said I would be angry too. As leader of a party who would not be? Bill English had gone through the painful process of trying to get rid of a man who said he was as exciting as watching paint dry and even that was an exaggeration. That is a damn good line. Mr Williamson said that he lacked charisma that he was no leader that he was hopeless that he was dead meat and all those kinds of things. Mr Williamson said the National Opposition was unperforming it would never be the Government it was hopeless it could not poll and all those things and still Mr English as the leader could not get him fired. 
Mr Williamson is now on the Paul Keating comeback trail. I have always said that Mr Williamson went to the lowest seat because he followed what Paul Keating had told him—that he should go to the back but he could still come forward. After the next election Maurice Williamson—a good communicator a popular guy in his own seat a good-looking man slimmed down looking fit with lots of speeches coming in—is another contender. Bill English is looking at that and saying that not only can he not get rid of him but 3 weeks later he is back in the House. 
Murray McCully is a contender. Murray McCully the senior strategist in the National Party has been at the ACT conference forging links in a way that one would expect leaders to do. He has been building up a coalition with the ACT people and sort of doing all the rounds in the way that one would expect might happen between coalition partners. Everyone is cosy but Bill English did not know about that. He did not approve of it he did not agree with the speech because he did not read it and he had to try to recover from that. 
But as if that were not bad enough the person described by Michael Laws as the “old man in a hurry”—the person who also seems to have a charisma problem Mr Don Brash who I guess Bill English would have given up as having leadership aspirations—went to a later ACT conference and said that the National Opposition was hopeless. He said it was unspectacular it was not performing and that it would never be the Government unless it did certain things that agreed with him. What did Bill English say? Bill English did not actually know that Don Brash was going. He did not know what the speech was going to say. 
We are back on the leadership trail and I have news. Even Tony Ryall is now looking for leadership changes. As he was waiting for his soy latte—his favourite drink—Mr Ryall was recently overheard saying to the person behind the counter that he did not want his soy latte today because he was off oestrogen and on the trail of testosterone. When we hear a National Opposition speaker who is supposed to be aligned with the brat pack and very close to Mr English saying that he does not want to be on oestrogen anymore because he is trying to get more testosterone into his diet we know it is all over.