Robertson Grant: Adjournment — Sittings of the HouseText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Adjournment — Sittings of the House[Sitting date: 11 December 2013. Volume:695;Page:15510. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): It gives me great pleasure to rise in what has been a good year for John Banks. I would love to see a bad year for John Banks and I am sure there will be one of those coming soon. Colin Craig’s real job now is to find out where John Banks parked the cabbage boat. That is Colin Craig’s job right now—to find out where John Banks parked the cabbage boat.Mr Speaker I want to start with acknowledging you for your role in keeping order in this House. I know it is not easy. The National Party gives you a terrible time and we here on the Labour Party side of the House want to come to your aid as often as we can when you are bringing people to order. You have shown literally that being the Speaker is a marathon not a sprint and I congratulate you on your efforts in that regard. I want to wish all members across the House a peaceful and restful Christmas. I want to make a special acknowledgment to all of the families of members of Parliament: husbands wives partners children andwhānau. This job is one where we are away from our families a lot. It is a job where huge pressure goes on them and this is an important time of year for all of us to acknowledge—Goodness! Santa’s little helper has entered the Chamber—the role that our families play.Can I also acknowledge all the people in this complex who support us. In particular I want to acknowledge today the security guards. Just recently in the House we saw an incident in which there was danger to people not only here in the Chamber butthroughout the building. Our security guards do a tremendous job of looking after us all on a day-to-day basis and I want to acknowledge them. I want to acknowledge the messengers the Clerk’s Office particularly and the Clerk of the House Mary Harris. I want to acknowledge the Copperfields and Bellamy’s staff. They probably see more of me than they should. I want to acknowledge Hansard all of Parliamentary Service and the Parliamentary Library. I want to acknowledge the cleaners in this building. Today in Wellington the Wellington City Council voted to pay its staff a living wage. It is the first council in New Zealand to do that. That is leadership. That is what we should be seeing and the cleaners in this Parliament deserve that. It is dangerous to single out any individual when we are doing these acknowledgments but I do want to do that today. Today is the last day for Grant Bamfield the Deputy Serjeant-at-Arms. I want to make a special acknowledgment to him and the service he has given this House and I wish him all the very very best in the future.I also want to acknowledge as others have done those who have passed on this year and in particular I want to acknowledge our colleague the Hon Parekura Horomia. I want to make a special point of acknowledging the people of Hauiti Marae who looked after us so incredibly well when we were there in April this year. The love and support they showed Parekura and hiswhānau was amazing.Parekura’s advice to all of us was to hold the line and that is what we in the Labour Party will continue to do. He used to say that he was the last of the manual labourers in this House. Well what I want to say to Parekura is that we remember that. We remember who it is that we are here to represent as he reminded us so often. The one lesson I draw from the time we spent around his tangi and talking to people about him was the fact that he understood he was here in this Parliament as a representative of his people and of the people of his community. He ensured that every day he remembered where he came from and who had brought him here. I think of Parekura every day and I miss him greatly.This has been an interesting year for the Labour Party but it is a year that we end in tremendously good heart. One very very good outcome ofParekura’s sad passing was the arrival of Meka Whaitiri to our caucus. Meka has already made a great contribution and will continue to do so. Soon she will be joined byPoto Williams a person who—we learnt in the Christchurch East by-election—is a woman of great character. She did ruin a potential family reunion for you Mr Speaker in this House but I think she will add a great deal to this Chamber and we are looking forward very very much to seeing her with us in the new year.Can I further acknowledge my counterpart on the other side of the House the Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee. As I have got to grips with my job as the shadow Leader of the House I often say to people outside of Parliament that there is only one person in Parliament who could cast a shadow big enough for me and that is Gerry Brownlee. I have to say that Gerry Brownlee’s recent kilt-wearing episode has exposed more than we wanted to know. When the Labour Party asks for transparency from this Government that is not what we mean. I have to say that Gerry Brownlee’s shift from roads of national significance to underwear of national significance is best left for history. As one colleague remarked: “It was bad enough hearing about hisPekaPeka road; thank goodness he wasn’t talking about Transmission Gully.” The Labour Party—[Interruption] Here we go.The Labour Party does indeed end this year in extremely good heart. We have emerged stronger and clearer in our purpose from our leadership contest and what a contest it was. Three exceptional attractive and modest candidates toured the country and we ended that process in a far far stronger place. What colleagues of mine heard from me many times on that journey was the fact that as a Labour Party we have to remember what it is that we stand for at our core and it is in the words of NormanKirk a job a home a family and a future. They are the core things that give the basis for New Zealanders to live their lives well and have opportunity. That is what the Labour Party will bring to New Zealand when we are elected into Government at the end of next year. There will be hope and opportunity for all New Zealanders not just for John Key’s cronies and the lucky few whom the National Party looks after but for New Zealanders who want the dignity of work who know that other citizens deserve compassion and hope who want to protect the environment and who want to be proud of their country on the world stage. That is the kind of Government that the Labour Party will bring after next year under DavidCunliffe’s leadership.But what of National’s year? From Aaron Gilmore to Ian Fletcher it has been a year to forget for John Key—and fortunately he has forgotten most of what happened this year. But let us just remind him of one or two things: the fact that he forgot he called Ian Fletcher up to give him the job the fact that he forgot the name of the German in the mansion and the fact that he cannot remember what he did in 1981. But at least he has not forgotten who he is unlike the US and UK media. The “unnamed guest” is how we will remember John Key at the end of this year and if only he had taken Aaron Gilmore with him he could have told everybody who he was.But this year for John Key ends I think a little like his own version ofA Christmas Carol. As everybody knowsA Christmas Carol has three important characters. Firstly there is the Ghost of Christmas Past. It will not surprise colleagues to know that the Ghost of Christmas Past arrived on a cabbage boat. John Banks is indeed John Key’s recipient of something we have talked about in this House before—a politically transmitted disease. Anybody who touches John Key ends up with a PTD and that is certainly what happened in the case of John Banks. I think the National Party might have worked out that it has had two mixed-ownership model failures this year. The first of those is in asset sales and the second of those is the ACT Party. The hostile takeover from Don Brash did not work inserting John Banks did not work and the ACT Party is indeed now the Ghost of Christmas Past.Then there is the Ghost of Christmas Present. There are a few people who could be up for this but I think that has to be Peter Dunne a man who has never seen an issue that he did not want to be on all sides of. Will the National Party do a dodgy deal with him inŌhariu? I suspect that it probably will. The highlight for Mr Dunne this year is still to come: being the elf in the Johnsonville Christmas parade. That is the highlight of the year for the Ghost of Christmas Present Peter Dunne. Then there is the Ghost of Christmas Future. In Charles Dickens’ book this is the person who brings visions of a dire future. Well the Ghost of Christmas Future is indeed Colin Craig—putting the fun back into fundamentalists and the crazy into Craig. He is the next cab off the rank for the National Party. Expect a coalition agreement withchemtrails moon landings and a working party on that question of our time: which came first—the chicken or the egg?I want to wish all colleagues a merry Christmas and all people around New Zealand a safe and restful holiday.