Peck Mark: General Debates 
Peck Mark: General Debates 
[Volume:607;Page:4425] 
MARK PECK (NZ Labour—Invercargill) 
: 
 A leader?—well so what! When the old people in my electorate face power shortages this winter they will be saying: “Thanks Max”. 
Max Bradford was told by the Hon Pete Hodgson at the time the energy reform was done that if one was to make a market in energy one should not do it with three generators but 10. But that Government could not make up its mind what it wanted. Mr Brownlee’s concern is that the market is actually working. As far as Tiwai Point is concerned I have spoken to Mr Campbell about it. I know precisely what his personal views are about the energy reforms and he would not agree with that member over there. He will react to the message that was sent. Tiwai Point will not buying in the spot price for the next 3 months because the message that has been sent as a result of those reforms is that we need energy conservation. 
I want to return to the issue of who the leader of the National Party will be. In Southland we say: “Where’s Bill?”. I have taken a photo today. It shows the National Party office in Invercargill. I notice that it is right next to L J Hooker’s real estate office and right next to L J Hooker is a closed-down Bank of New Zealand which used to be a television station that has also closed down. But even more significant is that this photo was taken at high noon—“Do not forget me oh my darling” and all that stuff and one can just see the cowboys riding into town—and nobody was there. There is only one car there and that is a taxi. I have some bad news for the National Party. I took another photo of that scene before high noon and there were no cars there at all. That was at 10 o’clock and I can understand why that was. Look what National Party members call themselves—“Nats”. If anybody was any good at graffiti it could be “Nits” or “Nuts”. This is the office of the Leader of the Opposition in the major city in Southland. 
I have some more bad news for National Party members. If we take a map and put some spatial information on the bottom half of the South Island what do we see? We see Clutha-Southland as the National pimple and the rest is Labour. We have the “Scarlet Pimpernel” in the Leader of Opposition’s office. Mahara Okeroa does more work in Clutha-Southland than Bill English. How do I know that? When Mr English went to his own electorate on New Year’s Day at Tuatapere four Ministers turned up—Lianne Dalziel Annette King Rick Barker and Paul Swain. They turn up and the compère says: “Where’s the Leader of the Opposition?”. “Oh here I am” says Bill. He had finally come to see his constituents. He then had the temerity to say that he had never been to “the chops” before. Hang on! This is the leader of the National Party—the rurally based party in New Zealand. He said he had never been to “the chops” not even in his electorate. That is quite something! It is no wonder that nobody is at his office. 
Bill English then complained about the Southland District Health Board. He said it did not have enough beds. The chairman of the board rang him up and said: “Come and see me Bill” and guess what? He has not seen him. Bill English will not go and see him. Worse than that not only will he not go to see the chairman but that chairman now reacts to Bill English’s press statements about him by saying: “Wait for the second one because the second one will say what he really means. The first one he doesn’t mean—he gets it wrong—so he will come back and fix it in the second one.” Here is the granddaddy of them all: Bill English announces publicly that he is having a birthday then invites only half the people in his town to come along. 
I seek leave to table this photo of Bill English’s office showing that nobody is there. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Is there any objection to that course of action being taken? There is. Before I call the Rt Hon Winston Peters I advise members on both sides of the House that they need to exercise particular restraint in raising points of order during a general debate as speeches are limited to 5 minutes.