Goff Phil: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Goff Phil: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 17 June 2009. Volume:655;Page:4372. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. Six weeks ago at the start of the Mt Albert by-election campaign the National Party said that winning Mt Albert was a big test for Labour—a big test for Labour. Halfway through the campaign National members subtly changed that to saying that winning the campaign really well would be a big test for Labour. But following Saturday night they are saying nothing at all. Labour did not simply win that by-election; Labour demolished National by a margin of 63 percent to 17 percent. 
Hon Member 
: How much? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: By 63 percent to 17 percent. The National Party needs to ask itself some basic questions and it has started to ask those questions. Around the backbenches some National members are talking about Jonathan Coleman. They have a new nickname for him. They call him “The Maestro”. 
But more seriously I think that the way National has scapegoated Melissa Lee as being to blame for that defeat has been grossly unfair. I want to say something about Melissa Lee. On election night she was on her own—she was on her own without a leader the very leader who had hand-picked her to be the candidate for Mt Albert. John Key had said that Ravi Musuku was just a token and that National would put him up while Helen Clark was there but as soon as there was any chance of winning he would be gone—disrespecting both Ravi Musuku and the community he represented. Mr Key picked Melissa Lee personally for that position but then she began by making an unfortunate mistake in the campaign. It could happen to anyone but a good leader would have been there alongside his candidate giving her the support she needed. That is what a good leader would have done. But no—it was all Melissa’s fault. And it was a dreadful sight on election night; Melissa Lee was traumatised by that result and clearly upset. But where was the Prime Minister? He was holidaying at Huka Lodge while his candidate was being humiliated on election night and he did not have it in him to stand alongside her. I think that that is appalling. Melissa Lee as somebody who had not stood for an electorate in a by-election campaign deserved support; instead John Key walked away from her and left her to hang out to dry. Some people said that just as he had done with Dr Worth he washed his hands of her. And that has biblical implications. Melissa Lee deserved more than she got from the National Party. 
I think it is important for National members that they learn the lesson from this campaign. Just 7 months ago National was elected to govern this country. It had a mandate. But within 7 months that National Government has become smug and arrogant. Members should just look at the look on Jonathan Coleman’s face—there it is smug and arrogant—though that member has absolutely nothing to be smug and arrogant about. The difference between Labour and National was that Labour never took Mt Albert for granted. It engaged with the people and the communities of Mt Albert and it listened to the people. It listened to people; National did not listen and it is still not listening. There is a super-city proposal that the majority of people in Auckland have said they reject; 5:1 the people of Auckland have said they have not been consulted by this Government on the super-city. But what does John Key say? He says: “So what!”. He has the same smugness the same arrogance and the same refusal to consult and to listen. Aucklanders hate hypocrisy. Before the election John Key in a member’s bill promised there would be a referendum but now he has rammed through legislation preventing the right of people in Auckland to have their say.