Maharey Steve: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Maharey Steve: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1083] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Education) 
: 
 I begin by saying that it is good to be back in the House. It is good to see you Madam Assistant Speaker and the team once again at the front of the House. I welcome back colleagues who have no doubt had a break around the country and done what I think all Labour and Government - oriented people have done—gone out and spent time talking to New Zealanders. Members will have discovered that almost to a person New Zealanders have no knowledge of what goes on in this House. What New Zealanders care about is what goes on in their lives and what has made a difference to them in their housing incomes jobs and families. That is what they talk about. 
I found to my amazement that almost every single one of the people I spoke to—I did come across a politician so that person remembered—had forgotten the election. They had forgotten the National Party. National Party members like to believe that somehow they have gotten into the minds of New Zealanders over the last little while. I have news for them: no one is pining for the possibility of a National Party victory. I did not meet a single person who did. I went to Fendalton in Christchurch the heartland of Mr Brownlee’s empire. Did I find anybody there who was pining for Gerry to be the Deputy Prime Minister? Not a single person said to me that he or she regrets the fact that Gerry is not the Deputy Prime Minister. I did not hear a single word from anybody on that. 
In fact I think a lot of people are very grateful that it did not happen. Before the election a few may have been a bit persuaded by the big tax cuts. They were revving up and saying that maybe $100 would go into their pockets so they would give it a larrup and vote for the National Party candidate. They did that and stopped voting for all the other parties that used to split the conservative right vote. They ramped it up putting their votes behind Dr Don Brash and away they went saying that maybe guiltily they would have a wee go at getting a win on the lotto with the victory of the National Party. 
But now they think thank goodness it did not happen because they know that tax cuts would have meant spending cuts. They knew that; they knew that health education and all the things they care about would have cost more. They knew that if the National Party had been voted in with its race policy and if a group of people of European origin had got together in the House and voted out the Maori seats that would have been divisive. They knew that the race-based policy of the National Party would not have been good for the country. 
Most of all by the time of the election they had seen an awful lot of Dr Don Brash beginning with the effort to get into the speedway car. That set the whole image of the National Party campaign as it tried to ramp up all those votes. People saw that image of Dr Don Brash future leader of New Zealand trying to get into a speedway car and they knew they were in trouble. And on it went. People found during the election campaign that not only could he not get into a speedway car but he could not remember a single policy. Let us cut him some slack: National did not have much policy so it was always hard for him if asked about policy to do anything other than say that he did not know because there was nothing to talk about. There were only those core policies of tax and race and of relying on the notion that Dr Don Brash would somehow win the election. 
We now know that that is all academic anyway. Now that the election is over and the National Party has lost it its members know that that big tide of votes that were piled up behind the tax cuts has gone as far as it will go. It is right up the beach and foreshore. That tide has gone as far as it can possibly go. It has eked out that last little bit of froth. It has gone as far as it will go and now it is ebbing back again. So now we have a dead man walking. The phrase that will dog Dr Don Brash for the next little while until someone else takes over is “dead man walking”. Of those of us who have had any time in this House—we will forget people like Mr Clarkson who have just got here—is there anybody with any experience at all who cannot see the signs? That is exactly what has happened every other time. 
The dead man is walking and alongside him are the two major contenders who are sitting across from me today. Mr John Key is one. I say to the people at home that Mr John Key is in the House today. He is looking at the speeches he is studying what his leader did today and he is learning that the best thing that could have happened was for him to move an extension to Dr Don Brash’s speech time so that Dr Brash could bury himself faster. Next to Mr Key is Bill English. He is also positioning to take over. John Key is the fresh face—he has been here only a short time. Mr Bill English is the person who has heaps of experience that goes right back a number of years through a number of Governments and portfolios. He is able to say that he was out there leading before. He has had time on the bench but is now willing to come back. And of course there is Gerry Brownlee. What does Gerry Brownlee do? He knows that if Mr Key and Mr English are to move on Don Brash they have to move on him at some point. There is only one way in politics: if one is not going down one is going up. So Mr Brownlee is in the ring as well. There are now three contenders for the National Party leadership because the campaign did not work and Dr Don Brash has had his shot. 
On this side of the House it is completely different. We are not talking about leadership. We are not talking about tax cuts. We are not talking about race. We are talking about a programme for the next 10 years that will lead this country towards the kind of transformation that we all know we need and that the people we met over the holidays all asked us to deliver. Those people want change. They do not want to hear about constant wrangles over whether Don Brash ought to be the leader but that is what they will get from the National Party. We on this side of the House have set out very clearly that we will continue through this term and for the next 10 years on our very clear agenda. We will transform this country. What does that mean in practice? It means taking a country that bases its economy on commodities and leading it towards an economy based upon adding value to goods and services and marketing them around the world. That is what we are embarked on and we want to do that in a very distinct New Zealand way. 
Unlike the National Party we do not spend our entire time talking about how to develop the Australian economy; we are 100 percent 24/7 Kiwis. We are Kiwis and we want to talk about New Zealand—about the fantastic things here—and we want all Kiwis to be in this transformation. We do not want to divide them; we do not want to leave some behind; we do not want to say that some people are not worth it. We want to take every single one of them with us across into that kind of new country. That means that we will transform this economy and there will be an improving infrastructure. There will be investment in research science and technology; there will be investment in education; there will be investment in all the drivers that will change this economy. Beside that we intend to transform the social environment of all New Zealanders. We want strong families. We want to get rid of poverty. We want families well housed. We want kids going as far as their potential can take them and we want old people feeling secure. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: How long have you been in Government? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: In answer to Maurice Williamson over there I say that we have had 6 short years and my God have we not accomplished a lot! 
Finally we are going to focus on the issue of national identity. One of the major developments over the last 6 years has been to have a film industry to have leading sportspeople to have television and to have all the creative industries that now deliver jobs to our economy also identify us as very proud New Zealanders. So we will be developing our economy our families and our national identity. 
Meanwhile I return to the National Party whose members sadly are sitting here again totally preoccupied with the one issue now that they have to talk about—that is leadership. On this side of the House we will get on with the business of creating a 21st century modern New Zealand that all New Zealanders can share in and the National Party can have the next 3 years to rip itself to pieces yet again.