Maharey Steve: General Debate 
Maharey Steve: General Debate 
[Volume:640;Page:10691] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Education) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. As many people are wont to do the wonderful Bill English recently visited the Manawatu region. He was reported in the newspaper as saying that the major issue was leadership. We all know that Mr English is very very interested in leadership. He wanted to lead the National Party after Mr Brash was so rudely interrupted. He almost made it but a couple of people having been across to the Back Bencher changed their vote at the last minute. They came back and voted for John Key. 
I notice that Mr English in stressing the issue of leadership all the time has been making it very clear who does all the real work. In  
North and South 
 Mr English has characterised Mr Key as jumping from cloud to cloud while he is down there in the gully grinding away. Slowly but carefully week after week Mr English has built the image of himself as being experienced hardworking and knowing everything and Mr Key the front man as being aspirational. John Key is the lightweight; he is the marketer—he is the kind of Amway man of the National Party. Look I want to be fair. It is not for us on this side of the House to say what Mr English is up to. It is not for us to say or to speculate on. However it is hard not to draw the conclusion that Mr English is watching the rest of us as the shine goes off Mr Key—as that shine starts to disappear. [ 
Interruption 
] As National members say they would expect me to say that would they not? 
I went around and had a wee look at what other people are saying. Here is an example from an independent person by the name of Colin James who says: “Key plays politics in stance on therapeutics.” He says at the bottom of an article in that august journal the  
Otago Daily Times 
: “An Opposition leader with foreign policy experience and a keen sense of foreign policy imperatives would not have passed up the opportunity to have said the right thing on the therapeutics bill but”—he says in there and we know that Colin James is a stern man—“he passed up that opportunity and he buckled to Tony Ryall.” He buckled to Tony Ryall the voice of experience in health. Tony Ryall a man who has been around for a long time and who knows a syringe from a stethoscope is the man who controls the portfolio. 
Then we go on to John Armstrong. What does John Armstrong say? The headline states: “Key’s extravagant rhetoric lets Benson-Pope get out from under”. Mr Armstrong goes on to point out that Mr Key simply does not know how to ask a question in Parliament. That is why every time we come down here I have discovered National members look so flat. They sit there looking at John Key—and it was fun for a while; he got up and asked a few questions one after the other—but slowly realising that as he gets up week after week he cannot even ask a question. 
We go to Fran O’Sullivan: “The National Party … is indulging in political point-scoring at the expense of New Zealand’s prosperity.” Then we go to the  
Otago Daily Times 
 and the wonderful speech by Mr Key down at the conference on local government where he—irritatingly they say—was non-committal about either his or the National Party’s preference on what to do about Auckland. In fact the article went on to ask: “Does this man have any policy at all?” People are asking whether he has any policy at all. He has been here for a while. 
Colin Espiner has said: “Don’t you learn quickly. You go off to the West Coast. You’ve been used to being on your own; now you’re followed by everybody and you get caught out saying ‘National will win 50 percent of the vote at the next election’.” They call him “Landslide John Key” now and I bet John Key regrets those words right now predicting at this time with that kind of arrogance. 
The only conclusion we can come to is that the horrible truth is dawning on the National Party. It has made a mistake. The horrible truth is dawning on those members that they should have gone for Bill English. Bill English knows that that is what is happening. That is why he is preparing. That is why he is getting ready. That is why Gerry Brownlee’s mood has picked up because he is now waiting for a return to sitting in one or two seats over because he is actually the only National member who can ask questions in Parliament. He is the only National member who can do anything in Parliament. He knows that he was dumped to make way for a duo that is now showing that the veneer is wearing off and unfortunately for the National Party there is no wood underneath.