King Annette: General Debates 
King Annette: General Debates 
[Volume:607;Page:4980] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Health) 
: 
 Do members remember the song “Nobody Does it Better”? 
Hon Steve Maharey 
: Yes. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Well nobody does it better than Dame Thea Muldoon when it comes to describing the leadership of the National Party. She said this of Bill English 7 months ago: “He hasn’t got that extra leadership ability ... Possibly he’s trying to be nice … If you are nice you fall by the wayside.” Well if anyone would know that Dame Thea would because no one could never accuse Rob Muldoon of being too nice. She also said: “I think he’s got to just chin-up and hang in there and eventually someone really good will come along.” That is what Dame Thea said about Bill English: “ … eventually someone really good will come along.” She said Bill English should just keep his chin up so that he can keep getting punched on it because eventually someone really really good will come along. 
Well someone really really good has come along and his name is Don Brash the wily fox of the National Party. He has obviously been planning that ever since he decided to join the National Party. He is now the “Basil Brash” of the National Party. He said: “Boom boom I would be happy to be the Minister of Finance but hang on if there’s another job a bigger job and I will have that one too but I’m not allowed to tell anybody that. I’m not allowed to say that out loud.” A former National MP described Mr Brash as: “An inoffensive if elderly man lacking either constituency or charisma.” That was said by one of National’s own who is now a commentator in a Sunday paper. I thought that sounded really good because this is a man who lacks constituency or charisma. He is not offensive and he is slightly elderly but he is to become the new face of the National Party. 
Last week it was very exciting to be in Parliament and to see the change swirling all around us—the meetings in the corridors the scurrying around the counting of the numbers and the numbers being counted again and again and still being wrong. In fact I saw my good friend John Carter walking up the corridor. I asked him what all the talk of a leadership spill was about and he said it was nothing but a media beat-up. I have to ask if it was a media beat-up who primed up the media? 
I think it was Audrey Young who said last week that after a week of frenetic activity some very very spooky omens were pointing to Bill English’s demise. The first omen was that he was introduced at a public meeting in Tauranga by the local undertaker. The local undertaker knew a thing or two—it was a case of cutting out the middleman the caucus and going straight for the burial. She said that the second omen was that there was a whispering campaign started in the caucus: would it be Don Brash or would it be Gerry Brownlee now known as the Billy T. James of the National Party who would become leader? National members could not even make up their minds whether their new leader would be Don Brash or whether it would be Gerry Brownlee. The third omen that Audrey Young pointed out was the slap in the face to Bill English when his own Auckland party office holders made it clear that they would prefer Maurice Williamson to Bill English as leader. 
Then one has to look at who is supporting poor old Bill English: the fast-fading four. Roger Sowry his loyal lieutenant is considered to be the Bill Birch of the National Party these days. Whether as “Mr Fix-it” “Mr Intolerant” or “Mr Nasty” Roger Sowry is the bad cop to Bill English’s good cop. But no one in caucus can stand him. Roger Sowry is known as “Napoleon” by National’s own members. As a list member of Parliament his career is over. Roger Sowry is backed up by his close political ally Lynda Scott. Her days are numbered because last week Dr Paul Hutchison who is in the Brash camp asked me 14 questions on health. I read in the paper this week that Bill English has said that his members of Parliament should not be treading on their colleague’s portfolios. So Dr Paul Hutchison has his eye on the health portfolio. When the change comes he will be there lining up for health. Then there is Tony Ryall. He knew his career was over when his own friend Bill English demoted him. Of course that man has remained bitter and twisted ever since.