Mallard Trevor: General Debate 
Mallard Trevor: General Debate 
[Volume:656;Page:5903] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 Just for the record I point out that that was the member for Hamilton West Tim Macindoe. I never thought there would be a worse member for Hamilton West than Grant Thomas but I think such a member has arrived now. 
Paul Quinn 
: What happened? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I have won three different electorates I say to Mr Quinn. When that member wants to run I hope he runs against me every time. I will take him around and introduce him to people; it will do my vote a lot of good. 
I was in Hamilton yesterday at the funeral of Rufus Rogers. He was a member of Parliament who was born in 1913. He was involved in the Labour Party from the mid-1930s up until as recently as a month ago at the Rufus Rogers branch of the Labour Party. When I came back and looked at the news it caused me to reflect on the Waikato members in Parliament not so much in Dr Rogers’ period—1972-1975—but those immediately afterwards: the Minogues the Shearers and the Warings. They were the true people of the National Party the people who had the intense integrity to stand up in this Parliament for their views and to cross the floor—the way that the Associate Minister of Maori Affairs has done in the past on the question of Maori representation in local government. I thought that Mr Henare was misdirecting his anger yesterday when he was addressing Mr Hide. The person whom he should have been addressing was the Prime Minister. It was the Prime Minister who indicated that Mr Henare could not vote according to his conscience; that he could not stand up and do what he thought was right. He indicated that Mr Henare could not take a principled stand. 
Mr Henare has been made a fool of. He went around Auckland with a subcommittee of the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee which he led from marae to marae and he told the people on those marae that the Government was listening. We know now that back in June before all that had occurred the Prime Minister and the leader of the ACT Party had done a sweetheart deal and all those visits were a total charade. It was an embarrassment to this Parliament. It was a personal embarrassment to Tau Henare who was leading the subcommittee. I say to Mr Henare that it is about time he stood up to the Prime Minister and talked to his colleagues who believe the same as he does. It is time he crossed the floor and supported the amendments that will be moved by this party and by—I am almost certain—the Maori Party as well in order to do what is right in Auckland and do what he campaigned on. In fact if we look carefully we see it was something Rodney Hide campaigned on as well. 
I want to make one other point in this short debate: I like the comments of “Honest” John Carter. “Honest” John Carter has been talking about the fact that the contract that is being offered to workers in his electorate—and in that of every other electorate member in the country—is a crock. The people who are working on behalf of Telecom through a contractual arrangement are being forced out of their employment. They are being made redundant with no redundancy pay at all. They are being offered a contract that will in some cases halve their wages. They are being made to pay $60000 for equipment yet there is no guarantee of work. I say to “Honest” John Carter: “Thank goodness there is one Tory who will stand up for his electorate.” It is a pity there are no more. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.