Hodgson Pete: General Debate 
Hodgson Pete: General Debate 
[Volume:633;Page:4629] 
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Health) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. The prisoner’s dilemma that is the National Party is that leaving Don Brash where he is is necessary because its members cannot sort out amongst themselves who will succeed him. The end result of that dilemma is hilarious for this side of the House and downright embarrassing for those members who sit on the opposite side of the House. Dr Brash is not going to come right. He is not going to learn more by staying in the job longer. He will not progressively develop skills to become a good or a better leader. More experience will not sharpen the gentleman’s presentation. The gentleman has peaked. The bumbling has not reduced. The misjudgments are now as frequent as they ever have been. The passage of time has not made Dr Brash more modern more hip or more in touch. Instead the passage of time has made Dr Brash older. 
Winston Peters was right when 2 years ago he said that Dr Brash resembled a colonial tea planter. It is an image he cannot shake off because it is true. This is the man who tried to squeeze an arthritic frame into a dodgem. This is the man who walked a plank with the grace of John Cleese except that John Cleese hams it up when he does that sort of thing. Dr Brash does not have to ham it up—he looks funny without even trying. He really is like that. This is the man who says things that he must then recant withdraw reframe deny. 
Let us be reminded of the things the good Dr Brash has said. Let us remind ourselves that good Dr Brash said: “I don’t care who owns the schools.” Do members remember that? Or this one: “If I had been deciding yes New Zealand would have followed President Bush into Iraq.” That is what he said. Do members remember that one? Or this one—the well-known one: “Frankly if I had had my way the nuclear legislation would be gone by lunchtime.”—“Gone by lunchtime Dr Brash.” He is the guy who cannot stop blundering. He cannot stop saying things that do not go with the mainstream New Zealand viewpoint and that do not sit with the bedrock values of New Zealanders. This guy is so far out of touch he is stratospheric. This guy is so far out of touch that he is better off on a kiwifruit orchard than he is in the House because he does not represent much at all in the House of Representatives. 
There is more of course. This is a 5-minute speech and we are surrounded by an embarrassment of riches besides which we do have more recent examples. Last Friday will do. That was when Dr Brash gave a speech saying that new immigrants should share the bedrock values of New Zealanders. “Well what” asked the media nanoseconds later “might these bedrock values be and which immigrants don’t share them Dr Brash?”. “Ah well” said Dr Brash always eager to help “the equal status of women is something that isn’t always shared by Muslims.” “And” asked the media nanoseconds after that “are those equal status of women bedrock values shared by the Exclusive Brethren?”. Those are the same Exclusive Brethren that Dr Brash had no second thoughts about relieving of $1.2 million worth of election activity and pretending for a week during the election that he had not even met them. It is predictable. The thing is that Dr Brash got into trouble during the election by saying he was in favour of mainstream and someone asking: “What about the Exclusive Brethren?”. Within 9 months he is saying: “I’m in favour of bedrock values.” and someone is asking: “What about the Exclusive Brethren?”. This guy does not learn. He will not get better. That is Dr Brash’s problem. He will not learn a lot more because he has stopped learning. He does not and he cannot learn how to do better. He is already giving his National Party all he has to give and it is not enough.