Brownlee Gerry: General Debates 
Brownlee Gerry: General Debates 
[Volume:614;Page:10385] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 That was a very angry speech from the member for Waimakariri— suddenly the paragon of virtue the man who now wants to know what is on the cheque butts. Well we could ask him whose name was on the ticket. When he is prepared to answer that we might start to take him seriously. 
We know when the Labour Party is in trouble: its members come into this House stop talking about themselves and talk about everybody else. Was it not fascinating to hear Lianne Dalziel threaten to take Mr Peters to court for defamation? And is that not typical of how the current Government works? When it gets a little bit hot under the collar in a policy sense it quietly slides someone into court. Whether it is Winston Peters Nick Smith or Shane Ardern it just quietly slides the person into court. I want to make some comments about that in a few minutes. 
It was also very interesting today to hear Damien O’Connor talk about his trip to Queenstown where he talked about fisheries legislation. Everyone knows that Queenstown is not exactly the fishing capital of the world. He then went to Lumsden he said and then he was off down to Te Anau. A lovely little trip! It is a darn shame he did not go to his own electorate. If he went to his own electorate and started talking about the great advances that New Zealand has made under a Labour Government he would be laughed off the West Coast. 
He is a member who will be in trouble in his seat in 2005 if the Government is able to hold on as long as that. All of those great promises about the $120 million for the West Coast and all the other industries that were to be set up on the West Coast have come to nothing. Why? Because it has a member who does not give a tuppenny about the seat he represents. We now have a build-up of a picture of the Labour Party in trouble—a very vicious Labour Party at that. Harry Duynhoven breaks the law and the Government used every tool available to make his illegal action legal. Nick Smith gets himself in a position where he is out defending his constituents and even though the Government is going to change the law to make what he did lawful he is slung through the courts and his family is put through the stress of having to put up with that. Labour Party members sit over there and smugly laugh. They are nasty people who have very little care for ordinary New Zealanders. 
When it comes to that speech from Lianne Dalziel once again we get a bit of an insight into why Shane Ardern is before the courts at the present time. Even though we have the prosecuting sergeant agreeing with the judge that it was a frivolous case and that it should not go ahead—then having to stand up and take the great embarrassment of saying that he had been instructed on high to carry on. 
Simon Power 
: By whom? 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Well instructed from where? Was he instructed by the scurrying Gerry Cunneen who was whimpering between the Prime Minister’s office and George Hawkins’ office across to police headquarters to give them the message from Helen Clark to go ahead and put the boot in? Is that what happened? I cannot believe for a moment that the Commissioner of Police can be comfortable with the position the Prime Minister has clearly put him in. It is not the first time is it? 
Opposition members 
: No. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Oh no! Helen Clark can go out and make herself into one of the country’s most prominent art forgers and say that it is just of no account therefore the prosecution should be dropped and it is. But Mr Ardern takes a little ride up the steps of Parliament on a tractor—less than half the distance that Bob Tizard a Labour Party member took on a tractor up the steps of Parliament—and somehow because the Prime Minister decrees that he has acted in a reckless manner he finds himself up before the courts. The courts do not want it the system does not want it the police do not want it but Helen Clark wants it so it happens. That sort of nasty approach is what will unstick the Labour Government. 
Increasingly New Zealanders will come to understand that the Government does not care about them. We had the classic today—John Tamihere. I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I seek leave for an extension of time. These people have some messages they need to hear. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: Leave has been sought. No.