Pettis Jill: General Debates 
Pettis Jill: General Debates 
[Volume:607;Page:4217] 
JILL PETTIS (NZ Labour—Whanganui) 
: 
 Democracy requires a cohesive and coherent Opposition but sadly in this country the Opposition is fragmented and failing. It is all about the place with no direction and is certainly not in a position to make any long-lasting decisions about the future of the party or the country. The Opposition is bereft of any vision and most certainly has no policy. It is torn by an ideological struggle. It is trying to “out-right” ACT. 
Poor old Don Brash brought in as the new boy wonder keeps on wanting to take us back to the glory days of the 1930s. We all know the tragedies that occurred then with the major Depression that this country and the world were in. As I have said before Mr Brash is an intelligent man but he ain’t no politician. He has lots of lessons to learn. One of the first things he needs to learn around here is that all questions are rhetorical. He should not ask questions in this place if he wants to know the answer. That is not how it works around here. He should get up to speed. I will never be able to understand why he gave up such a good-paying job to come here where he has no future. Quite frankly he is going nowhere. 
The other tragedy about the National Party is that when Bill English took over 21 percent of New Zealanders had him as their preferred Prime Minister. Whoopsie! What has happened since he got into a position of leadership? His support is now at 6 percent. Mr English has even been surpassed by that other chameleon of the House. Now he does not even command the status of Leader of the Opposition in the polls—something that most leaders of the Opposition have done since democracy first began in this country. In another whoopsie he has already conceded the next election by saying that this Government already looks like a three-term Government. 
I have another piece of advice for Mr English which is the old saying: “Keep your friends close but your enemies even closer.” He has a few enemies in his party alone who are not making complimentary statements about him at all. The tragedy is that the current leader of the National Party has no credibility. Everybody knows he is ineffective. Some of my best friends are Tories—we are very liberal on this side of the House and we have a wide selection of people whom we meet from time to time—and they very quietly say that they are sure he is a nice bloke they are sure he is decent but he ain’t no leader and he has to go. 
This is not radio with pictures but one just has to look at the picture on the faces of most National MPs to see that they are embarrassed. Poor old Roger Sowry has no other mission in life but to raise points of order and talk about four-lane highways from North Cape to Bluff. It is just vacuous—and I am not just talking about Roger Sowry. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Beaten by Judy Keall beaten by Darren Hughes. 
JILL PETTIS 
: He has been beaten by several people over several years. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: He likes it. 
JILL PETTIS 
: Masochism runs through many people. The other irony in this House is the ACT party. Have members ever seen such a farce as that party? It is the party that was going to be the perk-buster. It was going to clean up everything. I constantly look for Rodney Hide on the wing of the plane each time I get on but he is not there. Here it is— 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Have we got a doctor in the House? I think the member for ACT has passed away. I am serious; he has been still and his eyes are closed. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: No. Please be seated. 
JILL PETTIS 
: For a moment I thought the member was serious. The tragedy of the situation with the ACT party is that it styled itself as the perk-buster of New Zealand—“We live a squeaky clean life.” But all the rorts that those members have been involved in are now being uncovered—painful as that is. It says so much about that party. One of the most despicable things that the party has been involved in just lately is the verbal assault on one of its long-serving members Rufus Dawe.