Hutchison Paul: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hutchison Paul: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 20 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8719. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua) 
: 
 Good memory and judgment judgment and good memory are vital ingredients of any leader. We have heard this afternoon how David Shearer lacks any memory and certainly exhibits poor judgment along with a curious phenomenon known as bruxism. Let me explain. Let me explain. Not wishing to be personal only objective I have often watched David Shearer there after being trounced by the Prime Minister in question time slump back into his seat and begin a round rotation of his jaw. This is known in the trade as bruxism or involuntary habitual grinding of the teeth often connected with nightmares. I have observed this over the last few years and can conclude only that he has something serious to gnash his teeth about and I suggest that Parliament and the gallery watch very closely in the months ahead. 
But there is more. What has he done about his condition? This leads me to focus on that very thing of judgment when appointing his front bench. Firstly from the youth section of the Labour Party comes that effervescent sparkling ever shroud-waving veteran the Hon Annette King. She was the woman—[ 
Interruption 
] Oh there she is! She was the woman who in 9 years doubled the health budget from $6 billion to $12 billion without any increase in output. She was the woman who in 1998 called Bill English a criminal for having a few thousand people on the waiting list and only 2 years later was busily culling 30000 people from the waiting list with a benign smile on her face—a benign matriarchal smile. So David Shearer certainly did not choose her for mismanagement of the health system nor did he choose her for her sparkling youth. He chose her to tend to his jaws and soothe his nightmares. What extraordinary judgment! 
But then there is the other remarkable choice in the Labour front bench. Refreshed by his “walloping” as he put it chastened and contrite from his big smack in the chops comes the ever-affable Shane Jones. Here we have the apparition of instant redemption from exile galloping down from the backbenches into the front imbued with energy. But whoops this is another memory lapse of David Shearer. Is that not the same Shane Jones who on the  
Make the Politician Work 
 programme turned up late staggered on to the Onehunga wharf and then promptly fell asleep as the boat wended its way out beyond the Manukau Heads and into the fishing grounds? Then when they came wanting him to work they could not find him. Finally—finally—the crew was led by sonorous snoring to his bed where his hands were firmly gripped to his bunk and it took the captain to turn on the fire alarm to wake him up. It took the captain to turn on the fire alarm to wake him up and this was all recorded on TV. 
In fact the only possible reason David Shearer brought Shane Jones on to the front bench was that he needed someone to act as a decoy; someone who was so enervated he could fall asleep on cue and on camera and make the leader look imbued with energy even if this was energy devoid of both judgment and of memory. I understand that Mr Jones has vowed if he is ever given the chance that he will take a new approach to granting citizenship to Chinese millionaires wanted for embezzlement. He has persuaded the Labour Party campaign team that embezzlement is just another form of entrepreneurship—embezzlement is just another form of entrepreneurship. That will fit in very well with his shadow portfolio of regional economic development.