Fairbrother Russell: General Debates 
Fairbrother Russell: General Debates 
[Volume:615;Page:11313] 
RUSSELL FAIRBROTHER (Labour—Napier) 
: 
 This is a debate about leadership. The last speaker should know all about leadership because those members have practised with so many leaders in this House over the last 4 years. Dr Smith was a member of the Cabinet that endorsed policies that this Government has carried forward. True leaders stop and assess where they are going if there is some challenge and this party is doing exactly that. We can be sure that many members of the National caucus privately agree—and have not disputed when it was reported in the newspaper just last Saturday—that if policies were assessed on the measuring stick of need the same people would largely continue to access the same or similar services. 
Leadership is about leading people not confusing them. What have we had since the famous Orewa speech made by the current albeit passing leader of the National Party? We have had confusion in the “Don and Gerry Show”. We have had a member visit the south of Auckland with a television camera and be shown service after service of Maori and Pacific Island providers. When he was confronted with the reality of the dithering position of the leadership of the National Party what response did he give on national television? He said: “Oh no we wouldn’t change that one. Oh no we wouldn’t change that one.” 
That same deputy leader—the leader in waiting the man who acknowledged he represents one of the most affluent electorates in the country which has no concept of the difficulties of race relations in New Zealand—has said that it is OK to have ethnic quota bases when employing Asian policemen to police Asian Kiwis. But is he saying that it is not OK to have quota systems for Maori doctors or to administer to Maori patients? 
The danger of this approach that we have heard in the last 3 weeks is the danger of divisiveness. Ron Mark identified that yesterday during question time when he raised a point of order quite appropriately during which he mentioned the attack by the leader of the National Party—the attack that is always made outside this House not in this House. Don Brash stumps out on the hustings and is very brave in front of party faithful and television cameras but when he has to answer for it in the House he is strangely silent and absent and the jocular face of the deputy leader takes the stand to bulldoze his way through without any finesse or accuracy. 
When Ron Mark stood and said that the effect of this divisive policy is that all Maori doctors and all Maori lawyers will be considered second class that was the sad truth. It took the former leader of the National Party to stand and say that in his case he knew of a Pacific Island doctor who qualified on merit. Of course all Maori doctors and lawyers get their degrees on merit under the same competitive system in which all doctors and lawyers train. The only reason there is any assistance to some minority groups in entering the universities is that they do not have the same privileged background as other groups. 
Our education system is endeavouring to level this out so that all people come out of the education system with the same opportunities rather than the opportunity of privilege. These days any entry to a law school or medical school is based on a quota of numbers. Any quota of numbers is therefore arbitrary as to where the cut-off point is. So we see the leader of the National Party running out and creating misunderstandings and shibboleths which he then endeavours to knock down. 
Opposition members say that the polls say they are right. Of course people who are misled by the media are going to respond with alarm and that is exactly what we get. But when they see the accuracy of the position we will see the turn of the tide. The Government is at present highlighting the fact that our distribution of wealth and our assistance to the needy in this country is needs-based and when that is revealed and recognised by even those opposite—those who behind their hands behind closed doors and in the media will speak out anonymously and say that they recognise this is needs-based but are too scared to confront the tidal wave of popularism pushed by their leader—then this country will move forward. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.