Eoghan Harris (Independent)

The great Wesleyan preacher, John Wesley, used to say when he came into a room full of different Christian denominations arguing with each other, "Come brothers, let us reason together". Senator Fitzgerald has shown us how to reason together in this Chamber today. The situation is pretty simple. We — some of us anyway, bankers and politicians — got ourselves into a mess, but to argue that if one's house goes on fire and a neighbour comes in, helps one out of bed and rescues one, one does not turn around and recriminate with that neighbour on the grounds that he loaned the money for the cigarettes in the first place, as we are hearing around Europe these days. I ask the Leader to convey to our fellow parliamentarians in Germany, Great Britain, and Sweden, our thanks for the help they have offered in our hour of need. We should stop being graceless people with no gratitude.

Even during the Civil War ambulances were not fired on. We are sent here to serve the people. Authority is a service to the people. Since the ambulances and the Red Cross have come, we have spent half of our time giving out about them and turning on them, and half the time fighting each other and carrying on the Civil War rather than stopping the hostilities for a while, as Tom Johnson did. I was depressed by the contributions of the Labour Party Members today. Of course, they are technically correct. Of course, it would be ideal to have a general election but politics, like New Zealand rugby, is a total business if seen in context. The total context is there will not be a general election before Christmas. If there are further recriminations, the markets will be disrupted. We will have a terrible image internationally. We should stand shoulder to shoulder together and put up with it as best we can. There is no point in arguing on the decks of the Titanic. Perhaps Senator Alex White is correct and his party was right to say they should not have taken that particular route in the Titanic but now that the ship is going down they have different kinds of obligations, namely, to save people and do the best they can. The best we can do in this situation is to stop fighting with each other for a few weeks.

Senator Alex White will be in power soon enough, as will Senator Buttimer and others. In the meantime we desperately need to calm the international markets, do something about our image and stop fighting among ourselves. We are not sovereign people anymore. We are like county councillors. The money belongs to the county manager, the IMF, the EU and the ECB. The county manager is in charge now. What is the point in us going around pontificating and pomping around the place saying that above all we must have an election and we must have party politics? We are like children in a nursery, hurling bricks at one another while the school teacher stands at the door in despair. Please brothers and sisters, let us reason together.