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CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : I am delighted to see that parliamentary history has been made this afternoon. That would be the first coherent speech the boy wonder from Ōtaki has ever made. I congratulate him on that excellent speech, even if it was written out for him.
 
 
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : The National Party will support Supplementary Order Paper 216, and, of course, it is supporting the Lawyers and Conveyancers Amendment Bill (No 2). The bill raises a small but very important issue about access to justice.
 
 
Vote Treaty Negotiations

CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National): I think it is a matter of agreement in this House that Treaty negotiations are an extremely important part of Government activity and should be multipartisan, and that has always been the approach of the National Party.
 
 
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : I will take a brief call, because I think everyone acknowledges there is a problem here that needs to be addressed, but, as so often happens, the devil is in the detail, and it behoves us to try to get right the formula of words.
 
General Debate 07/23/2008
 
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : That was another vintage contribution from Mr Shane Jones: so light on substance, so lacking in detail, and so short of the facts that matter. When we listen to the contributions of Labour MPs we can understand why Nandor Tanczos said that the general debate each week was the absolute pits.
 
 
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : It is always a pleasure to follow the person who is so happy to be the MP for Taupo. In 2004 National opposed the substantive legislation. We said that it was an unwarranted attack on judicial independence and that it would encourage ineffective and stupid complaints—in fact, that it would encourage a culture of complaints.
 
 
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : National will support the first reading of the Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors Bill and its referral to the Government Administration Committee. The bill does, however, require a great deal of work, and I will touch on that in the course of my speech. We have heard from the Associate Minister this afternoon the official history of the Authors’ Fund since, say, 1973, but I want to give members the real history—the real oil.
 
 
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : What a dull contribution that was from the soon-to-be failed Labour candidate for Nelson! Regional art galleries and museums are something we should all be really enthusiastic about, and one of the real pleasures I have had since I became National’s spokesperson on the arts has been to travel around the country and see the depth and excellence of regional art galleries.