Moroney Sue: Address in Reply 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Moroney Sue: Address in Reply 
[Sitting date: 16 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:510. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 On the first occasion that I have spoken in Parliament during this parliamentary term can I take the opportunity to congratulate you Mr Assistant Speaker Tisch on your role and all the team from the Speaker’s office. I look forward to a rewarding year of debate under your direction. Can I also take the opportunity to congratulate all returning members who have been elected to the House again for this parliamentary term; I look forward to engaging with all returning members in a high level of debate because we have many important issues in front of us. I want to particularly congratulate the new members of Parliament. We have had many fine maiden speeches already and I look forward to the balance resuming this afternoon. 
I do want to say that the last three speakers in this debate have been pretty interesting. I think they have actually personified that arrogance of the second term of the National-led Government. We have had Jonathan Coleman Todd McClay and Nick Smith—the arrogance of this new National Government personified. In fact Dr Smith spent much of his speech pouring scorn on the local bodies up and down this country and not telling us what he was prepared to do about the problem he was identifying. Is that not typical of the arrogance of National members? They identify the problems say it is all Labour’s fault and do not have one plan or one specific idea about what to do with the problem. Dr Smith spent almost all of his 10 minutes enlarging on that problem. It does make me wonder what is waiting in the wings there and I get the very clear impression that wage cuts for people working for local bodies is very much on the agenda of the National Government. Looking at the body language of the members opposite I would say that I can now definitely confirm that wage cuts for that sector are very much on the agenda. So New Zealand families will not be relishing the prospect of even less money going into the pockets of families in their communities and therefore the winding down of services even further in their communities. That is what we have got ahead of us. 
But having said that I start this parliamentary term being remarkably optimistic actually. Call me Pollyanna if you like but I am optimistic about this year. Things have to get better.  
Hon Kate Wilkinson 
: They can’t get worse for Labour. 
SUE MORONEY 
: They cannot get worse; things must get better for New Zealand this year in 2012. This is the year that the Government gets to come good on its promise to build and deliver that brighter future it has promised New Zealand. The year 2012 is New Zealand’s year because this is the year that the Government must get it right. This has been dragging on for too long. It is dragging on for so long that unemployment has continued to go through the roof in this country. It has dragged on for so long that costs continue to escalate. It has been dragging on for so long that there is no plan coming from the Government to actually rectify those issues that families and ordinary working people face every day of their lives. Because yes they have lost their jobs and yes where they have been lucky enough not to lose their jobs they have lost hours and therefore income. But have their costs decreased? No way. In fact costs have increased thanks to that Government and its decision without consulting the New Zealand public to increase GST on everything that those families have to purchase; their costs have continued to increase much more dramatically than their incomes have. In fact for those families—those thousands of families—who now find themselves in the dole queue and for those other thousands of families who find that their hours at work have been cut over the last 3 years and therefore their incomes have reduced they have faced a double whammy. They have faced the double whammy of losing income and having costs increase. The members opposite might sit there and think that is not their fault. They may well think that it is some external thing like the global recession but they all voted— 
Mike Sabin 
: Nine years of Labour. 
SUE MORONEY 
: Oh well there you go. According to the new member it is Labour’s fault. Well you know they can blame whatever they like—Labour the global recession—but they are running out of excuses. This is the year that the Government must get it right because for too long New Zealanders have been suffering from a lack of a plan from our Government. So this is the year that I am optimistic it must come out with a plan and it must tell us what the plan is. The plan cannot be asset sales because it is really clear—and the vast majority of New Zealanders already know this—that asset sales are not the way out. It is not the way out but it is always the answer from National because it is exactly the same solution it came up with in the 1990s and before that. It never fails to surprise me and I guess I should get over this how often it is—and it does not matter what the circumstances are—that National always comes up with the same solution. The solution is this: cut taxes cut public services and then sell your assets. It did that in the 1990s and it is doing it again now. It is the only formula National members know. They roll it out in every single circumstance and Maurice Williamson knows it. He was involved in it as a Minister last time and he is going: “Wow is this ever déjà vu!”. This was happening the last time Maurice Williamson was in Cabinet and here we go again. So Maurice Williamson knows all about this. 
It has not been a good start though. As optimistic as I would like to be the Government has not made a good start. Just look at the shambles of what has been happening this year. Already just this week the Government’s asset sales agenda is looking a bit shaky. I think $10 billion was the highest estimate it gave that it was going to reap from those sales. Not only do New Zealanders not want their assets to be sold—and they do not want to buy them because they already own them—but now they are realising that the whole financial case on which it has been based is actually quite shaky and we have seen that again this week.  
We have also have seen this week that John Key has come a bit of a cropper on his election advert hour with Radio Live—a whole hour of election adverts that he claimed was not an election advert but which turned out to be exactly that. But that is not all: let us talk about broadcasting scandals this week because the other scandal is that his electorate chairman appears to have been involved with politically interfering in the use of taxpayer money— 
Hon Maryan Street 
: In donkey deep. 
SUE MORONEY 
: They are in donkey deep. Broadcasting has been a pretty big issue already this week so the Government has not got off to a good start.  
And then there is the shambles over the Crafar farms decision. There is a shambles over that. The High Court—the judiciary for goodness’ sake—has come to save the New Zealand public from its own Government. The judiciary has had to step in and do what that Government should be doing on behalf of New Zealanders. It is the judiciary that has had to say that the Government has not made the right decision and the best decision in the economic interests of New Zealanders. The judiciary has had to instruct that Government to go back and think about New Zealanders first. That is what has happened this week. That is exactly what has happened this week and I know that what National is trying to say is that Labour did it too. Actually first that is not good enough and second it is wrong wrong wrong. Labour on many occasions overturned the advice that we got from the Overseas Investment Office. We did not just go: “Oh well if you guys say that’s it then that’s good enough for us. With hands behind our back let’s sit on our hands and do nothing about it.” We were prepared to put New Zealanders’ interests first. The Auckland International Airport— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Oh Auckland International Airport. 
SUE MORONEY 
: I tell Mr Williamson that that would probably be the most high-profile of those decisions but there were several others. So the pretence from that side from the Government saying that it is just doing what Labour did is wrong wrong wrong. It is absolutely wrong and it is not going to get away with it because New Zealanders know that this smells. They know the smell of their interests being put last when they see it. Can you smell it when you see it? It may not be the right analogy but New Zealanders get this. They know—they absolutely know—that this Government has not put their interests first. The judiciary knows that this Government has not put New Zealanders’ interests first. How embarrassing it is for that Government to be instructed to go back and do what it was elected to do: to put New Zealanders’ interests first. So I look forward to the overturning of that decision because Labour got this right right from the start.