Moroney Sue: AdjournmentText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Adjournment[Sitting date: 31 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19822. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour):Mr Assistant Speaker it was indeed time for that member Anne Tolley to resume her seat as you quite clearly indicated. I want to add my thanks to all of the staff who make this facility operate who support members of Parliament to do their jobs. They do it in the most gracious way I might say—that is that the staff do their jobs in the most gracious way to help us to do our jobs. From the messengers to the cleaners to the Office of the Clerk staff and to everyone in between—the library staff the people who provide us with food in the facility—Paul Foster-Bell: What about the Treasury advisers?SUE MORONEY: —and even the Treasury advisers—thank you. I think that Treasury often gives very good advice that the Government chooses to ignore but never mind—never mind. Government members do choose to ignore that when it does not suit them.But really I want to thank from the Labour Party caucus those staff members who go about doing their job diligently. They are not in the limelight but they make this place function and they do it in such a pleasant way. They do it without fear or favour actually and I think that is very very important. Mr Speaker I want to thank you and your office for their work throughout the course of the last 3 years. I do also want to thank the departing members. I congratulate them as they go towards the next part of the adventure in their lives. We all look forward to seeing what happens with the rest of their lives and participating with them. I think that the thing about New Zealand is that there are genuinely two degrees of separation so we do fully expect to come across each other to see the departing members and to see where they land next. That will be very interesting.Listening to the debate from the other side I wonder what country the National members actually think they are in. According to them there are plenty of jobs there are high wages no one has a problem with housing and Christchurch has been rebuilt—Christchurch has been rebuilt. I think that is a bit of a surprise to the people in Canterbury but they heard it first from Bill English today who got up on his feet and said “We have rebuilt Christchurch.” Then there was this pause because I think that even members of his own caucus drew in a big breath because they could not quite believe it themselves and neither should they.It just goes to show how out of touch the National Government has become. I do not know which New Zealand those Government members are operating in but I invite them to come to the Waikato region which should be humming. Coming out of recession coming off the back of the best dairy payouts ever you would expect the Waikato region to be absolutely humming. There should be plenty of jobs there should be high wages there should be plenty of support for children but there is not and that is the reality. In the Waikato region unemployment is going up. At the height of the recession unemployment was 5.6 percent in the Waikato region. Now as we come out of the recession it is at 7 percent—7 percent unemployment in the Waikato region. It is going in the wrong direction.This is from a region that ought to be humming but hardly a week goes by now when we do not hear of major job losses in our region—last week 110 jobs were under threat at Canpac. Canpac is part of the dairy industry. It was once not that long ago—only about 3 years ago—the largest private sector employer in Hamilton. It was the largest private sector employer in Hamilton and now it is down to about 300 staff and of those 300-odd staff 110 have their jobs on the line. And this is in a region where it ought to be humming.But that is only the beginning. Since the end of April 120 jobs from Hutton’s a meat processing plant have gone. What we know is that since the end of April only 40 of those 120 staff have got permanent sustainable work—permanent sustainable work. What their union reported was that the jobs on offer if there were any to be had were mostly insecure contracted jobs jobs with 90-day hire and fire at will provisions to them. They were jobs that no family could actually pay their mortgage on that no family could actually make sure they could feed their children on that no family could make sure they could pay their increasing power bills with.That is the New Zealand that we see when we get out in the real world. I invite the members opposite to get out in the real world because their speeches show how out of touch they are. Their speeches are painting a picture of a rosy New Zealand. Maybe that is the part of New Zealand that they are seeing but I invite them to actually come to the regions—actually anywhere in New Zealand—because what the statistics do tell us is that the only place that really is getting ahead is Canterbury. So let us all have an earthquake because that is the only plan under this Government. It had a natural disaster and milk prices—the only two things that were working for it. Now that the milk prices are starting to collapse we have got only natural disasters left and that is not a plan.Labour on the other hand does have a plan. Labour has a plan to actually get that better future for New Zealand because it is a better New Zealand that we want. We want families to be in a positive environment not one where they are having to work out what they are going to go without from week to week so that they can make ends meet or where they are having to work out whether it is the power bill that gets paid or whether it is the doctor’s visit for the child that happens. Those are the very real things that New Zealanders face on a day-to-day basis.In a region like the Waikato a smart plan is not a Government that is prepared to cut 180 agricultural research jobs from Hamilton. If that Government actually had a regional economic development plan it would not think that the best thing to do is cut 180 jobs from AgResearch in Hamilton. It is one of the best dairy-producing regions in the world—in the world—and that Government thinks that the best thing it can do for our region is cut innovation research and science in the field of agriculture. That is what it thinks.Hon Simon Bridges: Oh you just want to put SMEs out of business.SUE MORONEY: Simon Bridges thinks that. He believes it but that is the road to nowhere for our region.We need a Government that is actually going to start making some smart plans like giving children the best start in life. We in the Labour Party know that actually if we invest early that will reap rewards not only for that child and their family but for their community and all of those who live beside those children—for all of those who want to live beside well-rounded productive members of our society contributing to the best of their ability. That is what Labour’s plan is about because under our Best Start policy we will lift children out of poverty. We will lift children out of poverty. There will be $60 a week extra going into families with infants and for the lowest-income families that $60 a week payment will continue until that child’s 3rd birthday. On that child’s 3rd birthday that child will then get access to 25 hours of free early childhood education. So we will be able to actually see that child progress right through to the time that that child starts school and when that child starts school their parents will not have the bailiffs coming around to get them to pay the school fees because under Labour’s policy we will be ensuring that families do not have to pay those so-called voluntary donations to schools. We will ensure that that child is in a class where they can get quality teaching because they have lower class sizes.That is the future under Labour. It is a really positive future. It is one dealing with the day-to-day issues that everyday New Zealanders face. It is not the fairy cuckoo-land that the National members have been describing. It is not the out-of-touch New Zealand that the National Government believes is there. A place where there are plenty of jobs a place where no one has any housing problems a place where there are high wages—that is the Labour Party vision. It is sadly what the National Government thinks is already in place. But listen up New Zealand: if New Zealanders believe and are experiencing the New Zealand that National members are describing then you know what to do with your vote. But most New Zealanders know that that is fairy cuckoo-land and they know that they need a better future for their country. That means voting Labour voting positive and voting early on 20 September. I look forward to our return to Parliament after the election and look forward to seeing a better future for this country.