Bennett Paula: General Debate 
Bennett Paula: General Debate 
[Volume:655;Page:5027] 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 What a week in politics eh—what a week in politics! It is only Wednesday afternoon and if a week is a long time in politics it has been a heck of a couple of days for Mr Goff. We started the debate today with Mr Goff talking about the failed policies of the past. Mr Goff talked about the failed policies of the past. Well he announced a policy on Monday; it is now Wednesday and his policy has already failed. What does that tell us? The failed policies of Mr Goff are shown by the 3 days that his policy has lasted so far. 
Mr Goff started the week with his grandiose plan for making welfare payments. We have just heard about a great dramatic scene that might have happened in the past but I am envisaging Sunday afternoon or early evening when Labour members are sitting there hand-wringing and going “Ooh another week of the gloom of Opposition. Another week of not being able to do things. What shall we do?”. So they plucked that plan out of the air—absolutely plucked it out of the air—and threw it to the  
New Zealand Herald.  
There was no thinking done and no consideration given to the cost. They just thought: “Let’s give this a go. Let’s see whether we can put hundreds of thousands more New Zealanders on to welfare. Let us see whether we can find people who make $80000 a year $90000 a year $100000 a year or even $200000 a year and put their husbands or wives on a benefit.” That is the grandiose plan of “Whack-it-on-the-welfare-bill” Phil Goff. That is the plan of the Labour Party. 
But let us be fair about this. The Labour members were not talking about everyone going on to welfare—or that was Tuesday’s plan anyway. By Tuesday they were saying “Maybe not the millionaires. The plan hasn’t quite gone down as well as we thought it might so let’s try to put a cap on it now.” or “Let’s change it.” or “Let’s just backtrack with regard to what we actually meant when we started it.” It is sort of like “On yer bike Phil Goff and let’s start back-pedalling as quickly as we possibly can.” because Phil Goff saw his blunder completely. Then Wednesday came along and today it is as though he would put a cap on who could actually get that welfare assistance. He talks about job search as if that is not happening. Actually New Zealanders who need job search can get access to it; that is what Work and Income is there to do. 
Then the second blunder for Mr Goff happened just today when he decided to stand up all righteous all ready. Mrs King was involved in doing this as well earlier in the week when she stood up for that constituent—the one who has you know been treated absolutely disgracefully and cannot get help—without checking the facts. I mean goodness’ knows Mrs King has been in politics long enough— 
Hon Annette King 
: Which one? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Well we could name a number of constituents who might happen— 
Hon Annette King 
: Which one did I name? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: I believe there was correspondence earlier in the week about a particular constituent. Let us be clear that without getting their facts right politicians who have been around this place for longer than I can remember have decided not to check their facts and they have run around advocating for people in circumstances where any decent New Zealander would turn round and find that to be quite unfair. We have come to blunder No. 2 and which day are we on? We are on Wednesday. It is Wednesday and we are already seeing back-pedalling like we have not seen before from an Opposition party that is desperate to find a voice but instead is clutching needlessly at straws and trying to turn New Zealanders into long-term welfare dependants. 
Let us be really clear that that is the message New Zealanders should be hearing from that Opposition party; it is not one that this Government is going to give them. In the worst recession ever we have a welfare system that this Government is proud to support. More than a billion dollars a year is going into welfare. It is going into those who genuinely need it and going into helping people when they need it the most. That is what National has always been about that is what we are about now and that is what we will be about in the future—genuine help for those who genuinely need it. We will step up and support those people to the hilt with over a billion dollars a year. But what does Labour want to do? It wants to pick another billion dollars out of the air. It ain’t magic beans. Labour cannot take the cow in and swap it for magic beans. It is real money and there is not another billion dollars sitting out there for us to spend. So is Labour just going to whack it on the bill and have another bit of deficit for New Zealanders? Whose taxes would Labour put up? Whose taxes does Labour want to put up in order to pay for the billion dollars more that it wants to put on the welfare bill?