Power Simon: General Debate 
Power Simon: General Debate 
[Volume:657;Page:6800] 
Hon SIMON POWER (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. I shall start by talking about the GDP figures released earlier today. The Government is obviously encouraged to see a 0.1 percent increase in the June quarter following five quarters of contraction in the economy. That growth has come from activity in the primary sector which has been driven mainly by the forestry sector—hard-working New Zealanders doing their best to get this economy moving ahead. This Government is encouraged to see export volumes up by 4.7 percent as we try to rebalance our economy around exports and investment and away from consumer debt. The real challenge for us as a country is to achieve sustainable jobs and economic growth in the longer term. It is a challenge dwarfed only by that challenge currently facing the members sitting on the Opposition side of the House. 
 The Leader of the Opposition is clearly struggling to connect with the public of New Zealand. It is the only way to describe the bizarre sight of him riding that motorcycle up to the Labour Party conference. This week’s  
Listener 
 has depicted him as the Terminator riding up in the leather jacket on the motorbike and that does not do a lot to dispel the media perception of him as being slightly robotic I might say. Maybe he was trying to emulate Jon or Ponch from the  
CHiPS 
 programme in the early 1980s. In fact it was one of the most popular television shows when he was first elected to Parliament in 1981. It was popular with me. I remember sitting on the couch and watching it as an 11-year-old. Those are the things that happened back then and obviously not much has changed. 
So we can see the problems the Leader of the Opposition faces. This picture I am holding comes from the Rotorua 
 Daily Post 
. The Leader of the Opposition is pictured with some staff from the Rotorua citizens advice bureau. This is not unusual one might think yet it seems his profile is so low that the caption actually has to point out that the person second from the left is Phil Goff despite the fact that he is the only male in the photo. 
Mr Goff unfortunately is not the only person across the aisle who is suffering from an identity crisis. We know for example that Mr Cunliffe is still quietly claiming around the corridors of Parliament that he is Harvard University and we wait to see what luminary insights that will provide. It is good to see that the Hon Chris Carter is in the House today. He has obviously worked out that reporting to check-in is required 20 minutes before departure. Trevor Mallard is here and clearly he has too much time on his hands these days. He is furiously blogging away hoping to become the David Farrar of the left. I am reliably told by people who do read Red Alert that from time to time his contributions can be amusing. There is even a rumour doing the rounds that Shane Jones is doing the numbers for the leadership of the Labour Party—at least that is what Mr Jones is telling us. We also hear—and this rumour is very close to being confirmed I understand—that George Hawkins is merely biding his time for a tilt at the leadership believing he can provide a fresher face for the Labour Party as he was elected 9 years after Mr Goff was. 
Despite Mr Goff’s “mea culpas” at the Labour Party conference has anything really changed in the Labour Party? The short answer is no it has not. We are still waiting for the long-awaited—promised in July—recession response package. Instead the policy ideas we have heard from Labour go something like this: welfare for millionaires and David Cunliffe being open to suggestions to raise the age of superannuation from 65 to 67 while our Prime Minister has made a commitment to retain the age of entitlement at 65. When Phil Goff was the Minister of Employment in 1988—my first year at university—he was asked to take action or resign in a statement by the then President of the Labour Youth Council a Mr Charles Chauvel. It seems that the sentiments remain the same today.