Moroney Sue: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: General Debate[Sitting date: 02 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8478. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): You know that this is a Government out of ideas when the whole of this debate is focused on a piece of legislation that the Government should have brought to this House more than a year ago—a piece of legislation it is bringing back to the House in a watered-down state. When that is the best that Government members can do in this debate you know they are out of ideas. No wonder Scott Simpson’s constituents are coming to him and saying: “You’re inefficient you’re cumbersome and you’re working at a glacial speed.” It is no wonder they are saying that—seriously is this the best they can do?Their whole debate has been about a piece of legislation that they could not even bring to this House in the form they truly wanted. That is the best that this worn-out Government can do. But this year they have spent their time doing those sorts of things. They have been facing down so many scandals and trying to bring in so many distractions that they have forgotten to get on with the things that New Zealanders really need them to get on with. They have been focused on fighting off the Saudi sheep scandal. They have been trying to make people forget about the ponytail pulling. They have been trying to distract from the things that have gone wrong for this Government because they truly have lost their way.I think that one of the pinnacles of this—[Interruption] Well in the Northland by-election I think the people really started to give them a signal that they had had enough of that sort of behaviour. Also John Key rolled over on the issue of human rights for New Zealanders being deported from and detained in Australia. If Richie McCaw had rolled over for Australia in the same way that John Key did we would not be holding the Rugby World Cup; we would actually be saying instead “Oh gosh we lost to Australia.” because John Key was too weak to actually take that issue on.But Andrew Little was the one who showed leadership on this issue. He was not prepared and is not prepared to see New Zealanders being treated in that way. He went over and he confronted the issue; he did not run away and hide. That is the sort of leadership that this country needs and instead what are we getting?Well in the Waikato—in the region that I come from—unemployment has gone up 34 percent in the last quarter alone. Unemployment is up in the Waikato by 34 percent. So it has gone up in the last quarter from being 5 percent to being 6.7 percent—just in one quarter. That represents the loss of 3800 jobs to people in my region—3800 jobs just in 3 months. And that is before we lose 200 jobs from Ruakura Research Centre next year. That is right. In the heart of agricultural New Zealand in the Waikato that Government is sacking scientists in the agricultural area from the heart of agricultural New Zealand—200 jobs are being lost. And so when those jobs go the unemployment rate is going to look even worse.Huntly mines: the Government completely mismanaged State coal and Huntly miners have lost their jobs. The 3800 jobs lost in just the last 3 months you can multiply that several times for the number of family members who will be hurt by those jobs being lost by the number of local businesses that will lose income because those jobs are being lost and the poverty—the increased poverty—that our children will face in that region as a result of that.So at the same time as jobs are being lost in their thousands in the Waikato what else are we facing? The Government’s failure this year to fix the Auckland housing crisis means that housing prices and the cost of renting in Hamilton are going through the roof. So we have got the perfect storm under this Government. We have got increasing housing costs—an 8.5 percent increase in rental costs in the Waikato in the last year alone. And I can tell you that is just the tip of the iceberg. Aucklanders are marching down over the Bombay Hills because that Government has refused to do anything about the housing crisis. It has been warned for years about that developing housing crisis and it has done nothing about it. And now Aucklanders are coming to my city buying up in Hamilton forcing the housing prices up and continuing to work in Auckland because they cannot get jobs in the Waikato because unemployment has gone up by 34 percent. Can you imagine what that is doing to family life for those people?So that is the fate under this Government. That is the brighter future that it has delivered after 7 years—rising unemployment and increasing costs at the same time that people can least afford to pay those costs. It is damaging our society it is damaging New Zealand and it is time for the Government to reconsider its position or just vacate Government. If it cannot do the job then just get out of it and let those of us who have got the ideas get on with it.