Prasad Rajen: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Prasad Rajen: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 27 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3435. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour) 
: 
 Namaste Mr Speaker. Thank you very much for giving me the call today. And bula vinaka. This is a “we’re gonna do something” Government. Now it is official because instead of doing those important things now Government members are saying that they are “gonna” do them and they are “gonna” do them not now but in the future. They are not going to do them in this term of Government. They are not going to do them in their next term of Government. They are actually going to do them in the term of Government after that. So its targets are for 2017. 
I asked Sam Lotu-Iiga where the targets are for the housing problems in Glen Innes now in his electorate. There are none—none. Those are the problems of today. And my friend Su’a William Sio is absolutely right: no amount of target setting is a substitute for solid action solid programmes and solid changes now. This should be seen for what it is: the latest list of targets. My colleagues have already told the House about so much target setting this Government has done and this latest one is really a bit like running up the white flag—we have given up so we will just come up with a few more targets. 
This is quite pathetic. Government members have been good at spin. What they have now realised is that the polling out there is telling them that what they have been saying is not washing any more. And they are a bit worried so now the only method they know is to come up with more targets. That has been the only constant in the performance of the last 4 years. 
Dr David Clark 
: And they spin faster and faster. Going to get to orbit. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: And they spin out of orbit. Absolutely! My colleague Mr Clark is right. They are going to spin out of orbit any minute now. 
The National Government is in its fourth year. In respect of anything that is not going right National members are very good at asking what the Labour Government did over 9 years. Well I would say to every member of that side that they have been in Government for 4 years and if these things are so important—and they are; many of these areas that the Government is talking about are important and they are important now—why are they not doing anything about those things now? They have had 4 years to make substantial changes. They have had 4 years to address the real problems. But no they have not. They have not made an iota of difference. In fact what they have done is apply their spin and now we and the public out there know that this Government does not have a plan. The targets are not a plan. 
So the response of Government members has been to borrow like mad—and they have been borrowing like mad. Of course what they have done is use large amounts of that to repay their tax cuts that they gave to the rich. And they have failed to create an environment where more jobs can be created. That is a failure. There are no targets in that area. Of the 170000 jobs forecast only 20000-odd jobs have been created so far. So it is a failure. The current policies are a failure. The current targets are a failure. What is the answer? Develop more targets for three Governments from now. 
They have also started this unrelenting campaign against the most vulnerable in our society: the poor. That is what they are doing. They talk about it in flash terms but it is an unrelenting campaign against the poor. The poorly housed those who are unemployed those who are ACC claimants—those are just some of them. And they do all of this under the guise of welfare dependency. They must go to bed praying for welfare dependency. They have made it their badge of honour. Welfare dependency is a term that that side has created as if it is some kind of sin to actually call on welfare when you need it. 
When businesses needed it to the tune of $1.7 billion in respect of South Canterbury Finance that was not dependency. Oh no. When the finance companies failed bail them out. That was not dependency. Other such things happened but when the poor need assistance that is welfare dependency we are going to have more targets and we will get them out of this false sense of security. And when they talk about getting the State to be more efficient it is just cuts. 
So this Government has really made a mess of all of this. It does not have a plan. Its investment approach is not to invest in people; it just talks about it. Much of what it has done is quite destructive and now it has given up because it is not talking about what it is going to do in this term of Government not what—