Lee Melissa: General Debate 
Lee Melissa: General Debate 
[Volume:662;Page:10556] 
MELISSA LEE (National) 
: 
 Boy am I glad that I do not have that member managing my finances! The Labour Opposition’s definition of “saving for a rainy day” is $65 billion in the poop. Is that saving for a rainy day? No that is not my definition of “saving for a rainy day”. We must earn before we spend—we must earn before we spend. Even my 11-year-old son knows that; he has been doing it since he was 4 years old. He has had to do his chores and earn pocket money so he could send it to his sponsored child since he was 4 years old. He knows that we must earn before we can spend. But Labour members do not seem to know that; they have forgotten it or they just do not get it. Saving for a rainy day is not being $65 billion in the red. They continue to want to borrow and to spend big. To achieve that they want to have higher taxes and more debt in order to spend big to win votes. That is the only reason for it. 
I wonder whether individual members on the opposite side of the House are so irresponsible with their own finances. I doubt it. So what makes them think they can be irresponsible with this country’s finances? Labour would mortgage our families’ futures with a borrowing programme that would leave our children with a legacy of debt and deficits. New Zealand must realise that and make sure that we never go back to that dangerous situation we have just managed to get ourselves out of that we call the 9 long years of Labour Government. 
Today I will take a little moment to talk about the Korean people and to bring a Korean perspective into the House. The history of Korean people in New Zealand is not as long as that of my colleague’s Indian community which has been here for more than 100 years. Korean migration to New Zealand began only back in the 1980s and now the population is about 40000. The motivation however for moving to New Zealand has not really changed. Most Koreans in New Zealand have lived in Korea. They were born there they had a professional busy life there and they did not want for many things. But they had a desire for New Zealand and for what there was plenty of in New Zealand: clean air wide open spaces and a more relaxed lifestyle than what they had become accustomed to in Korea. When Koreans settled in New Zealand however families were separated. Often mums and children would live in New Zealand but the fathers had to go back to Korea to work because they could not find jobs in New Zealand. I will address one thing that a previous speaker said. I think it was Nanaia Mahuta who asked what the National Government has done in terms of providing employment. I ask the Labour Opposition what it did when it was in Government for 9 years for those migrant communities whose members were leaving New Zealand and for all of our young people who were leaving this country because they could not get jobs? Labour members talk big now that they are in Opposition but they did nothing then. 
A lot of Korean people are in small businesses but some have contributed greatly to the New Zealand economy even without any English and with a lack of New Zealand experience. The desire to achieve a better standard of living and a more prosperous engaged and active life is something that is very very strong in the Korean community. Koreans are very excited that we have a John Key - led Government and that National is in Government and they are very excited for New Zealand because they feel that New Zealand has finally become aspirational. Let me give the House an example of one of these people. John Chung is someone I do not really know very well but I have heard about him over the years. Back in 2003 he purchased a Gisborne sawmill. The business was in receivership and had been closed down for 8 months and all the workers had been made redundant. He re-employed 50 people who had been made redundant by the closure of that mill and invested in and upgraded the facilities and machinery. Those improvements significantly improved the quality and quantity of wood that was produced and Mr Chung successfully established a market overseas and sold 70 percent of his production offshore. He turned that company into a profitable one.