Pillay Lynne: General Debate 
Pillay Lynne: General Debate 
[Volume:640;Page:10265] 
LYNNE PILLAY (Labour—Waitakere) 
: 
 I have sat and listened to that speech from Judith Collins. I have not heard one word about National Party policy. Not one word! She has just denigrated our hard-working and conscientious caucus. There was not one word about National Party policy. Where do we find anything about National Party policy? The only place we see anything is in  
The Hollow Men 
. I have never seen any policy anywhere else. 
But I am not going to waste my time by denigrating that rather sad party. I am going to talk about what is good about being in this Labour-led Government. I am going to talk about the roll-out of policies on 1 July which complement all the other policies that we have been proud to introduce. I shall start with KiwiSaver. That will come into effect on 1 July and will be fabulous for hard-working Kiwis. They will get $1000 in their accounts to kickstart KiwiSaver a $20-a-week tax credit and employer contributions phased in over 4 years. That means all Kiwis will have the opportunity to have superannuation savings that will complement their Government superannuation which is guaranteed under this Labour Government. 
Then we have the 20 hours’ free early childhood education per week. I cannot understand why members on the other side bleat whine grizzle and criticise because we are putting a bucket of money into early childhood education for our children. In primary health care we have the final roll-out of cheaper fees for 25 to 44-year-olds. Now every age group of New Zealand is covered. I say to those bright young things on the other side that this roll-out will not affect people in the National Party because most of them are in the 45 to 65-year group. That is the average age of most of its members. 
Also we now have changes to paid parental leave. The National Party opposed that policy. That subsidy goes up to $390 a week from 1 July for every mother or father who wants to stay at home with a new baby for the first 14 weeks. Also funding for asset testing goes up again and superannuitants can keep $170000 before they lose anything. The previous National Government brought in asset testing but the National Party voted against this increase. Our rates rebate gets rolled out again this year and many of our superannuitants will benefit. 
All of these things are good; they are all good for hard-working Kiwis. But members on the other side know nothing about those people. They are very out of touch. What did National do for hard-working Kiwis? National cut benefits; it introduced the Employment Contracts Act which cut working conditions; and it cut superannuation rates. Now those members bang on about how they care about Kiwis in this country. They are trying to make their perception a reality and it is just simply not cutting it. They should tell us just one National policy: one that National would put up that would help Kiwis in this country. Save your famous tax cut policy because all that will achieve is to push up inflation and cut public spending. But of course you would be able to give tax cuts because you would cut presumably— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: We are going to be consistent this afternoon. We are stopping the use of the word “you” and the Speaker being brought into the debate. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I apologise for that. National and I should use that reference far more probably would have more to spend on tax cuts. Why? Because it would probably cut everything brought in by this Government that National has voted against. It would cut things like paid parental leave; Working for Families; no-interest student loans; the Employment Relations Act which brought in fairer labour laws; improved health and safety laws; the removal of asset testing; and guaranteed superannuation. 
We read in  
The Hollow Men 
 which is where we read about National Party policy that the main policy is to push out the age of eligibility for superannuation. That is the plan but as the spin merchants say: “Play it down. Don’t say too much about that. Play it down.” Those things are not being talked about in the public arena but we know they are on the National Party’s agenda. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.