Carter David: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Carter David: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:626;Page:21287] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (National) 
: 
 It is a delight to follow the Minister of Health and her contribution in this debate on the supplementary estimates. I start by saying to the Minister that we have and New Zealand has lost faith in her. One has only to look at the headlines in the  
Dominion Post 
 today and the Minister had the opportunity to do something about that and she chose to ignore it totally. The  
Dominion Post 
 headline stated: “Emergency overload; Hospital A & E staff struggling to cope”. It goes on to state: “Wellington Hospital’s emergency department is bursting at the seams … Patients are spilling into hallways and staff are struggling to cope. One staff member described the situation as ‘near crisis’.” Yet we have had 10 minutes of absolute garbage from the Minister of Health and she refuses to address the real issues and the reason why the public of New Zealand have no faith in that Minister or the health policies of this Government. 
As we debate the supplementary estimates today it is the final debate in this year’s Budget and will not Dr Cullen and his Labour Government friends be pleased to see this debate out of Parliament once and for all! Because as we all know this Budget has been a total disaster for the Labour Government. Helen Clerk had the—I was going to say the “audacity” but I think it would be truthful to say the “stupidity” to say that that is the Budget that Labour wants to campaign on. I say to Annette King and the few members of the Labour Government sitting in the cross benches to make my day! I am happy to debate with the people of New Zealand the absolute generosity of Dr Cullen when he promises hard-working middle-income New Zealanders a tax cut of 67c a week provided they wait around in New Zealand for the next 3 years! 
What arrogance a Minister of Finance displays by coming into this House acknowledging to taxpayers throughout New Zealand that they are paying too much tax and then having the stupidity and the arrogance to say that Labour recognises that New Zealanders particularly middle-income New Zealanders are overtaxed and if they stick with the Government it will give them 67c but they have to hang around New Zealand for the next 3 years! That was just the most stupid thing that Dr Cullen could ever have done and Labour Government members now on the opposite side of the House hang their heads in shame to think that they were part of such a Budget policy this year. [ 
Interruption 
] 
 I welcome the opportunity to debate with Harry Duynhoven on any platform he likes Labour’s tax cut of 67c a week against National’s tax cut policy which will be announced in the not too distant future. If he thinks his Government’s policy will be a winner he is as out of touch as Dr Cullen. I suspect he is because that is what has happened to the Government. It has become so arrogant so out of touch it is failing to realise what New Zealanders are really worried about. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: Which electorate do you represent? 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: I want to take the opportunity to talk about some aspects of the supplementary estimates but first I will pick up on the rather inane interjection from Harry Duynhoven. I tell him that I represent the farmers of New Zealand who have had enough of that Government. I refer particularly to Supplementary Estimates of Appropriations at page 12 which talks of $2.649 million more being put towards Jim Sutton’s campaign to develop public access in this country. That is on top of the money that had already been spent in last year’s appropriations. That is on top of the $2 million being budgeted next year for the next 3 years by Jim Sutton and Helen Clark as they progress an agenda to open up the privately owned farmland of New Zealand to people who Helen Clark thinks should be allowed to wander over that land. 
If Harry Duynhoven thinks that that policy is popular he is as out of touch with New Zealanders as he could possibly be. He should realise that the issue is a major concern for New Zealand farmers. Now he is nodding his head. He is actually one of the few who have woken up to the fact and acknowledged that this is a major concern for farmers. Farmers who live in isolated areas know they do not have the resources of the police force. They know the situation where Peter Bentley was being beaten to a pulp and his wife was on the phone ringing 111 and the police kept Mrs Bentley talking on that phone and would not let her get off that call to ring the neighbours for help. No help arrived for a matter of an hour or more. That is why farmers feel so deeply about this public access debacle being advanced by Helen Clark and Jim Sutton. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: What about foreign ownership? 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: I tell Harry Duynhoven that it is not for some selfish reason that farmers want to lock up their land. They are willing to let the people of New Zealand wander over their land but they want to be shown the respect of being asked. They are the ones who have spent their hard-earned cash buying the farm in the first place and they want the opportunity of saying yes or no to people who ask whether they can wander. 
I remind Harry Duynhoven that it has worked well for 160 years and all that goodwill is about to be destroyed. I look forward to seeing that member and the other few members of the Labour caucus currently in the House being on the steps of Parliament on Thursday week when thousands of farmers are going to descend on this Parliament to again lodge their protest over this public access debate. It is the No. 1 concern that New Zealand farmers have at the moment and they have absolute disgust for Jim Sutton as he continues surreptitiously to advance that policy. 
We tell him to table the legislation. We have been asking him all year to table it. We heard a few weasel words over the weekend saying the legislation will be in the House before the election. We took the opportunity to ask the Minister a direct question at question time today and his answer as to when he would table the legislation was: “When we are ready.” Jim Sutton should wake up and listen to and feel the concern of farmers. 
I bring to the House’s attention one other interesting supplementary estimate—that is the $3.133 million being added to the budget of the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service. That is a bureaucracy chewing up $18.5 million a year but it is meant to be out there resolving the disputes and problems around leaky homes. The House has been told time and time again that the number of cases being brought before the resolution service well and truly exceeds the cases resolved so far. At the current rate it will take over 100 years to resolve the claims. 
I was amazed at some interesting statistics that Nick Smith provided. It is costing over $100000 of bureaucracy to resolve the average claim. That typifies this Government whereby it throws money into a bureaucracy and employs heaps more civil servants in Wellington and thinks that that will resolve the problems of this country. It is no wonder New Zealanders feel grossly overtaxed when they know their hard-earned taxpayer money goes into building a bureaucracy that is some 40 percent bigger than it was 6 long years ago. I say to middle New Zealand: “Help is on the way. Tax cuts will be delivered but you’ll have to vote for a change of Government to get them.” I trust that middle-income New Zealand will do that.