Goff Phil: Appropriation (2004/05 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Goff Phil: Appropriation (2004/05 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:619;Page:14960] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade) 
: 
 National was sliding in the polls even before Don Brash committed the most basic of all political errors: going to Australia last week to speak to a business audience and bagging his own country by saying to that business audience that New Zealand was no better than any little Pacific Island State and was moving in the same direction as those States. If the Leader of the Opposition had an ounce of credibility he could have done real damage to his own country and to others’ willingness to invest in it. If there is one thing that New Zealanders as a nation cannot stand it is a politician who bad-mouths his country overseas. This is not the first time that Don Brash has done that. In March of this year Don Brash was in Australia telling the defence establishment that our country was not pulling its weight. This week I have come back from Afghanistan where I saw more than 100 New Zealand soldiers working in the provincial reconstruction team in Bamian. I heard from other countries and from the local people in that area the record of what those soldiers were doing. I was proud to be a New Zealander—proud of what they were doing there; proud of what our combat forces were doing in Afghanistan—and I met those soldiers as well. But what do we have? We have Don Brash bagging his country and saying we are not pulling our weight. We have always pulled our weight as a country and we are proud of it. 
Don Brash has now been telling Australia and the world that we are an economic cot-case. An economic cot-case! In fact this country has performed better than any other country in the OECD in recent years. The unemployment figure last week was 4 percent—the lowest it has been in 20 years. Australia has performed well but its unemployment is at 5.6 percent. So the Australians knew that Don Brash was not giving an accurate picture of New Zealand and they discounted him accordingly. They discounted him because he could not be relied upon. They discounted him because even the Australians do not like to see a politician bag his own country. 
Does Don Brash not learn anything? Jenny Shipley and then Bill English did the same thing that he has done and both of them were removed as party leader. I see John Key is smiling; he is already starting to count the numbers. All those Nats whom Nick Smith described as “treacherous”—his own colleagues—because they promised him as the bagman for Bill English that they would vote for Bill English and then they voted for Don Brash are now wondering what they have done to themselves and their party. I make this prediction: Don Brash is plummeting in the polls—not just his party but Don Brash—on the basis of the characteristics of the man and of his leadership. We will see a new leader of the National Party. It may be before the election or it may be after it and I say to John Key that the new leader may be him because it is hard to see anybody else sitting across in National’s ranks who could do the job. 
Darren Hughes 
: What about Lindsay Tisch? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: Well Lindsay Tisch is a fine guy but I am not sure whether he is after that position. 
Patently what Don Brash said about New Zealand was not correct. When he described New Zealand as a small failing Pacific State he cast doubt upon good governance in this country. But I refer the House to Transparency International the international body that judges countries according to their governance and their lack of corruption. Every year in recent years this country has been in the top three countries in the world in terms of its open transparent honest system. Yet still Don Brash bags our country internationally by saying we are a failing Pacific State. It is no wonder the Australians watched in wonder as that man set out to run down his own country. It reminds us of the “gone by lunchtime” comment does it not? Don Brash said one thing to New Zealanders—no National was making a very close study of the issue and had made no decisions about nuclear power—whilst all along he was telling an American congressional team in private that the nuclear-free policy would be gone by lunchtime. 
One cannot trust the man. One cannot trust the man in terms of his analysis of New Zealand and Australia in that speech. Don Brash said that this country had not done as well as Australia and he blamed it on the Holidays Act. We will get 4 weeks’ holiday in about a year’s time if Labour is re-elected—but not if National is elected because Don Brash has already promised working people that he will steal that from them. He said we were doing worse than Australia economically because in a year’s time we are to get 4 weeks’ holidays. For God’s sake! Australia has had 4 weeks’ holiday for 30 years! Why are working conditions more attractive in Australia than in New Zealand? It is because New Zealand had dismal years of a former Reserve Bank Governor who was tight-fisted and years of an ideologically driven National Government that would not give New Zealanders the conditions we were capable of earning for ourselves. Under this Government we have had economic growth social progress and a record number of people in apprenticeships and education. This country is going forward and it knows it is going forward. That is why National is down in the polls. New Zealand First is sitting above the threshold ACT has disappeared and the other parties will do as they will do. 
I say it is not good enough for Don Brash to blame ordinary working New Zealanders just because New Zealand did not perform well in the 1990s. This Budget that we are celebrating in the third reading of the appropriation bill today provides for working families in a way that National never provided for them. Don Brash when he was the Governor of the Reserve Bank said he believed in tax cuts for the wealthy and nothing for low and middle income earners. That is what he said when he did not have a political axe to grind. Now he has tax cuts on the secret agenda that he will not reveal to the public because he knows the public will not elect an ideological right-wing National Party into Government. But we know the agenda is there; we know the privatisation agenda is there. That is what Don Brash believes in and will deliver to this country if he ever has the chance to do so. 
One thing the electorate has learned about the National Party is that it is quick to point out problems but has no solutions. Six months ago Don Brash had novelty value: he looked new he pointed out a problem and he looked as though he might have some answers. Six months down the track the electorate has seen National revealed as an empty vessel. It has no answers. National will not take the country anywhere; it has no vision. We saw the release of National’s law and order policy—what a wonderful policy that was! It had promises that were typical of the previous National Government which did nothing for 9 years. That Government saw 90 percent of the country vote against National’s record in a referendum in 1999 and suddenly now that National is safe in Opposition it is brave and tough. 
We have been tough. We have tougher bail laws than previously. We do not put people out on the street who time and time again have been shown to be unreliable and untrustworthy to be out on the street when they are facing charges. We have been tougher than we were previously in the sentencing and parole laws. The price we have paid for that is that prison numbers are tracking well above what was forecast. Four new prisons are being built and that will not be enough. All that National can do is to say that Labour has been tough but it will be even tougher. National says it will build seven more prisons on top of the four we are building and will put another 4000 people in them. It says it will have bail laws that will put thousands more people in prison and then it wonders why it has got no lift from that policy. National has got no lift from that policy because the electorate in New Zealand recognised that National has no answers and no credibility. 
This is a very good Budget. It will deliver strongly to working families will take this country forward and will create a better country economically and socially. For the first time New Zealanders are proud of where their country stands in the world and of the independent stance that we have taken. They will vote for continuity calibre and leadership. They will vote for the Labour Party to remain in Government next year.