McAnulty KieranKIERAN McANULTY (Labour): I'm bitterly disappointed. You know you don't get many general debate opportunities with a caucus our size. It might come along every three months and normally when you get the chance you get the opportunity to sit down here to listen to what the National Party have to say—because by golly there's always some low fruits to pick. But when morale is that low and they're not offering anything up I am blowed if I know where I'm going to get my energy from because when you come after a speech like that there's one clear message: they're starting to panic. They are starting to panic. Morale is so low because for the first time in my life I have something in common with the National Party: we're both in the 30s—we are both in the 30s. I have seen their internal polling. The National Party leaks more than my ute and it doesn't have a back door. The National Party for the first time since the election are in the 30s and we all know what that means. That means with Easter coming up even though we're in autumn it's going to be barbecue season once again.We know that the National Party is starting to panic because they realise that their leader despite going all the way around the country and having come and meet Simon Bridges" meetings he's gone backwards. He started at 12 he went to 10 he went to nine he went to eight and now he's at five. That's after people got to know him. I reckon he should go overseas go over to Hawaii follow John Key's lead—it seemed to work for him.But what we've found is that the Opposition the National Party are so much looking inwards that they are treating New Zealanders like fools. They think they're dumb. They think that if they stand up and criticise this Government's programmes New Zealanders won't realise that what they're saying is actually the opposite of what they were saying when they were in Government. I'm sure my colleagues and even the other members on the other side of the House will remember that at the last election the National Party promised a thousand dollars a year in tax cuts for them and us at the highest end of the rates and even after the last election after they lost they were still going on about it. We should have brought in a tax cut they said. We should have cut taxes for the top end because we all know what they believe in and that of course is the trickle-down.Now today we've got Nikki Kaye standing up and saying "If we"—as in them—"were in Government we'd pay the teachers more." You can't have it both ways. That's what I would put to them. On the one hand they want to reduce taxes; on the other hand they're going around telling teachers that they would pay more. This is despite the fact that the offer that is on the table now from this coalition Government—from Labour New Zealand First and the Green Party—is three times higher than all of the offers combined under the National Party Government over the last nine years. What a joke. They think New Zealanders are dumb.Well we know that New Zealanders are not dumb because after nine years they'd had enough of that party and now they're starting to see their true colours and that is why they're in the 30s. That is why many of the members over that side of the House are starting to take calls and yell out because they know their days are numbered. They know their opportunity to speak in this House is limited so "We may as well get up and speak about as much as we possibly can."Another area where they say one thing when they're in Government and another when they're in Opposition is the minimum wage. Every single year the National Party in Government trumpeted the fact that they were increasing the minimum wage. Now what do they say? That it's a bad idea. They're saying that increasing the minimum wage is a bad idea. Why? Because it was our idea. That is the guts of it—they're playing politics. They are neglecting the fact that this is supposedly the party of the regions but we know here over this side with New Zealand First the Greens and Labour that there is only one side of this House that's looking after the regions and I'll tell you why. It's because in areas like those where I live in Masterton—in a small rural economy where the vast majority of businesses are dependent on people's ability to spend—when real wages in real terms go down like we saw and when workers' share of productivity does not keep up with the cost of living it's actually the small businesses that depend on people's capacity to spend money that suffer. And these are the businesses that that side of the House is supposed to look after. Well I for one know for a fact that New Zealanders are sick of hearing about their rubbish—hearing about their internal issues and hearing about the nonsense that the National Party are talking about—and they know that this side of the House is actually delivering for everyone in this country."