Hughes Darren: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Hughes Darren: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:648;Page:16855] 
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Deputy Leader of the House) 
: 
 I am pleased to stand tonight to support the motion before Parliament that the supplementary estimates be approved so that the Government can continue spending public money to try to make New Zealand a better fairer and more inclusive and decent place to live. I am really proud of this Government. I am proud of the things we have achieved working together with the country over the last nearly 9 years. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: I don’t think New Zealanders would agree with you Darren. New Zealanders would have a different view. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: I am proud of the fact that when we took office from people like Dr Wayne Mapp 161000 people relied on the unemployment benefit every week for their income yet now fewer than 19000 people a week have to rely on a dole payment for their income because we have lowered the unemployment rate so significantly in this country by putting people back to work. This Labour Government has been focusing with energy on getting people back into work and we have been rigorous in our approach to make sure that jobs are an opportunity for every family in New Zealand that their own income is the result of their own labour and that they are making a difference for their families. That is what I am proud of. 
I am proud of the fact that the 130000 children who used to live in poverty when Dr Mapp was a member of the previous National Government do not live in poverty today. Those kids now grow up in homes where they do not pay a market rent for their State house and where their parents go into jobs where the wages go up every year not down. That is not just because wages have gone up 3.4 percent in the last year but because this Government has taken the minimum wage from $7 an hour right up to $12 an hour—an increase of $200 a week for the poorest workers in New Zealand. 
When Dr Wayne Mapp was a member of the previous Government when National ruled this country those members could not even get the minimum wage up by 80c an hour over 9 years. We have put it up by over $5 an hour over 9 years. I would ask Dr Wayne Mapp whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. I want to know whether Dr Wayne Mapp supports the minimum wage increases of the last 9 years. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: Why have 80000 people left New Zealand? 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: Oh he cannot answer that. He has been interjecting in that staccato way since I started but he cannot tell me why when he was in Government he saw the minimum wage increase by 80c an hour. In Opposition he has opposed it being raised by $5 an hour and his only contribution was to try to sack people after 90 days. Well he should be grateful that that law did not apply to members of Parliament in the 1990s because his career has been such an utter dismal failure that after 90 days in 1996 National would have wanted to get rid of him. 
Ron Mark 
: His wage went up. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: Mr Mark is quite right. The wages of the National Party MPs have gone up every single year that Labour has been in Government—every single year. Their taxes get cut on 1 October. 
Some of those members have business interests and those taxes went down on 1 April. I know that Mr Tisch is a businessman; I know that he has business interests. Mr Tisch voted against taxes coming down for businesses. Mr Tisch ought to do one decent honourable thing: he should get out his cheque book write out the difference in the tax rates and pay the 33c rate on his business tax this year because he voted for a higher rate of business tax in this Parliament than a Labour Government will achieve. So Mr Tisch should be honest about it and pay the difference seeing that his vote in this Parliament did not follow his financial interest. 
Right around the world Governments populations and communities are facing troubles. This is true. Oil prices are making an impact on the country and on communities food prices are hitting people and it does not matter whether the masthead on the newspaper is in the 
 Kapiti Observer 
 the  
Sydney Morning Herald 
 the  
Washington Post 
 the  
Guardian 
 or even papers throughout the Far East or Asia—all of the headlines are the same. Food and fuel prices are causing problems. During those times people look to who has the experience who has the judgment and who has the record to lead them through those periods. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: That’s absolutely right Darren. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: Dr Mapp is interjecting like crazy. I want to know why he is busy in Parliament tonight interjecting on me instead of being upstairs at a seminar on the role that traders are playing in keeping food and oil prices high. I think that he knows somebody quite well who could give him an explanation about why some of these commodity prices are being kept artificially high for ordinary working people. Those involved in the financial scene and the global economy are making a lot of money at the present time off the back of these future markets. I wonder whether that is a question a discussion a debate or a raised eyebrow that might have come up from time to time in the National Party caucus. I think that those members know one or two traders who know one or two things about trading in these commodity items and I think they ought to look at that. 
One of the big things we hear about at the present time is National members going around the country saying that it is time for a change. In this debate we have 3 hours where we have a wide-ranging debate. Our ordinary business is suspended so that we can talk about the financial state of the Government and the financial affairs of our country. One would think that during that time the National Party could answer this one question that Labour MPs have for them: change to what? That is the key question that we put to the Opposition. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: More growth more jobs and more prosperity. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: Dr Mapp says “more jobs”. More jobs have been created under this Labour Government in 1 year than were created under 9 years of the right-wing ideology that confronted our country when National was in power. National went down the track of the far-right ideology that they would return to again. 
I know that the National Party likes a little bit of copyright fraud. I know that it likes to play the occasional song from a Coldplay DVD that does not quite line up with international copyright laws. But those members are going a step too far when in effect they corrupt Senator Barack Obama’s message. He is out there saying “change you can believe in”. The National Party is going out there saying “change you cannot believe in” because nobody can believe that the change the National Party is talking about would benefit working families in our country at all. How do I know that? I know that because the policies that have been the most popular in this country and that have had the biggest effect on this country in terms of making it a better fairer and more inclusive place have all been opposed by the National Party in the beginning. 
I ask Dr Richard Worth who is sitting in the back row—which seems an appropriate place for him—whether he voted against the KiwiSaver 40 times. 
Shane Ardern 
: No; definitely not. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: Yes he did. Yet the National Party will in the end presumably turn up at the election with a policy in favour of KiwiSaver. I tell people not to believe it and here is why. Bill English has started changing the tone of his language and we all know what a great strategist Bill English is. Bill English is the great man of the National Party. The “born to rule” arrogance of 21 percent and falling is what Bill English achieved but somehow he has those members in his grip again. How National members fell for it the first time was a mystery to Labour but like the sheep they are they have fallen for it a second time. They have allowed Bill English and the folks that surround him to colonise the National Party once again. It is a delight to watch. Once again we saw in question time today which was delayed because of the Zimbabwe motion that the Leader of the Opposition could not ask his own question so he got Mr Bill English to ask it. We saw again those glory days—2001 to 2003—and why that man could not be the Leader of the Opposition. 
However Bill English somehow has control of the internal National Party machine again. He said that the current world economic situation creates an opportunity for a Government to look at things afresh again. I thought to myself as a student of political history that we have heard that before. The National Party in 1990 campaigned on one set of policies and then it got into office and said: “Well woe betide me. Things are a little different from what we thought. We will have to have a 180-degree different policy agenda to the one we just campaigned on.” Bill English is laying the bones of that right now with the strategy of having National members not mentioning any policy lest they scare off anyone by telling them they will raise doctors’ fees like Tony Ryall did last year. Those members are hiding all of that because it might not be very popular. 
Then National decided to adopt the approach of saying that the world economy creates a position for an incoming Government to look at things a little differently. That puts KiwiSaver at risk. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: Rubbish! 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: Oh Dr Mapp says “Rubbish!”. Well let us wait and see what happens. Just because Kate Wilkinson told the country the truth it does not necessarily mean that the rest of the caucus plans to do that. 
The Working for Families package which means that a lot of this country’s families pay no tax on their income at all so that they can do the most important job of all which is to raise children is one of the things that our supplementary estimates will support in this bill. We have cheaper doctors’ visits. If Labour had not become the Government in 1999 then doctors’ fees would be double what they are today. Yet National members put out a discussion document where they said that doctors’ fees would go up because they would remove the cap. Then they did not want to talk about that any more and they have gone silent at the moment. 
Then the granddaddy of them all was interest-free student loans. Let me ask Dr Mapp whether he campaigned in favour of or in opposition to interest-free student loans at the last election. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: I didn’t campaign on that issue. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: He says that he did not campaign on that issue. That will not be correct. I will be asking the  
North Shore Times  
what he said about that and for fun I will take it to the Privileges Committee—for fun alone I will drag it to Parliament’s powerful Privileges Committee. 
Let me ask Chris Tremain about this. Chris Tremain is the kind of MP who would follow the book entirely. I can guarantee that Chris Tremain would never think an original thought of his own. He would follow whatever head office said. I ask Chris Tremain whether he was in support of or in opposition to interest-free student loans at the last election. 
Chris Tremain 
: I was against it. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: He was against it at the last election. At the next election will he campaign for it or against it? 
Chris Tremain 
: You’re not here to question me. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: Oh he said he was for it. He is in favour of it for this election. This is great. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: Why don’t you talk about your policies? 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: Interest-free student loans are our policy I say to Dr Mapp. That is the whole point. This policy is the Labour-led Government’s policy. The National Party in Opposition bereft of any ideas or principles turns up holus-bolus at the xerox machine to copy Labour’s policy. I tell those members to show us the whites of their eyes. We will have a campaign on that and we will beat them fair and square.