Parker David: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Parker David: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 11 May 2011. Volume:672;Page:18573. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 The first thing I say in response to the prior speaker Nicky Wagner who said that we could not nail National on anything is that it is very hard to nail blancmange.  
Sometimes this House has a sense of unreality. One feels like one is in a Disney movie. Today the general debate has been an example of that. The ACT Party came here and described what has happened to them—the National Party takeover of the ACT Party by a septuagenarian—as rejuvenation. Rejuvenation! Then these institutionalised front-bench members of National came and told us the Labour members that we have no plan. They put up Tony Ryall who is a veteran of the Bolger administration and a veteran of the Shipley administration. He is a veteran who has been a veteran for so long that he is replacing the Gallipoli veterans on the front line of Anzac ceremonies. He is as bereft of ideas as National is. Then we heard Maurice Williamson coming up with the same phrases.  
They have obviously polled and they have found that they are in trouble for not having a plan. What is the Crosby/Textor response from National? To accuse Labour of not having a plan. This is on the same day that National said it will reverse its reversal on KiwiSaver. Having dropped the contribution rate from 4 percent to 2 percent for KiwiSaver it is now saying that it will put it back up to 4 percent. That is the big plan for the Budget. No wonder this country is in an economic malaise. The National Government has no credible plan.  
That is why it has given up on its promises of the last election. I remind listeners that National was elected on the promise to close the wage gap with Australia not to put up GST; to lead us to a brighter future not to the economic malaise we are currently suffering from; and to have higher standards not to buy new BMWs and pretend that it was not aware of it. National was going to have a step change in the economy. Instead—I think the ACT Party made this point in the House yesterday—we have the highest rate of youth unemployment that anyone can remember. The National front bench members these institutionalised members who are retreads and have been here now through three administrations tell us that we have no a plan.  
We already have more ideas out there than they have: a tax-free zone so that the first so many thousand dollars of earnings are free of tax; GST taken off fresh fruit and vegetables; ring-fencing of losses; and a lot of other initiatives. If we put anything more out there National will just steal it. In fact its latest policy of reinstating what it cut last year on KiwiSaver is stealing Labour policy. We had a 4 percent contribution rate for KiwiSaver and National cut it to 2 percent and is now reinstating it to 4 percent. So to hear those members say that we have no plan is rather galling. 
Rejuvenation? Rejuvenation according to National is retreads from three prior administrations who still have not come up with a credible plan for the economy. Rejuvenation according to the ACT Party is bringing back the National Party into ACT via Don Brash and John Banks in order to bring Don Brash and John Banks into Parliament. They are both former National Party members and John Banks was the failed mayoral candidate for Auckland at its latest election.  
There will be a choice at this coming election and it will be about who New Zealanders trust to grow the economy. National’s response is to pretend that all of these problems are not of its making. It knew the global financial crisis was here. As Trevor Mallard said today it is quite incredible for the Prime Minister to deny that he knew that the global financial crisis was coming when he made all of his rash promises to cut taxes. The Government has no plan.