Shearer David: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Shearer David: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 04 April 2012. Volume:679;Page:1650. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DAVID SHEARER (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 It is a bit difficult to understand what that tirade was actually about. I heard the word “apologise” and I think the member should start apologising himself because remember what he was proposing the economy would do at the last election and look what actually happened—0.3 percent growth. There was 0.3 percent growth in the last quarter and Treasury’s projections have been lower and lower and lower than we have ever had before.  
Since the beginning of the year this Government has been a debacle—a debacle. I will just run through a little list of the debacles that have occurred and are still occurring. Look at Crafar farms. Look at the asset sales which this member over here—the finance Minister—could not even give us a price of what they were worth not even a best guess. He could not even give us a best guess; it is only a guess. Now in this House we have the Government proposing that we sell legislation in order to put 500 pokie machines into a corporate office—500 pokie machines. This is legislation for sale nothing more than that.  
But this list does not stop there. Let us keep on going with this list because then we come to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. One-quarter of its entire staff have been axed. What does that mean? Let me tell you what that means for a free-trade agreement in South America: the number of staff there has been halved. Regarding a free-trade agreement with India: the number of staff in India now will be two diplomats—two diplomats. Mr McCully has put into place the change programme—Mr McCully who is the ultimate micro-manager. He is not only a micro-manager but he then stands up and says he has got nothing to do with it. It is all the chief executive officer’s problem. He just has not given him enough money that is all. Is this a joke? It is a complete joke.  
New Zealand’s interests overseas are being squandered and undermined because of a Minister who has cut the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade by one-quarter—by one-quarter. It is an absolute disgrace. This is front-line services. And you wait until we have front-line services being cut around the police. They have been asked to cut $350 million out of their budget. Of course it will be back room; it will all be back room. It will be back room until the police on the front line have to come into the back room to do the jobs of the people who are no longer there. That is what will happen and the crime rate will go up as it has in Auckland. That is what is going to happen.  
But it does not stop there. There are the teapot tapes. Three policemen have actually spent 4 months investigating a complete and utter joke which is around privacy that the Prime Minister believes was somehow disrupted because he happened to invite the entire country’s media to a private conversation. What did he expect? That it was something like tapping somebody’s phones in the UK? That is an insult to those people who actually had their privacy violated in reality.  
But it does not stop there because we have the appointment of Mr McElrea. Mr McElrea happens to be John Key’s electorate chairman. And what is he doing? Well actually he is leading New Zealand On Air. And he is not only just on the New Zealand On Air board but he is actually having a real influence on everything that appears on TV that is funded by the New Zealand taxpayer.  
And if that is not it we come to the big coup de grâce—and the lady in pink over there was talking about this today—which was ACC. The Government has bungled this so completely that the accusation of cronyism which is beginning to reverberate around the country is starting to undermine a wonderful institution. It is cronyism that the ACC debacle is about and if you wanted to know how to get influence in this country join the National Party. That is the signal in this debate.