Hague Kevin: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHague Kevin: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 28 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15556. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KEVIN HAGUE (Green): Happy New Year to you Mr Deputy Speaker. It is just a shame that we had to start the parliamentary year with such a disappointing statement from the Prime Minister.Hon Members: Oh come on.KEVIN HAGUE: That is what I thought too. In my area in health we had a statement that the Government was going to focus on prevention—well that would be a total reversal of the strategic direction it has followed for 5 years. There is going to be more of the same in elective surgery an area that the Government has generally put more money in to at the expense of everything else in the health sector but actually because of the focus on numbers we see those with the greatest need often still missing out because their surgery requires more time or complexity. We are going to see ACC levies come down. The Prime Minister failed to point out that it was in fact his Government that unnecessarily put levies up in the first place.More generally we saw more “short-termism” more 19th century thinking more lack of vision more lack of hope and no imagination. We saw more sacrifice of the environment to further intensify already overly dangerously intensified industries. We saw more driving of wages and conditions down so that ordinary people more and more serve the interests of a few. For most New Zealanders it truly is becoming someone else’s country.The Green Party offers something different. We bring an understanding that although what individuals can do by themselves is important if we actually want to transformoutcomes across all of the areas that matter to people then the Government needs to be vitally concerned with whole communities whole systems and the linkages between sectors. We are focused on good lives and a fair future for everyone in contrast to policies that drive inequalities wider. We are focused on a sustainable relationship with our natural environment and a clean green economy that helps us all deliver on our social and environmental goals and that does not just exist as an end in itself.It has been interesting to watch over the past 5 years National members’ tactics in the general debate each week because it tells us what their smear tactics are going to be against us in any given week. The increasing desperation is instructive. First of all we had the devil beast. Remember that? I guess that is a hard line to maintain nowadays when National is increasingly reliant on John Banks Peter Dunne and the entirely untested Conservative Party leaving us to wonder what rough beast it is that is slouching its way towards election day this year. Then we were described as the “party of no” because we said no to all of the National Party’s ideas. Well it is no surprise that our philosophy is fundamentally different from National’s. So yes we disagree with a lot of its ideas just as it disagrees with a lot of ours.But it is very interesting to me that when at the beginning of this term of Parliament the Green Party pointed out to National pages and pages of areas where our policy and National’s coincided and where we could collaborate National said no to all of that. The context for that is that we have been working together with National under a memorandum of understanding for 5 years on warm healthy homes; toxic sites which my colleague will speak about; resetting traps; and the area that I have been working with the Prime Minister on which is Ngā Haerenga the New Zealand Cycle Trail network. I welcome his comment in the statement about the opening of new cycle tracks. I will be standing alongside him celebrating a resource that brings economic environmental and social benefits to communities around the country.Ours is a party that is based on values and on a charter. They give us an anchor that provides us with a stable direction over many years. We understand that New Zealanders want us to work together with others. We understand that they want us to provide practical evidence-based and creative solutions to the problems that our nation faces in the long term. We are a party that is ready for the election. Bring it on.