Cunliffe David: General Debate 
Cunliffe David: General Debate 
[Volume:620;Page:15474] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of State) 
: 
 I think it is fair to say that the member who has just resumed his seat has a lot of friends in this House but none of them are in the National caucus. That member has spent the last 6 months white-anting his own caucus—and he has the temerity to give us a lecture about caucus solidarity! That is why he was dumped to become the lowest-ranked member of his caucus—or maybe it was the fact that he has the habit of leaving his confidential papers on planes and in hotel rooms all around Australia. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: That was a long time ago. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: My colleague tells me that that was a long time ago. That was about as good as the leader of the National Party shooting a red light to get to the Bledisloe Cup and then rooting for the Wallabies. That is how patriotic that leader is and that is what Kiwis have come to expect of him. Is the soufflé rising twice? Don Brash should be so lucky! The reality is that the National caucus is again in turmoil. National members have been here in the House long enough goodness knows to smell death in the air. We can smell death around Don Brash. Yesterday he said he would not run again if he loses at the next election. Why did he say that? It is because he knows he will be dumped so he thought he may as well clear up the confusion in advance. 
What further news do we have today? In contrast with John Key’s announcement a week ago that if National was in Government he would raise the top tax threshold to give a tax cut to rich people today Standard and Poor’s reaffirmed the Government’s fiscal strategy and our AA+ rating and stated: “It is hard to see New Zealand’s top rating coming under any pressure any time soon. Indeed credit quality could strengthen as long as cross-party support for fiscal restraint is maintained through the coming electoral cycle.” John Key should take note of that. I think something else is going wrong with regard to National’s tax strategy and it reminds me of 1989. Do members remember 1989-90 when Jim Bolger was a kind of new caring conservative? He was to be a new kind of National leader and there were to be no more tax cuts for the rich if he got in. What happened a year later? We had the “mother of all Budgets” with savage cuts to benefits stupid privatisations and the worst policy-induced recession this country has ever known. 
National members are simply wolves in sheeps’ clothing and the sheeps’ clothing is already wearing thin. What could one do with $160 million which is what the change in tax threshold that John Key has suggested would cost? One could cancel all free early childhood education sack nearly 3000 schoolteachers give no increase in school funding until 2009 kick 21000 university students out of tertiary education remove all 6500 Modern Apprentices or all 127000 industry trainees take out special education or school transport scrap primary health care scrap the cheaper doctors’ visits that we have just brought in or scrap the hip and knee operations for 4600 New Zealanders. 
The Opposition has not got the message. New Zealanders do not want to have a cheap heartless Government that reinforces privilege. They want to have the kind of Government that they get from this team which is about all New Zealanders getting access to the health care the education and the basic services that they deserve. What counts for us is not the size of the silver spoon that people were born with. I personally have heard John Key’s story about growing up in a State house just one time too many to believe it. Let us hear about the house that Merrill Lynch built. But that is not the issue; the issue is that all Kiwis deserve a fair thing. They know a fair thing when they see it and they know it is not about Don Brash attacking his own country in the  
Australian Financial Review 
. That is why National has big problems. That is why we do not see a happy caucus when we look across the House. There is Brian Connell facing another 4 years in Opposition and Simon Power thinking that at least he made the right decision not to run for leader last time because it was a temporary thing. Simon Power is the only guy looking relieved as he gets into his new whip duties. He will have a little sojourn on the mid-benches.