Bradford Sue: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Bradford Sue: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:637;Page:7302] 
SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
: 
 In responding to the Prime Minister’s statement earlier today I first of all echo the words of our co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons in congratulating Labour on putting sustainability at the top of its political agenda for 2007. I also reiterate that sustainability needs to be in the middle and at the end of the agenda as well. 
I agree wholeheartedly with the Prime Minister when she states: “Meeting the challenges our country faces in the 21st century requires substance not slogans.” Certainly the challenges require a lot more substance than we saw in John Key’s first big speech a couple of weeks ago. I also agree with the Prime Minister that the invisible hand of the market does not deliver a sustainable nation. However I would also note that the market does not deliver a just or an equitable nation either. This is why democracy has evolved and why an important part of democracy is not only the parliamentary process but also the ability of Governments to intervene in society the economy and the environment to bring about a just equitable and sustainable future for all. 
The Prime Minister says: “Can we do better and move to eradicate child poverty? That is certainly my dream—but let us not dismiss the huge progress which has been made in that direction.” I agree with the Prime Minister that we should not dismiss the progress that has been made but at the same time it is incumbent on all parties in the House to acknowledge that child and adult poverty debt and housing insecurity are still a reality for far too many people in this country. The eradication of poverty in this country does not need to be a dream. It can be addressed through “substance not slogans” and through political will and determination. 
From National and ACT I would like to see a genuine acknowledgment that the genesis of the growth of poverty and inequity in this country in this generation occurred in the period when the ACT party actually controlled the Labour Government from 1984 to 1989 followed by the even more socially destructive policies of the Bolger Birch Shipley and Richardson National-led Government. I find it ironic that the National Party has only recently discovered that New Zealand has a so-called underclass. This underclass will be dissolved not through Tory charity but through full employment decent wages and adequate benefits for those who are unable to work. 
I see nothing in the National Party industrial relations and welfare policies that will bring this about. In fact I see the opposite in so far as current National Party policies in these areas can be identified at all. Returning to failed work-for-the-dole programmes would simply further oppress and marginalise those who are already most disenfranchised. Getting business to provide school lunches and access to sports for some low-income kids will not deal with the fundamental structural issues at all. 
However Labour also has a long way to go. The latest amendments to the Social Security Act make frightening changes to the very purpose of our welfare system. Working for Families continues to discriminate against the children of beneficiaries. The loss of the discretion contained in the special benefit continues to be felt hard in low-income families around the country. In their rush to make access to paid employment the only worthy thing to aspire to in life neither Labour nor National seem to have any sense left that caring for children at home or working as a volunteer in the community while on a benefit are actually worthwhile occupations in themselves. Both parties appear driven to continue with an income support system whose administration is in places rife with an ethos of harassment inequity between regions and offices and structural racial discrimination. 
The Labour Government is to be congratulated on regulating for the biggest increases ever in the minimum wage. However the minimum wage is still not high enough. We still have a large number of working poor in this country—an irony after 7 years of Labour-led Governments. I am alarmed at the recent hysteria from the Reserve Bank and some other bank economists that wage rises of 3.2 percent over the last year are somehow economically unsustainable. If New Zealand has a goal of incomes being in the top half of the OECD wage increases of 30 percent—not 3 percent—would be needed especially for the lowest paid. I would hate to think that our goal to move up the OECD was simply a slogan without substance. How will we move up the OECD ladder if the Reserve Bank chokes the economy every time that wages move? I am very glad to see that the Reserve Bank and Treasury suggestion floated last week—to put a levy on mortgages—has died a remarkably quick death a death it so richly deserved. 
On another topic altogether I was also pleased to note that the Prime Minister supports strengthening the SKIP programme which teaches positive parenting and alternatives to the physical discipline of children and that she hopes Parliament will repeal section 59 of the Crimes Act as proposed in my member’s bill currently before this House. I sincerely hope this sentiment expressed by the Prime Minister today will go beyond words and transform into the reality of Labour votes when the second reading and what I hope will be subsequent debates on section 59 take place in the House over the next couple of months. 
I now turn to one of the two areas where the Green Party is part of the Government: to Buy Kiwi Made where I have the honour of being Government spokesperson. After a somewhat testy and testing beginning the Green and Labour Parties are now working very cooperatively on Buy Kiwi Made initiatives within the Government. Although not specifically mentioned today Buy Kiwi Made sits firmly within two of the Government’s priorities highlighted in the Prime Minister’s speech: economic transformation and national identity. There will be some tensions between global and local responses to issues such as employment trade balance of payments sustainability and carbon emissions. However if these tensions are creative and not destructive then we will go a long way to addressing the challenges that this country faces. 
Some members of the House will have attended the first New Zealand Made Showcase which was held in the Banquet Hall of Parliament at the beginning of November last year. Similar showcases will be held in Dunedin Christchurch Napier New Plymouth Hamilton and Auckland over the next few months. At the present time the first round of applications are open to groups of firms or organisations to access the $3 million sector and regional fund to promote New Zealand - made products. In early March the Ministry of Economic Development will launch the Buy Kiwi Made website. Together with the Minister for Economic Development Trevor Mallard I hope within the next month to announce the timetable for the centrepiece of the Buy Kiwi Made programme: the media marketing campaign. 
The other part of the Buy Kiwi Made programme that connects to today’s Prime Minister’s statement is in the area of Government procurement. The Buy Kiwi Made vote has already allocated $500000 to help establish a Government Procurement Development Group within the Ministry of Economic Development. I have been working closely on Government procurement issues with the Minister of Commerce Lianne Dalziel. Within a month we will announce a new strategic approach to Government procurement that will both address the sustainability issues raised by the Prime Minister today and ensure that Government procurement can be improved to make a greater contribution to economic development particularly in supporting small and medium enterprises and innovation—in short to give New Zealand firms and products a fair go. I am hopeful that once the Government Procurement Development Group is fully functional we will hear far fewer stories of disgruntled New Zealand manufacturers who feel let down by Government procurement decisions. For example it would be good if we could honour war veterans with badges made here not overseas. 
Finally I would like to just mention an area that is critical to the Government’s sustainability goals but has been ignored for far too long. I am referring to coastal shipping. Shipping is the most environmentally friendly form of transporting goods around the globe and around New Zealand. Since the abolition of cabotage the New Zealand coastal shipping industry has been almost destroyed. However a few brave participants remain. Now that we have to care about our carbon footprint and now that the multinational shippers who nearly destroyed our coastal shipping have announced they are going to visit fewer and fewer ports coastal shipping is back on the agenda. I commend the New Zealand Shipping Federation for its report  
Roadways to Waterways 
 and I commend the Maritime Union of New Zealand for its unswerving advocacy on behalf of workers in the industry. I am also pleased to see that the Minister of Transport Annette King is taking this issue seriously. There need to be some major Budget announcements to kick-start the coastal shipping industry. I hope I am not disappointed in this when the Budget is read in this House in a few months’ time. Nurturing our home-grown coastal shipping industry is absolutely critical if the Government is really serious about dealing with the impacts of peak oil and climate change.