Woolerton R Doug: Imprest Supply Debate 
Woolerton R Doug: Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:628;Page:453] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 First I congratulate you Mr Deputy Speaker. It is good to see you back in the Chair. 
New Zealand First will definitely be supporting this Imprest Supply Bill and we will be very proud to do so. We promised stability in this country and that is what we intend to deliver. [ 
Interruption 
] In response to the barracking from the National Party I just ask all those people who voted for National to come clean rack their brains get out their pencils and calculators search through all the rhetoric of the election and tell us what they will gain over the next 3 years from having voted for National. To save those people from wasting ink and having to make the effort to go through all the speeches made by Don Brash and his team I will tell them the answer. They got nothing. All those who voted for National got nothing from that party and if they are not very careful they will get nothing following the next election. 
Having said that I also say that it is true what people—including the Deputy Prime Minister—are saying: that it is inevitable that the economy will slow down. New Zealand First spoke about that during the election campaign as well. If an economy is going to be run on immigration and on the consumption of goods that the country cannot afford—consumption way beyond the ability of our exports to pay for it—then as we have told everybody it is inevitable that the day will come when that all has to be paid for. The day is nigh—as they say in the Bible which is about the only bit of it I have read lately—when that has to happen. 
The next question is: where will the money to pay for it come from? [ 
Interruption 
] My Scots friend over there a good Presbyterian like myself knows that sooner or later we will have to pay for it but where will the money come from? 
Bob Clarkson 
: Where’s it gone? 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Oh we know where it has gone. Where it will come from is what will concern us in the future. I can tell members where it will come from. It will all come from the same place it had to come from in the past—that is from farmers foresters fishers and all those people involved in primary production. 
Pansy Wong 
: What about tax cuts? 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: I will get on to tax cuts in a minute. All those who are involved in primary production will be asked yet again as they have been asked many many times in the past to crank up production and pay for the profligacy of people who have imported without thinking about how to pay for it. My Scots friends not only here but throughout the country know that the piper always has to be paid and that the money will have to come from the good folk in the countryside who will have to crank up production yet again. 
It is all very well for National members to barrack but National went around this country saying there would be tax cuts and Labour talked about cuts for student loans and passing legislation for that before Christmas. They promised all those things yet both of those big old parties knew that a slowdown in the economy was coming. They both knew that their promises could not be easily fulfilled. They both knew that if they were to fulfil their promises then it would have to be on the backs of hard-working farmers and those in the primary sector. National promised unaffordable tax cuts. I will not even go into what Labour members promised because “They are our friends at the present time are they not?” I ask Barbara Stewart. We will support this bill but both of those big parties knew that they were getting into areas of unsustainable promises and that this would be the time when the chickens came home to roost. However the point is that the chickens would have come home to roost whether the Government was a Labour-led Government or indeed a National-led Government. 
Because the Labour Party got more votes than the National Party the Labour Party is the one New Zealand First has had to support in the interest of stability in this country. Thank heavens for the good responsible people in New Zealand First who have had to put aside personal interests and go with what is good for the country. Rather than offering promises at the election New Zealand First members went out and talked about things that really matter. Not only did we talk about them during the election campaign but when it came time to put our bodies on the line and to negotiate with the party that got the most votes what did we get? We went out there and we negotiated for serious things for our seniors. We negotiated more superannuation. We negotiated a senior citizens card and we talked about a review of immigration. 
We talked about extra police—and those extra police will be delivered. I know that it is fashionable to be pedantic and talk about whether they will be front-line or back-line but the fact is that there will be more police and all National Party voters can thank New Zealand First for that. I do not know whether they will lay petals at our door. I do not know whether they will open car doors for us. I do not know whether they will send roses through the mail or whether they will spend money but I know they will be very very grateful for New Zealand First because National could not deliver all that so New Zealand First has had to step up and we are delivering those things. 
We all know that it will be tougher in the next few years but people can be assured that New Zealand First has made sure there will be a $12 an hour minimum pay rate for workers. That is something Labour was not prepared to do and something National was not prepared to do but it is something New Zealand First has made sure it has delivered. People will be very happy to have that. 
We will also make sure that the land access issue—something that National went around the country raving on about but could not deliver on—will be addressed and that there will not be any freedom to roam on farms not only in the Waikato where David Bennett lives or crouches but also in the high country of the South Island and on the plains of Ashburton where Mr Connell the favourite rebel of the National Party comes from. We are looking after those people from North Cape to Bluff because National could not. We do not expect huge accolades but we expect to be quietly thanked in the fullness of time.