Prasad Rajen: General Debate 
Prasad Rajen: General Debate 
[Volume:656;Page:5470] 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour) 
: 
 The Government has a real problem. 
Paul Quinn 
: Make it good. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: This will be good. The Government’s real problem is that it does not know where the front line is. If it does not know where the front line is then I wonder how it will fight the war. How will it know whether it is fighting the right wars? The Government believes that because there is a recession that gives it licence to peddle its particular brand of policies which will create winners and losers. Rather this is the time to do much more. 
The Government first created the public perception that there were far too many people in the public sector working in the back rooms and doing things the Government says have little value and it now wants to move them into the front line. The Government now has this big mantra that its members are reciting. I wonder what the Government is doing under that particular mantra. No comprehensive definition has been presented to us about what is the front line. The definitions the Government has given are not sustainable and none is being provided in any detail. In the meantime the Government simply asks us to believe that it is doing the right thing. 
True leadership at this time would be taking the opportunity in a recession to be quite aggressive about creating a workforce for the future training our young people not losing the jobs that are already there and preparing for the economy that will come. Instead we get a push of the Government’s own particular ideology that privileges only some people. 
Let us have a look at some examples that are supposed to be those the Government has rejected. There have been casual and callous cuts to disease prevention programmes to future-looking health promotion programmes that have been helping our youngest Kiwis adopt healthy lifestyles and to home support for our older citizens and people with disabilities. Those programmes are being cut but the Government refuses to realise that that is the front line of the best services we can provide at this time. With those services we will create a much better citizenry for the future New Zealand we will have to cope with. 
We know that in the area of health cuts MidCentral District Health Board is to cut $10 million from its budget. What does the general manager of corporate services Stuart Wilson say? He says that a line-by-line review will reduce the standard of services. That is what it will come to. Where will Southland District Health Board and Otago District Health Board get the $10 million from? They will produce it by cutting services for the elderly. That population has done everything it can do for society and we are cutting services to them. That is mean and callous. Those people are at the front line they ought to be looked after and their needs ought to be met. 
It is heart-wrenching to know that the great work teachers do with children with disabilities in our classrooms aided and assisted by the support staff in those schools is under threat. What do we do? We take away those services we threaten them and we say they will be cut. That is mean and callous and it will take away the one opportunity that those young children have at this time to meet their developmental needs. The opportunity comes only at this time. We cannot make the children wait 5 years for their developmental needs to be met. 
What is the front line for this particular Government? It is the $35 million going into the classrooms of the most privileged children in our society. Private schools are to be privileged. I have not seen anybody on the Government side really defend that policy. The Government’s front line is to further privilege those who are already privileged while those who are not privileged and who could benefit much more from that money will continue to suffer. 
Let us see what else is happening at the front line. I wonder whether the Government realises that the sector will reframe the front line and present it to the Government in its terms. Social workers in Child Youth and Family Services are working up and down the country raising the awareness of child abuse. As they raise that awareness they are working at the front line. The children are those whom we constantly worry about. If we take away the social workers and expect a very busy workforce to take up that role internally they will be unable to do that. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.