Hughes Darren: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Hughes Darren: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1199] 
DARREN HUGHES (Labour—Otaki) 
: 
 That was the Hon Georgina te Heuheu one of the great joy-germs of the New Zealand Parliament. She is one of the people who every time she gets up says so many positive and wonderful things. She is the kind of person we would ring if we ever wanted cheering up. We would call Georgina te Heuheu because she is so positive about New Zealand and says so many good things and that speech just showed it. She really does see the glass as being half empty. 
This year the Labour-led Government will continue to lead economic transformation will continue to support families young and old and will keep building a national identity. Those are the three things we will do this year to make sure that all New Zealanders feel that this is the country they want to spend their future in. When the Prime Minister rose on Tuesday to set that out not only did she have the statistics of 6 good years of Government behind her but she also had the ideas of where this Government will go in the next 3 years and in the next 6 months. Just in the next 6 months alone—because this is only a 10-minute call—we will set up some of the things that the Labour-led Government will do for New Zealand to keep building that economic transformation supporting families young and old and building a national identity. No three things could be more important to our country this year to make sure we have the kind of social inclusion and fair society that we need for all Kiwis. That is what this party in Government is absolutely committed to doing. 
The National Party members with their doom and gloom approach through this whole debate are missing all the economic statistics that are out there for them. During the 6 years that Labour has been in Government the economic growth rate has averaged 3.8 percent. That is at the top end of the OECD scale. This economy has done fantastically well in the last 6 years but the Opposition says that that is just because of good luck and that the Government is completely and utterly irrelevant to what happens in the economy. But then if we look at what has happened in the 6 years we have been in Government we see that company profits are up $25 billion. If we go back to the last 6 years of the National Government we see that company profits went up only $12 billion. So we might say that when we can double profit the Government is doing a pretty good thing for the private sector. Of course National says that when Labour is in office it is all good luck but when National is there it is because of its genius—all because of the economic brilliance of all those wonderful National back-benchers who have their degrees in economics. It is a farce. So 3.8 percent— 
Mark Blumsky 
: Slow down. Slow down. 
DARREN HUGHES 
: I have to speak fast I tell Mr Blumsky because I have so much to say in 10 minutes. I heard Mr Blumsky speak last night in a kind of sing-song voice. Mr Blumsky is used to being downtown I know but he cannot treat Parliament like a karaoke bar as he did when he was speaking last night. There is a man who needs speech training and we will put some money into this year’s Budget into the special education vote to help him out—that is what we will do. 
So we have a 3.8 percent growth rate over the cycle in the last 6 years in the OECD. This year when we come to the bottom part of the business cycle we still have a growth rate of 1.7 percent. Now that party when it left office during the Asian economic crisis had the economy in recession. Members might remember that in 1998 that Government had to cut the pension because the economy ran into recession. It had to put up student fees because the economy went into recession. But under this party in Government we have grown the economy. It is so good that even when we are at the bottom part of the business cycle there is a 1.7 percent economic growth rate. Don Brash the guy who was the Governor of the Reserve Bank still has problems with GST; he could not work out the GST on his TV ads. He made a big thing about being on the committee that invented GST but when it came to paying his bill he could not quite get his abacus to work out how much he was entitled to by way of the Broadcasting Act which is why the National Party is in front of the police at the present time. 
Don Brash made such a big thing about how he was going to be the great understander of the economy that he got up at Orewa and said: “Guess what? We are going to have a recession.” Now for the National back bench a recession is officially two quarters of negative growth in the economy and Don Brash said we would get that. But if we go into the Budget we find we are at 1.7 percent of that cycle—that whole wave. So it is extraordinary for National members to come here having refused to engage in the economy during the election campaign and now when they think things are going a bit awry they want to jump on board the peace train. However the problem for them is that all the statistics and growth are on the side of Labour. 
I have heard National speakers in this debate say: “Oh yes we did talk about the economy in the election because we promised huge tax cuts.” Well that is all fiscal policy. They offered the biggest tax-cut bribe in New Zealand history—which did not add up. That is clear. They went around giving away free money and they still could not win the election even though they tried to play the race card and give away free money. So those members went around the country on fiscal policy alone. They did not engage the Government on any of the other economic settings which is why we are doing so strongly at the present time. Don Brash went to Orewa but with nothing to say. [ 
Interruption 
] I will have a little drink. I saw Mr Blumsky’s eyes light up at that line. 
All these things will be happening this year for the economic transformation we need. Now what does it actually mean? First of all the unemployment rate in this country is the lowest in the world. I do not know what National members think about having a job but there is nothing more liberating for people than to have a job draw a wage and pay their bills—and this country has the lowest rate of unemployment in the world. It is a great success for a Labour Government to be able to deliver that. 
In my electorate of Otaki unemployment fell by 30 percent in the last year alone. We have more people in work than ever before. That is a great thing for New Zealand. So what will happen by way of supporting families young and old? On 1 April this year we will see a massive expansion of the Working for Families package with tax relief for people who actually need it. I see Gerry Brownlee over there who has weathered well over the summer. Gerry Brownlee under Don Brash’s scheme was going to get a $92-a-week tax cut thanks to Don Brash. My constituents the majority of whom earn under $30000 per annum would get nothing under National’s scheme except for10 bucks a week. Mrs Bennett shakes her head because being a list member she would not know about constituents and people who are on the bones of their backsides trying to get ahead. We do and that is why families young and old get a deal under the Labour Party. 
Gerry Brownlee wants his $92 a week. We know where that would go. I think it is fair to say it would be a consumption-led tax cut. We will invest the cut into families young and old and 350000 families will get it. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Point of order— 
DARREN HUGHES 
: Oh the big man does not like it. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I have no particular point of order. I just thought the member needed a chance to breathe. 
DARREN HUGHES 
: I am always grateful to the member and can I say that he looks so good sitting at the moment on the National back bench trying out his new chair for when he gets rolled big-time very certainly. 
Funnily enough John Key has been a very miserable person in Parliament this week. Normally he comes in bouncing and smiling saying “Gidday mate” and talking to everybody. He has looked sour despite the very interesting hair dye he has applied over the summer break which is quite interesting I think. It is a rather unusual way to get some coverage—a  
North and South 
 requirement probably. I was wondering who John Key was talking about when he said that a National front-bencher was “doing him in”. First of all I thought it might have been my neighbour to the north Simon Power because I know he is in a little bit of a positioning mode at the present time. But I thought no that would not be right. Simon is a very gentlemanly kind of person. He would not backstab anybody. Everybody blamed Gerry Brownlee. I do not know what it is when things go wrong but people look at Mr Brownlee. It is a strange old thing. I do not think it was him either. People say that it might have been Mr English because he has that kind of Catholic thing with “keep hate alive” and he is still feeling bitter so maybe it was Mr English. But I do not think it was him either. I do not think anybody has been bad-mouthing John Key. I think John Key said that about himself to get himself on the television news. I think John Key backstabbed himself in order to get himself a little bit more coverage and I think it was very cruel of him to make a big fool of himself and his colleagues in that regard. 
The other important thing that is happening for families young and old in March this year is that we are putting up the minimum wage to $10.25 an hour. We have lifted it from $7 when we became the Government. National which complains about low wages in comparison with Australia has opposed the rise of the minimum wage every single year so let me ask its members this question: will they oppose the minimum wage going up in March? They do not know. They sit in Parliament all night and do not read their policies. We will put up the minimum wage to give working people a chance to get ahead and to do better. So there is the Working for Families package and the minimum wage is going up and they are leading to a much stronger economy for New Zealand. 
The other thing of course is that on 1 April we will increase the superannuation rate for pensioners. My colleagues have been very unfair to the Leader of the Opposition. They have been saying that he is “Dr Doom and Gloom”. But I noticed Don Brash smile during one part of the Prime Minister’s speech. When she said that the pension was going up that old man smiled like a Cheshire cat. He saw that money going into his bank account and he wanted it. That was the one point he found attractive about the Prime Minister’s statement. So for all our pensioners in New Zealand—over half a million—there will be a rise in their pension on 1 April. [ 
Interruption 
] Bob Clarkson likes that; I know what he will do with that money. And for students of course the student loan policy a very popular and very good policy will come in on 1 April as well. 
We move through to 1 July. What do we see then? People aged between 25 and 45 who visit primary health organisations will get cheaper access to primary health care. This is fantastic stuff. It is part of the Labour vision for health care. The asset-testing threshold will go up on 1 July and the threshold for the rates rebate scheme which will help so many low-income New Zealanders will go up to $500 as well. 
So whether it is economic transformation families young and old or the building of a national identity so that Kiwis can feel proud about where we are in the South Pacific in the 21st century Labour under this Prime Minister is doing great stuff. I know the Opposition hates it. I know they cannot stand this Prime Minister because she is a successful Kiwi who loves her country who does good by the people who live in this place and who is leading us forward into the 21st century. This woman works so hard that following three or four leaders of the Opposition down the track she will still be here boxing on standing up for New Zealanders and bringing about economic transformation delivering for families young and old and building a national identity we can be proud of.