Bennett DavidHon DAVID BENNETT (Minister of Veterans' Affairs): I was going to start my speech feeling sorry for the Labour Party but after the previous speaker Damien O'Connor said that they are a party of fresh ideas" I thought it was time to laugh at the Labour Party. The Labour Party is in big trouble. It is in massive trouble.Hon Scott Simpson: In tatters.Hon DAVID BENNETT: It is a party that is in tatters. It is a party that is being destroyed by the principled Green Party that sits to its side. Frankly the Labour Party should take its chance now and merge with the Green Party while it actually has a little semblance of credibility and of what the Labour Party actually stood for left.Winston Peters in this Parliament always talks about parties and what they stood for when they first came in. I would love to see the Labour Party actually stand up for what it believes in. When was the last time we saw a Labour Party that was actually understanding of all New Zealanders?Hon Members: 1972.Hon DAVID BENNETT: I do not know if it was. I do not know. Go back further. When was the last time we saw a Labour Party that actually went out there and supported New Zealanders?Brett Hudson: 1972.Hon DAVID BENNETT: 1972 is the answer again. When was the last time we saw a Labour Party actually go out there and vote for a Budget when it was in Opposition?Brett Hudson: Never.Hon DAVID BENNETT: Never—never. And why would it not vote for this Budget when the Greens even New Zealand First could vote for this Budget? But the Labour Party could not. It is because the Labour Party does not understand New Zealanders. The Labour Party does not even understand itself. It cannot even work out what its strategy is. The Labour Party is hooked on the mentality of neoliberalism and all those academic concepts that come from a party that is based in a Wellington environment and has no concept outside of this room of what makes New Zealanders tick and what is required for this country going forward.Let us have a look at some of the great articles that we have seen in the paper in the last day or so about the Labour Party. John Armstrong: "Labour is fast becoming a political cot-case." That is a great article a great headline is it not? I just want to read a quote from that article: "Labour is fast becoming a political cot-case. … The Budget has simply served us another stage for yet another episode of Labour's continuing comedy of errors." That comedy of errors started many years ago.But I actually—in my pity for the Labour Party—want to show some pity for Sue Moroney as well because she was subject to that comedy of errors this year in the Labour Party list ranking. It was terrible the way the Labour Party treated somebody who had worked hard for them in Hamilton for many years and then just dumped her unceremoniously through this parliamentary process.The article goes on to say: "The decision made by the Greens and New Zealand First to vote in favour of the legislation enacting the Budget's centrepiece $2 billion package of tax cuts increases in Working for Families entitlements and major boosts in the accommodation supplement left Labour in not so splendid isolation. It was somewhat all bizarre. Labour's intended allies pulled the rug from under Labour's criticism of a policy package which would slot comfortably into Labour's manifesto." Labour will not back what its people demand and require just because of politics. We cannot trust the Labour Party. The Labour Party will only say what people want to hear. It will not actually say what it wants to do.We see this time and time again on tax. Tax is a great example of the Labour Party's promise to the New Zealand public and its own internal division. Only a year or two ago the Labour Party came and said: "No more capital gains tax." No more capital gains tax under its leadership—that is a debate that has not been settled within the Labour Party. The finance spokesperson in the Labour Party wants to have a capital gains tax. The other one is income tax. This year Andrew Little came out and said no to income tax increases. There are going to be no income tax increases under Labour. After this Budget he came out and opened the door for income tax increases.The Labour Party says one thing and it believes another thing and it would do another thing if it ever got a chance. Do not trust it New Zealand. We cannot trust a party that will not actually stand in this House and say what it believes and stick to its principles. The principles of the Labour Party are gone. They are gone and they had been a treasure to that party which has been lost to this House and lost to Parliaments through New Zealand history going forward because the true Opposition now is the Green Party not the Labour Party.If ever we needed support for that there is the other article I want to quote. It is from Peter Dunne. Now I am not inclined to quote Peter Dunne very often; it is not really my thing. But Peter Dunne says this: "I have belonged to liberal democratic United Future (or the United Party as it was previously known). Prior to that however I spent more than 22 years as a member of the Labour Party". If anyone knows what the Labour Party is about it is Peter Dunne. The crux of what he said is here where he says: "the Labour Party … is vastly different from the Party I joined as a university student or even that which United Future supported on confidence and supply matters … Labour appears these days to be against everything and for nothing."That is what it is. It is against everything and for nothing. Tell us what it stands for? What would Labour do? What is Labour's budget? Where would Labour spend the money? If it is not going to spend money on people needing more accommodation if it is not going to spend money on families in New Zealand where is Labour going to spend the money?Hon Member: Where?Hon DAVID BENNETT: Where? I will tell you: it is on its union mates. That is where it is going to go. That is what the Labour Party wants to do. It will not spend it on New Zealanders.Peter Dunne's article says: "Whatever the effect is that Labour and its image seem more and more out of time and irrelevant." Never a truer word was said by Peter Dunne. But the article goes on and it says this—and this is the heart of it for all those students up in the gallery today; remember these words OK because this is the heart of the Labour Party—"For its part Labour still seems trapped by having a singular view of the world which they believe voters will come to accept then embrace once they hear more of it." That is what the Labour Party will tell all the young people in New Zealand. It will say: "We have a vision of the world that is right. As voters all you need to do is just hear it listen understand and believe it." That is the Labour Party and that is what it actually believes. The strange thing is that the Labour Party members in this House actually believe that.That is why they never voted for the Budget: because they think they are above this place. They think they are above New Zealanders. They think they have got some destined position to tell everybody what is right and what is wrong. They will not listen to people—and they are nodding their heads in favour. I know Poto you are nodding your head in favour; I know it is what you believe. Just tell New Zealanders next time in an election. You do not have to go out there and not say it. It is going to be more believable if the Labour Party actually says what it believes and not go out there and try to just be against everything.Todd Barclay: "Faaf" knows.Hon DAVID BENNETT: Oh "Faaf" knows a lot about the Labour Party.We go on. The article says: "In this world compromise and pragmatism are unwelcome dirty words lest they dilute the 'true' message." You see the Labour Party believes it has a message that everybody will agree upon. It is like communism. Labour Party members believe that communism will happen. They believe that it is the way and then they expect everybody to come in behind.Why do the Labour Party members not actually go out there and start listening to New Zealanders working with New Zealanders? Be with all parts of the New Zealand countryside whether it is in Hamilton Auckland or Invercargill. Be with all parts of the New Zealand working environment. Be with all the New Zealanders who may not be working. Do not represent just the unions and your union mates. Do not represent just a group of academics who think they know better than everybody else. Represent all New Zealanders and what all New Zealanders can achieve. Until the Labour Party gets back to its roots and is actually a political party that you can identify with as a viable Opposition the Labour Party members will always be on that side of the House.In the next election the Labour Party members will not be sitting in those seats; they will be sitting in those seats where the Green Party members are sitting now. The Green Party members will come into these seats here. The Green Party has young members coming in. It has got new ideas. It has got people who are passionate about New Zealand. The Labour Party is old it is tired and it will not tell the truth about what it believes and what it wants to see happen.Denis O'Rourke: When will he talk about the Budget?Hon DAVID BENNETT: Well the New Zealand First Party members—they should not actually talk in this House. That is half their problem—that they stand up and say something. We all know the New Zealand First Party. About them: the New Zealand First Party—listen to this young people—wants to take New Zealand back to 1955. It thinks New Zealand never got any better than 1955. If you go back to 1955 those were the best days of New Zealand according to the New Zealand First Party—Hon Member: Denis was in his prime.Hon DAVID BENNETT: Well it was when Winston was in his prime but most of that party's members were actually in their prime then.But this is a serious day when we look at the demise of the Labour Party. A once serious Opposition that now has become the third party—"