Sio William: Address in Reply 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sio William: Address in Reply 
[Sitting date: 14 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:332. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SU’A WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Mangere) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to speak. That last speaker had difficulty believing what he was saying about the mandate. That was an unbelievable gesture because he said that National has a mandate from New Zealanders to sell off State assets when he knows full well it has got only 59 members in a 121-member House. National is going to rely on Mr Banks who is a National Party member masquerading as an ACT Party member; it is going to rely on Peter Dunne; and it is going to rely on the Maori Party which by all accounts is not going to be part of that Government. How can it have a mandate with 59 members in a 121-member House when over a million people did not vote—a million people did not vote? National needs to be worried. It does not have the mandate—none whatsoever—from the public of New Zealand. It does not have the mandate at all to sell off the assets that it intends to sell.  
Mr Assistant Speaker Tisch I want to congratulate you and welcome you to your role. I look forward no doubt in the not too distant future perhaps to recognising and congratulating you when you are wearing the full regalia of the office of Speaker of the House. I also want to acknowledge and welcome all the other new members who are here and I particularly acknowledge also Asenati Lole-Taylor.  
We have heard from that side of the House—from the Government. We have been promised a brighter future more jobs and higher incomes. Only last week the household labour force survey for the final quarter of last year was released and it is not a brighter future. Last Friday for many workers and for many small businesses it was not a brighter future. This is what the Government has said in the speech that it has given us and it has been repeated by many of its members but I want to say what the community is saying. Those members are working on the basis that they can fool some of the people some of the time or all of the people some of the time but we are going to work on the basis that in the next 3 years they cannot fool all of the people all of the time.  
When they say that they are going to provide a brighter future I would ask that they go out and talk to workers in Manukau and talk to small businesses up and down this country and ask them how they are feeling about what they are experiencing at the moment. Last Friday I met with workers from Criterion an East Tamaki manufacturing company that has gone into receivership. One hundred and eighty workers are affected. Some of those after 20 or 30 years working in the same job have lost their jobs. There are no jobs out there. Yes this Government promised 170000 jobs over 4 years. If it is to be on track it has got to create 36000. So far we can count only about 10000 so it has not done it. That is due to the struggles and the battles of small businesses which are the backbone of this country. These people who lost jobs last Friday through no fault of their own—do they feel that they have got a brighter future? The answer is no. There is no brighter future for many of these families particularly those with schoolchildren and teenagers whom they have got to support.  
There are no jobs out there but that is what we have been promised. There is no plan yet the Government attempts to make out as if it has got a plan. When you look at the 120 points that the Government keeps throwing out none of that makes sense to ordinary people—hard-working workers and small businesses that are struggling to pay their bills in the face of a rising cost of living and in the face of uncertainty in the future. Those who have lost jobs are having to struggle because when they get re-employed for the lucky few they are having to be paid lower wages than they were paid before.  
We have got to hold this Government to account. If it is going to be making those promises then we—yourself every member of this Opposition side—have got to make sure that it honours those words because when you consider that over a million people did not vote in this election you have got to ask yourself why that is. Just because National is in the Government seats does not mean that it is trusted. Just because it is holding the offices of power does not mean that the people accept what it is going to do for this country.  
I say that we have all just heard a lot of hogwash from this Government. National made promises that just do not turn out to be the reality for many many families the length and breadth of New Zealand. The world has changed but National’s answers have not. It still thinks that by sitting on its hands the economic forces that are there will simply create the jobs that it is promising it will create. Sitting on your hands is not going to do it. It has got to come up with a comprehensive plan that all of us can follow that all of us can see and that all of us can make a contribution in. It is just not enough for it to simply say these jobs are going to appear out of thin air.  
It is just not acceptable when it says that it will sell off the assets and all will be well. That is not prosperity. Selling off our State assets the assets that members of our country own—the elderly and those who have contributed significantly over many many years. Those assets belong to the New Zealand public and if the Government took the time to read the many many polls that have been made available it would know that just because it has a seat in power it does not mean that it has the right to flog off those assets. That is right.  
Over 113000 New Zealanders have left our shores for Australia. Over 113000 New Zealanders have left our shores to go over to Australia. Why is that? They have given up under this Government. They have given up hope for a brighter future. For them going across the Ditch to Australia provides a brighter and a more confident future for their families than hanging around here with Mr Key at the helm of power. [ 
Interruption 
] Those members do not like hearing that but it was they who said that they would reduce the number of New Zealanders going across the Ditch to Australia—113000 all under their particular watch.  
The Government has said to us that it is focused on the young people of New Zealand particularly Maori and Pacific. We have not seen any of that. There is 41 percent unemployment among young people aged 15 to 19—not in education employment or training—all under Mr Key’s watch all under the National Government’s watch. Close to 65000 people aged 15 to 24 are not in education and are not in employment or training. The Government thinks that by allowing these young people not to be in education or training or by sweeping them under the carpet all is going to be well. It is wasting our young people. It is wasting the potential of this country. It is wasting the potential of our communities—people who want a brighter future who want to be able to work who want to earn higher incomes who want to have their children get an education and who want to get into a house of their own.  
But so far all that we have heard from this Government are empty promises that things are going to get better—empty promises that it will be brighter round the corner. It has been in power for the last 3 going on 4 years and all that I have heard all that my community has heard are empty promises—empty promises. So we will hold the Government to account. We will hold it to account in the next 3 years. I move that we support the amendment that my colleague David Shearer the leader of the Labour Party has moved: “and the National-led Government will sell New Zealand’s assets against the will of the public; the Government has no ideas to create jobs or a clean and innovative New Zealand; that the Government is widening the gap between the very rich and the rest and therefore this House has no confidence in the National-led government.”  
New Zealanders are battling to stay afloat New Zealanders are battling to make ends meet and all we get are empty promises. I say to you that the people of Mangere are sick and tired of empty promises from Mr Key and the National Government.