Cunliffe David: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 01 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9243. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn): The member Jonathan Young who has just sat down was half right. The Labour caucus committee was in Taranaki this last week and here is what the good people of Taranaki told us about National’s regional development efforts: they are arrogant they are out of touch they have lost their way and they are a tired third-term Government that needs to be retired. They gave us three specific examples and I will mention them.The first one was the so-called regional growth studies. They are nothing but studies. People told us that the studies simply recite and package what the locals are already doing. There is study but no money study but no action study but no plan and people are deeply cynical about National—a waste of space in regional development. It is like a New Year’s resolution that you are going to go on a diet: “We’ll have regional development this year.” Well it does not happen under National because it does not do action and it does not do a strategy.The second example that comes to mind is the famous Ōpōtiki harbour development in my colleague’s East Coast area. It is an economic and financial no-brainer. It has been proven to officials and Ministers multiple times. What happens? The Government does a kind of public relations sham and gives $3 million out of $30 million for yet another study maybe to announce a grant in an election year. The people of the Eastern Bay of Plenty are not that stupid. They know when there is a con under way and that con was Steven Joyce.The third example that the member actually raised is the problem with white gold and black gold—oil and dairy. Well we cannot control the oil market and we cannot control the global dairy market and that is the problem. We have got all our cows in one basket. Labour has been saying for the last 6 years: “We need a plan for economic development. We need a plan to diversify our economy. We need a plan to add more value in science and innovation through research and tertiary education to the God-given natural resources that we do so well in.” What did National do? It converted everything into dairy farms and then it wondered why things looked pretty ropey when the price collapsed from 8 bucks to 4 bucks and now of course there are calls to socialise the problem after it privatises the profit. You just watch this space because there will be a lot of farmer pressure to say “Well we need a free pass from the banks.” the same banks that are announcing record profits—billions upon billions of dollars.Let us talk about the Kiwi Dream. You know half of New Zealand is enslaved to mortgages making those Aussie banks really really rich with those record profits. The other half is trapped in a rental poverty trap struggling to keep up and struggling to get their kids through tertiary education but not getting ahead—middle-class Kiwis never getting ahead—of the fortnightly or monthly pay check. A country of aspiration we used to be.Hon Judith Collins: Like leadership.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: A country of winners we used to be. Oh ho! There is Judith Collins arising from the crypt talking about leadership aspiration. Pots kettles—yeah. The Kiwi Dream is worth campaigning for. The Kiwi Dream is not about lofty goals. It is not about spin. It is about the absolute basics: a roof over your head that is warm and dry whether you own it or you rent it; some security of tenure for people who are renting.The Kiwi Dream is about having a good job and the education available to keep up with the changing workplace. That is why Labour’s Working Futures Plan gives 3 years of free tertiary education for any type of training from apprenticeship to PhD at any time of your life from post-school to pre-retirement. Our children are never going to do one job all their lives; they might do 10 jobs and they are going to need to move into and out of the workforce. Here is the choice. When you boil it all down we have got a choice between two futures: a dumb economy that is vulnerable to those commodity price cycles or a smart economy where we invest in knowledge and invest in each other close those widening equity gaps and protect our environment. If we do that that is a dream worth making real. That is what a Labour-led Government is going to deliver with our colleagues here for a truly better future for all New Zealanders.