Cunliffe David: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 28 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15529. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Leader of the Opposition): I moveThat all the words after “That” be deleted and replaced with “this House express no confidence in this National-led Government because New Zealand has become more and more divided and because those in the middle are struggling and the poor are going backwards.”What is going to be that Prime Minister’s legacy when he finishes up later this year? Just how is he going to be remembered? Well it will not be for that visionless defensive speech full of tinkering and the same old same old. It might be for his half-finished user-pays cycleway but I doubt it because “John Key Memorial Cycleway” does not really have a certain ring to it. It might be for the holiday home in Hawaii. Hawaii also known as “Planet Key”—the place where there are lots of golf courses but no toilets which will not be easy for the President of the United States or his security detail. Or it might be for the Budget surpluses that Labour always ran but National has yet to sample. In 9 years of Labour Government we never ran a fiscal deficit and National has never run a surplus. Being lectured on fiscal prudence by those clowns is a bit like being lectured on tact and discernment by Gerry Brownlee.I think that John Key is actually going to go down in history by what the international press calls him: “unidentified guest”. No wonder—the photo ops are aboutas flaky as his commitment to reducing unemployment. I think he is going to be remembered for his true achievement: in short fiddling while Rome burns—he is doing it now—and for being the last gasp of an old tired failed way of doing things. He will be remembered as the Prime Minister who clung to “business as usual” while every day more and more Kiwis find themselves struggling—left behind by a Government that is increasingly out of touch arrogant and patently just in it for its mates. He talks about an economic recovery but let us be blunt. The only good news comes from the insurance cheques from the disaster in Christchurch and some damn good prices for milk solids. Neither of those can the Government take credit for. It does not milk the cows and it does not milk the dairy markets.Milk is New Zealand’s greatest export—nearly a quarter of our export receipts. When the price of milk powder goes up our economy goes up with it. That is all very well if you have got a dairy farm as half the National caucus seems to have—at least one; sometimes five—but not much good if you are trying to run a manufacturing business and export something other than milk powder. It is not much good if you are trying to do smart value-added sustainable business in a world where your future seems dependent on the end of a cow’s udder.If you take a devastated city and the price of milk out of the equation what are you left with? An unidentified guest. But putting that aside and putting aside the fact that the Government can claim no responsibility whatever for any type of recovery what is it doing with what there is? I will tell you what it is doing. It is making sure that it goes to the top few. That is the kind of recovery we are seeing—recovery in luxury car sales sales of million-dollar homes profits of big corporations and the record highs being added on the rich list. It is interesting to hear him talk about it. He still puts his faith in trickle-down theories but 30 years of increasing inequality increasing child poverty and a shrinking middle New Zealand clearly says otherwise.Unlike milking cows this Government is milking New Zealand and it is called “trickle up” not trickle down which would explain why the chequebook is always open for big business but not for Pike River families. It is why it is happy for the employment law to be changed for Warner Bros but there is not even a chance of an inquiry for the families of dead forestry workers. It is why the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment would be happy to cough up a hundred grand for an Auckland to Invercargill yacht race that never happened but the Ministry of Social Development cut a similar amount from a trust that helps disabled children. It is why there is a billion dollars of tax cuts for the richest New Zealanders but the most vulnerable get booted when they cannot get a job. It explains why elite private schools get tens of millions of taxpayer funding while a decile 1 Christchurch school gets unlawfully shut down.It explains why major supermarkets are posting record profits and mums and dads with good jobs struggle to keep up with the bills. It is why power companies are raking in super-profits and retirees are going without heating because they cannot afford to open their power bills. It is why the stockbrokers who helped John Key sell our assets made over $150 million on clipping the ticket while manufacturers that are trying to sell real value-added Kiwi-made goods get a high dollar and lay-offs. It is why a select few are making millions on investment property tax-free and everybody else who works hard plays by the rules and earns a salary or a wage pays tax on every dollar they earn. The top 1 percent under John Key owns 16 percent of the wealth and the bottom half owns only one-twentieth.Like I said the Government is arrogant out of touch and out for its mates. I am struck by just how out of touch it is when I hear Mr Key talking about safe and skilled workplaces—tell that to the families of the dead forestry workers or the miners—and about a so-called commitment to export markets which is code for trade deals he willnot even let the public see. There is one commitment that New Zealand would like to see and that is a commitment to lowering our dollar right now because the Reserve Bank says that we are 15 percent overvalued and that adds up to jobs lost and families ruined. And that is not even scratching the surface. Listen to the Prime Minister and his southern henchman Mr English and Mr Joyce and they will tell you that you should count yourself lucky that this is as good as it gets and that there is no alternative. I will tell you something. There is an alternative and that is called a new Labour-led Government.Just yesterday in my state of the nation speech I outlined the vision for a better New Zealand a fairer New Zealand one where everybody has the opportunity to make the most of themselves—the kinds of opportunities that both the Prime Minister and I had when we were young. Neither of us came from families that had any money. We both benefited from a good State school. We benefited from a good health system when my dad was desperately ill. But John Key has been pulling the ladder up after himself. He is continuing his 30-year project of widening the gap between the haves and have-nots and that is not a future that we want for New Zealand. It is not one that New Zealanders want for themselves.We are a fair nation and we value attributes like hard work and compassion and looking after each other because we know that when some of us do well we all should do well. It should not be to pit New Zealander against New Zealander. It should not be to pit the 1 percent against the 99 percent. I think that actually in his heart of hearts that is something that even the Prime Minister recognised when he launched his little pet teacher bonus scheme last week. It was a pretty clumsy shot at softening his image. He even used the word “egalitarian” and—wait for it—a rugby analogy and I just think that I am soon going to see a picture of him as an unidentified guest at a barbecue with Prince William. Predictable.Never before though in all seriousness has New Zealand faced the critical choices it faces now. We are at a crossroads. One path points to an increasingly fractured and divided society a widening gap between the haves and the have-nots a Government that is arrogant out of touch and out for its mates. We want a better fairer New Zealand. The other path is one of courage of compassion and of ingenuity. We want a country that embodies all that is good about our past and combines it with our highest vision for a modern fair inclusive economy. It means building an economy worthy of our Kiwi values a country based on those values—and with good clean water; the water in my glass just now was very good.In that New Zealand a full day’s work will cover the basics. There will be more jobs available and wages will catch up with prices. New Zealanders will pay what is fair whether it is for their power bill their tax bill or their grocery bill. Every child in the country will have what they deserve: a fair chance an opportunity to make the best of themselves to work hard and to get ahead to start life healthy to learn early and to fulfil their potential.It is not just the right thing to do it is the smart thing to do because when every Kiwi kid can be the best they can be this country will be the best it can be. It will be a successful economy with strong regions with investment with training and with research and development not just a speculator’s paradise or some foreigner’s farm. It will be an economy with strong regions where there are good jobs for all who need them a networked digital economy with faster cheaper broadband rolled out faster than those clowns could roll out a roll of toilet paper. It will be an economy with decent work good conditions high wages and safe workplaces an economy built on a world-leading education system with high-value exports.New Zealand is not going to get rich by exporting raw logs or raw milk powder or bulk fish caught on foreign vessels by foreign crews who are not paid the minimum wage who do not pay tax in New Zealand and who export the processing offshore; or by a freezing industry riddled with overcapacity that is now exporting whole carcasses so somebody else can cut them up and add the value; or by limiting a technology industry with inadequate overpriced broadband—[Interruption] I say to Ms Adams—or by cutting research and development funding for our most innovative industries.Over the next few months the Labour Party will be launching a series of joined-up policy packages designed to rebuild and rebalance this economy from this country from local communities up and with it we will outline how the economy needs to work for New Zealanders both now and in the future. We started yesterday with our Best Start package a set of policies that is about giving the next generation the best start possible: 59000 families with newborn babies will receive a Best Start payment of $60 a week for the first year of the child’s life. The investment will go to all families with a combined income of $150000 or less in their first year and it will give them more choices about how they juggle work and home life. We need to keep easing the pressure for modest and middle-income families beyond the first year. That is why for those families earning up to $50000 the payment of $60 will continue unabated to the child’s third birthday.I also announced that we will be increasing free early childhood education to 25 hours up from 20 hours. We all know that early childhood education makes a real difference and the experts tell us that the return is $11 for every $1 invested. Alongside that we need to expand access to early childhood centres because free hours are not enough if you have not got a centre to study in and we need to restore funding for qualified teachers.Why is it that that Prime Minister will pay bonuses to high school principals and cut funding for early childhood educators? Come to think of it why is it that Hekia Parata cuts teacher development for all teachers so that the National Government can pay bonuses to a few top teachers? Does it want elites in our schools as well as everywhere else? Oh I forgot. You are allowed more subsidies if you are a private school or a charter school where you do not have to teach the New Zealand curriculum you do not even have to have a qualified teacher and you are not subject to the Official Information Act. For that special treatment you get paid extra by the National Government.By contrast in partnership with communities Labour will fund the development of early childhood education centres in lower-income communities to ensure there are places for every Kiwi kid and we are committed to funding 26 weeks of paid parental leave for every New Zealand family that needs it. This is interesting. What are members opposite going to do? They told us that they were committed to working this through. Now they say that they are going to veto our bill just so that they can bring in a smaller one of their own. That is like John Key saying to Barack Obama: “No you can have your driver back. I’m going to drive with the putter.” It is the sort of lack of integrity that people are coming to expect from a Government that is not looking after New Zealanders but is just looking after its mates.Success in the early years involves health as well as education. That is why we are going to make sure pregnant mums get booked in for antenatal checks at 10 weeks. That is why every expectant mum will be able to get free childcare training classes when they are pregnant that is why we will extent well child checks and that is why we will provide early access to early childhood education for those families who need it. The Best Start package will ensure parents have more choices and better support so that their kids get better opportunities and New Zealand gets a better future.I am reminded of Mr Key’s comments a few years ago when he described women on the DPB as “breeding for a business”. How telling about Mr Key’s values. This is a morally bankrupt Government. It is old it is tired and it is as we can see from the number of Nats getting off the sinking ship on its way out—on its way out. The challenge before New Zealanders in this decisive election year is to restore values restore heart restore opportunity and restore equality.The Labour-led Government is waiting to take New Zealand forward. We are waiting for this Government to hasten out of office so that this country can get a new tomorrow a best start for our kids a best start for New Zealand. Thank you.