Sepuloni Carmel: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSepuloni Carmel: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 12 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1575. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston):I want to start by congratulating the leader and the deputy leader of the Labour Party on a fabulous job that they have done since the end of last year. Does my team not agree that they have done a great job? I want to say this to members on the other side. Prepare for that day after election day in 2017 because we know what the headline will be. The day after the election in 2017 it will be “A Little goes a long way”. I guarantee you that on that day after the election you will be staring down the barrel of a Labour Government so please be prepared. We are excited. You should be too because I am sure the rest of New Zealand is as well.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order!CARMEL SEPULONI: I am sorry. I am not saying that you will be excited Mr Assistant Speaker.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): I may well be but you are not allowed to bring me into the debate. Thank you.CARMEL SEPULONI: Sure.From so many members on the other side of the House we have heard about the economic management credentials of the National Government. I just want to say that actually it is not economic management that the National Government members are good at; it is the creation of the perception that they are great economic managers that they are good at. There was an interesting question put to the Government earlier today and it brought up the fact that the Prime Minister dropped the ball six times when getting filmed for a Cricket World Cup promo. Dropping the ball six times—that is quite a good image because I was thinking about the fact that that Government has dropped the ball more than six times with regard to its economic management and financial management of this country.Let me just give you six examples of where the National Government has failed New Zealand in terms of its economic management and financial decision-making. Let us start just with a fairly recent one and that would be the Skycity convention centre. What did the Government tell us? It told us and it told New Zealand that this would not cost us a cent. And what are we looking at now—$130 million on the taxpayer. That is not the promise that is not the assurance that the National Government gave to the country when the deal was done and signed. But here we are with the financial gurus over there costing the taxpayers $130 million that was not budgeted for.No. 2 in terms of examples of the great financial management of the National Government is that we were told when National first got into office that it would close the wage gap with Australia. And what was the wage gap at that time—$121.76. Did it manage to close that wage gap with Australia? Well actually no. The wage gap is now $170.28. Is that a good example of good economic management by the National Government?Dr David Clark: They’ve dropped the ball.CARMEL SEPULONI: National has dropped the ball twice. Two examples of where it has dropped the ball.Another good example is a case that all New Zealanders are very aware of and that is Novopay. How much did Novopay cost us? Well it cost us $110 million just to set up and run and then it cost us an additional $45 million to fix. Then on top of that Steven Joyce made the decision not only to maintain the flawed system but then to buy the flawed system on behalf of the taxpayer. I am sure New Zealanders are looking at the National Government and thinking “Great economic managers.” That is the third example of dropping the ball.The fourth example I would like to share with the House goes to exports. We heard some of the members on that side of the House talking about how great the National Government has done in terms of exports. Now let us look at the facts. National members said they would increase exports from 30 percent to 40 percent of GDP but instead now the figure is down under 30 percent and still going down. They are four examples of where the National Government like its Prime Minister—with its Prime Minister—has dropped the ball.No. 5 a great example of the financial management of the gurus on the other side of the House is that the National Government flogged off our State assets and did not get the money it expected including from the sale of Meridian Energy which it sold for $1 per share to 2 percent of New Zealanders and now those shares are trading for $2 per share. Is that a good example of great management? That is the fifth example of dropping the ball. The sixth one I would like to share is the surplus that that Government was anticipating making but now what we have is Treasury forecasting that National will be $572 million short of the surplus that it told New Zealand it would reach.So unfortunately for New Zealand it is not that National members are great economic managers and good with our economy; it is the fact that they have been so good at pulling the wool over New Zealand’s eyes and creating the perception that they are good economic managers. The six examples I have just shared with you where National has dropped the ball paint a pretty clear picture that it is irresponsible with taxpayers’ money and actually it is completely incompetent when it comes to financial management of any sort. So I think that over the next 2½ years New Zealand is going to become more aware of these examples of where National has dropped the ball. There are going to be more places—because National members cannot help themselves—where they will drop the ball. Actually what we are increasingly seeing when we go out and about and meet the public is that people are becoming increasingly concerned. So National members please do not get too comfortable in those seats and maintain the level of arrogance we are seeing too often as we are out and about and even here in the House because what we do know is that politics goes in cycles and that New Zealanders are becoming increasingly aware of the National Government’s shortfalls.I want to refer to another thing that I am really concerned about and that is the banter that we have had from the other side of the House towards our leader about his desire to focus on the future of work in New Zealand. One thing that has been apparent for many years is that Labour actually does look to the future. Labour actually does plan for the future. Labour looks down the track and thinks about what we need to do to prepare our country for the future. There are some very clear examples of where National has dropped the ball with regard to preparation and I just want to point out a couple of those. One of those—because we have heard so much about the rebuild in Christchurch—is that when National first got into office in 2008 one of the first decisions it made was to cut funding from trades training. Now we have National members constantly talking about the fact that we have a shortfall of skilled tradespeople to undertake the work. National members are so quick to forget that actually one of the first places they made cuts was in trades training.The second point I would like to make in respect of where National did not look to the future and made irresponsible decisions was with regard to some of the decisions it made in our schools. Today I looked in the newspaper and I saw one of the Ministers reporting on the fact that National wants to put a focus on the obesity problem that we have in this country. Yes that is a very important issue to focus on and a place to put some resource but actually when National first got into office what did it do? It actually cut out—I do not know why—the healthy food in schools policy. So I think that National needs to spend some time reflecting on the irresponsible decisions that have been made. I guarantee that New Zealanders are looking at some of the decisions that have been made looking at some of the statements that have been made now and finding it really difficult to reconcile the actions it has taken in the past and the statements it is making at present.If I go back to the future of work stuff I totally get behind like everyone else here our leader with the need to focus on the future of work. We have so many issues in terms of unemployment. The figure for the last quarter was 5.4 percent and now we are at 5.7 percent. Unemployment is not going down under this Government. This Government is irresponsible in terms of our economic management and New Zealanders are suffering because of it.