Brownlee Gerry: General Debates 
Brownlee Gerry: General Debates 
[Volume:613;Page:10152] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. I want to thank so many of the Labour members. I thank their entire front bench for staying in the House this afternoon to hear this contribution from me. I want to be the first to tell them that their days are now numbered. They have less than 2 years to occupy those benches because this country has lost confidence in them. And I refer that nervous-looking Labour back bench to the great page in last Monday’s business section of the  
New Zealand Herald 
 that contained numerous quotes from employer bodies in this country from business owners in this country and from business investors in this country who have said they believe that this Government is hopelessly led and is not doing anything to grow the economy at anywhere near the rate it needs to and that they have no confidence in the Government. 
Let me make it clear that it will not be business that tips this Government out. I tell those members that when the boss gets the wind up the workers get spooked. We have a workforce in this country that is not being paid at the levels that it should be paid at we have workers who are not earning the incomes they should be earning and we have a Government that can only say that its answer to the problem is to form another committee get another reference group together and see whether it can come up with some sort of a task force that might give it some recommendations about when and where it might do something.  
We have had years now of sustained economic growth. Michael Cullen will stand up in a few minutes and tell us what a marvellous Government it has been and how great it has been for this country. Whenever there have been long periods of sustained economic growth in this country the first people who get the hit-up in the living standards are the workers. It has not happened this time. This Government has not allowed New Zealanders’ incomes to rise to the levels that they should have over these past few good years. The Government will pay the price.  
Don Brash has made it very clear that the gap between a New Zealand worker and an Australian worker on a per capita wealth base spread over the entire population is over $200 per week. That is why Annette King cannot pay the nurses a reasonable salary; that is why Trevor Mallard is going around the countryside shutting down schools; and that is why almost every other social service in this country including the Department of Child Youth and Family Services is an utter mess. People are suffering as a result of this Government’s total neglect of the economy.  
We will hear Dr Cullen stand up in a couple of minutes and say that we have the lowest unemployment rate the country has ever had. Well I tell Dr Cullen that when we have over 300000 working-age New Zealanders on welfare benefits other than the unemployment benefit there is no way that the Minister can make a claim that unemployment is genuinely at that low level. Opportunity has deserted this country.  
I make a few comments about the Helen Clark Christmas present to the workers. Helen Clark’s Christmas present to the workers is 4 weeks’ annual leave in four Christmases’ time. They can just hold their hat wait four Christmases and they will get an extra week’s leave. Let me make it clear to all the blokes in the Council of Trade Unions who lined up to back Helen Clark in this miserable Christmas present that that will mean 3 years of low wage-growth in this country. It is a wage cap and once again the worker in this country will be required to forgo the benefits of this supposedly splendid economy in order that Michael Cullen can stuff up every now and then and say: “How magnificent we are what huge surpluses we have what a great Government we are.”  
That will not suffice for New Zealanders. I tell Labour members on the back bench to go back into their communities talk with their people and ask them how easy life is. If they are still talking to the people whom they claim to represent—and frankly I doubt that they are—then I think they will find out how much serious trouble they are in. I want to make a suggestion that the first person to go will be the member for Whanganui. 
Simon Power 
: Who? 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: That is right: “Who?”—exactly! Most of the people of Whanganui say that: “Who is she?”.