Goff Phil: General Debate 
Goff Phil: General Debate 
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Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 That was Bill English once again seeking to blame the failure of this National Government on his predecessor Dr Michael Cullen. It is interesting is it not? The man that they called a failure they have just appointed to head New Zealand’s most important State-owned enterprise New Zealand Post—he is the man they called a failure. Listen to this this is Bill English in the  
New Zealand Herald  
18 December 2008: “I want to stress that New Zealand starts from a reasonable position in dealing with the uncertainty of our economic outlook. In New Zealand”—it gets better—“we have room to respond. This is the rainy day that Government has been saving up for”. Ten days into the National Government’s first term he was not talking about the National Government saving for the rainy day; it was the previous Labour Government which belies the constant criticism that it was the Labour Government that had been reckless in debt. I recall Bill English time and again saying when he was in Opposition that we did not have a debt problem. Time and again he said that we did not have a debt problem. Of course we did not have a debt problem because that Labour Government when it was in office put money aside so that we could come through this recession in better shape. 
Last year John Key promised that New Zealand would be coming out of recession “aggressively”. That was said by John Key. He said we would be coming out of recession aggressively in 2010. It is now 2010. Have we come out of recession aggressively? 
Hon Members 
: No. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: No. Alan Bollard told the Finance and Expenditure Committee this morning that New Zealand’s economy is very fragile. 
Things are not getting better; they are getting worse. Unemployment is going up; it went up by 20000 in the last quarter. Incomes are going down. The median income in this country fell in the last year for the first time in 12 years. John Key knew that when he would not answer the question. The median income in New Zealand has fallen for the first time in 12 years but Mr Key says to New Zealanders that they are better off. It may be that the average New Zealander is out of touch and that they think mistakenly that they are worse off. But John Key knows better than them. He says they are better off. I tell the House that the average New Zealander is not out of touch. John Key and Bill English are out of touch. Bill English says that he is better off but of course he is better off. Every person on those two front Government benches—each earns more than a quarter of a million dollars a year—is better off by hundreds of dollars a week but the constituents I represent in Mt Roskill are not better off. The person on the minimum wage who got $3.08 a week from Mr English is not better off. The money went on that Friday morning when they filled up the car with petrol. That is where their extra money went. The person on the average wage got $13.70 a week more and a lot of families in Auckland who got $13.70 have seen their rent go up by $23 a week in the last year. 
The Prime Minister talked about the price of fruit and vegetables. Do members know how much fruit and vegetables went up by in the September quarter? They went up by over 20 percent. I received a survey today that shows that two-thirds of New Zealand children are not getting the fruit and vegetables they need in their diet. If Mr English wants to do something for the ordinary New Zealander—not the person on the highest income—he should do something about cutting the price of the basic fruit and vegetables that our kids need but whose families do not have the income to choose to buy. It comes to a very sad state when yesterday the general manager of McDonald’s said that it was poor people in New Zealand who could afford bad food but could not afford good food. He was in favour of taking the GST off.