Cunliffe David: General Debate 
Cunliffe David: General Debate 
[Volume:673;Page:19825] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 I love this House. One of the reasons I do is that we can feel the mood of the place change week by week. The mood of this House has changed this week because the National Government knows that it is game on. It is game on because New Zealanders have a choice. On the one hand they have a Government that wants to slash-and-burn services for New Zealanders and sell off the family silver to cover 6 months of deficits based on tax cuts for people who did not need them. That is what National is offering. Labour is offering to pay down debt to keep our assets to grow our economy and to get New Zealanders back to work so we own our future. We will own our future. Labour will govern for all New Zealanders and it has a plan. 
National has no plan and that is why under National New Zealand has been going backwards. National does not have a plan to get the economy going. It is out of touch with ordinary New Zealanders. National is not working for Kiwi families but for its big-bucks mates and the foreign interests that will clip the ticket on New Zealand’s family silver. Labour will give the country the start it needs. It will give everybody a fair go with a tax plan and a growth plan that will get New Zealand back to work. It will make sure that everybody gets a fair chance and make sure that everybody pays their fair share. 
It was very interesting to hear Bill English the man who said that Labour left the books in reasonable shape. That was an understatement of course: 7.6 percent of GDP net credit was very reasonable in 2008. He has now presided over a $17 billion Budget hole which will grow to $20 billion this year yet he has the temerity to lecture us about fiscal prudence. He has the temerity yet he does not have a plan of his own. His way is to slash-and-burn flog the family silver and run the country into the ground with tax cuts for the rich that New Zealand can never afford. On Labour’s side we would pay down debt keep our assets grow the economy and get New Zealanders back to work so we can own our future. We will do it with a plan that is fair to all and to which everybody will contribute. 
Steven Joyce tried to defend the competitive economy. Is that not the same Minister who has given sweet-heart deals to broadcasters in an election year and given a new fibre monopoly to an incumbent telecommunications company that will drive competition out of the wholesale layer? He has as much right to lecture us on competition as Bill English does on fiscal management. He is railing against a straw man that National has created and arguing that there will be a 30 percent capital gains tax. Well who has ever said that? Labour has not made its announcements yet. We will make an announcement next week that will change the course of this country—not just this election but this country—because it will set a pathway for a long-term future. It will be a future that New Zealanders can own and a future that New Zealanders can believe in because it will show a clear pathway out of the hole we are in a pathway that does not depend on the slash-and-burn of the State or on the selling-off of the family silver. 
New Zealanders do not want that—they do not want that. If those National members were listening to New Zealanders they would be very worried right now because New Zealanders are getting the clear idea that they have a real choice. On 26 November they can vote for the short-term expediency of slash and sell or the long-term wisdom of build and grow. New Zealanders want to build. They want a country that is going forwards not backwards and where we actually close the gap with our nearest neighbour not widen it. They want a country where we get people back to work not grow unemployment and where we build for the future and not sell the future to pay the debt holes that have been created today. It will be an interesting week in politics.