Williamson Maurice: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliamson Maurice: General Debate[Sitting date: 16 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:13932. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (Minister of Statistics): On this incredibly prestigious day when EleanorCatton has won the Man Booker Prize I want to make the theme of my speech one a bit more to do with a literary theme. I want to tie it to the recent announcements about regional numbers and I want to use a couple of things I was not able to use even at question time. For example I was giving the House a briefing about how seriously wrong David Cunliffe had got his regional forecasts—seriously wrong. His calculator and his crystal ball must both be broken because he got them wrong. He put out press releases saying that there was a mass exodus. “Census shows regional exodus under Nats” was the headline of his press release. Another one that came in was “Cunliffe blames Govt for the Taranaki exodus”. But as I said in keeping with trying to be literary I found a poem and I thought the poem would really bring it to the House’s attention. The poem is called “I am census and census is me”:Regional growth has been so poorIt is the last one out who should close the door.TheNats have dealt the regions such a blowAnd now only the big cities are able to grow.TheWaikato and the ’Naki are down but not out.“It’s Labour to their rescue.” as their leader I did shout.When the census is released the truth will be feltJust what a blow to the regions has been dealt.It’s so very sad to see such regional decline.Places that once sparkled now wither and die on the vine.The big just get bigger and Australia does beckon.This is the worst Government ever—what do you all reckon?Oh no! Gosh! Gee! Bugger! Damn!The actuals are out and my predictions are a sham.The regions are actually growing they’re actually on fire they’re aliveAnd as Labour leader it’s unlikely I’ll now survive.That is a poem I found called “I am census and census is me” and it puts it in a nutshell. It puts it in a nutshell.How can a party a once-proud party have a leader get up and make such statements? They are not mine; these are his statements. “Census shows regional exodus”—that is what the headline of his press statement is and every region in the country but one has grown. And then to pick Taranaki. I reckon this is my personal favourite—this is my personal favourite: “Taranakians are leaving the province in droves because they’re being forgotten by the National Government Labour leader DavidCunliffe says.” Well that is interesting because here I have got a Stuff article from today 16 October by Helen Harvey the headline of which says “Headcount springs a big surprise. Taranaki leaders are hailing new population figures that show the region is booming.”How does that work? How can you be the Leader of the Opposition with a phenomenally big resource budget and a research unit which has obviously sat down and done its work and forecast to the nation what is going to happen—actually it would put a bit of a frightener on some us; my God if Taranaki has collapsed like this it is going to be quite serious and quite damning—and then the reality comes out that he got it so wrong. He got it so wrong.Waikato is another good example of where there is phenomenal growth—phenomenal growth.Under this Government the regions are actually booming and remember that that is under two enormously big caveats for the nation: a global financial crisis that put thewhole country into a state of financial difficulty and a massive earthquake that cost billions if not tens of billions to the economy.So then I got some numbers from the research unit to have a look at things like: “Well OK if the population is growing let us have a look at whether say incomes are growing.” Again we will hear from MrCunliffe as Leader of the Opposition who said that well people are so much worse off. Here are just a couple of figures that I think this House should dwell on. After-tax wages in New Zealand since 2008—and those are the ones that matter—have gone up by 22 percent.Sue Moroney: So people are wealthy?Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON:And before the Labour Party calls: “Oh well what about all the cost rises?” that is at the same time as inflation went up by only 9 percent. I know that most people can work that out. A 22 percent increase in after-tax wages while their cost of living CPI is up by only 9 percent—it is a fantastic outcome. The regions should be hellishly proud of themselves and one day they should stop listening to DavidCunliffe like most of his own caucus has already done.