Jones Shane: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Jones Shane: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Sitting date: 29 January 2013. Volume:687;Page:7543. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 A tena tatou katoa i roto i tenei pito o te tau hou. 
[And so salutations to us all at this end of the new year.] 
Greetings Mr Speaker and fellow members of the House on this day in the new year. If ever there was evidence as to how poorly the Cabinet restructuring has gone then that last speech demonstrated it. Not only did Jonathan Coleman misrepresent that damp squib of a Cabinet reshuffle as decisive it was actually divisive. What on earth possesses National to think that the promotion of Nikki Kaye is going to No. 1 generate more jobs No. 2 transform the economy or in any mild way improve the prospects of the 33 percent of New Zealand’s economy and population that is Auckland? That will happen only when there is a change of Government and the member to my left enjoys the privilege of holding at long last the seat that should have always been held by the centre - progressive left. 
Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: Well watching blue movies didn’t improve the economy. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: You can carry on with all these tired barbs but there is one thing that you will know about this speaker—a hide thicker than a rhinoceros. 
Let us come back to what was actually said in the Prime Minister’s speech. No. 1 he resents the presence of David Shearer and Annette King who are moving forward on housing policy. What National overlooks is that the Resource Management Act reforms which the Prime Minister and the current Minister for the Environment say they are going to deliver on—they have had phase one and they have had phase two and they have done none of it. The only thing that has happened that might remotely improve the prospects of better housing processes and prices was what was started under our administration and was wisely continued by that person known as Mr Williamson who has defeated all the pollsters’ and pundits’ views as to who has outlived their usefulness in Cabinet—but that is another matter. That is for that side of the House to work out. 
Before I go on to talk about houses and affordability let us talk about a house divided within itself—the Maori Party. The Maori Party actually requires the ongoing sustenance of the John Key Government because it has no place it has no future and it has no relevance in terms of how we are viewing the development of the country. One of the leaders has wisely announced that her time has come and her time has gone. She unfortunately did not check with the co-leader as to why he was hanging around. I suspect it is to do with financial circumstances or some more personal matter like that but irrespective of who stands to lead that party that party is dog-tucker. When the members of the party are openly calling for the return of Hone Harawira to lead the party then you know it is a version of the spaceship on  
Doctor Who 
. They will fit themselves and they will fit their members inside the proverbial telephone box. I think it is very sad that their legacy will be to have propped up a Government that is led by John Key driven essentially by Steven Joyce and starved by Bill English and which has left the garden-variety day-to-day lives of Maori households far worse off. That is one fact you cannot escape from. Sure you can rely on the cultural narrative and you can get warm and fuzzy about the matatini and we do support—in a rare outburst of bipartisan support—the ongoing work of the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations but those touch on only a narrow part of the broader problem. The fact is that there was so much aspiration so many goals and so many dreams associated with the Maori Party and it is now evident that not only is the vessel empty but also the vessel is sinking. 
But help is on the way. Those members who were there are privately telling us that they cannot wait—indeed one of the orators at Ratana Pa said he cannot wait—for the prospect of David Shearer and fellow Labour members with associated parties forming a progressive Government. And what are they going to do? The reason they are going to move on housing is that it is the hallmark of a progressive Government. It is not unreasonable that the State should play a more active role in providing assistance for people to own the largest asset the vast majority of Kiwis have the pleasure of owning: their own whare. Why is it good enough for the farmers to receive a subsidy in irrigation but no assistance be extended to low to middle income New Zealanders to get the only asset they are likely to truly own? Why is it good enough for $600 million to be doled out to the farming community yet the Government remains flinty and mean-spirited without providing any such assistance to those Kiwis who want to actually acquire? Let me ask a question: will that water be free? Will that water be conceived as a public good? Will that water attract a tax? Will the farmers ever pay back any of the dough that is going to be poured down the gullet of this new subsidy trail called publicly subsidised irrigation schemes? All those results all those answers and all those facts currently elude us. But do not for a moment think that we will allow that policy to go forward whilst the blowtorch is going to be placed upon Mr Shearer and Annette King about our housing policy. 
Housing solutions have to be varied. There is no such thing as a universal singular housing accommodation solution. In some cases it will suit small families large families or blended families. The main thing that the speech today from our side of the House has emphasised is the political will to use the resources of the State to enable New Zealanders to move out of homelessness and not owning their own property and to escape from a permanent situation of being a stuck member of the renter class. That is a worthwhile idea. That is a notion that is perfectly legitimate to contest as politicians. What will be the response of the Government? Well it will look for a chorus of people to diminish the merits of the scheme. But the merits have already taken root within the minds of the people who are going to benefit from the scheme. That is why polling shows that it is a brilliant policy. That is why a host of experts in the area of social development and property development are saying that this is the kind of lever that can significantly turn round large swathes of the economy. 
I am prepared to admit that there is some merit associated with increasing apprenticeships. It is a pity that it has taken 4 years too long and that it was nicked off this side of the House after that side of the House destroyed apprenticeships ruined trades training and tried to turn young New Zealanders into workers of a precarious nature. We are not going to acquiesce to or agree with that. At the time I am presuming the earlier National Government decided to destroy apprenticeships so that it could depress the value of wages. Not only did it destroy the value of wages but also it destroyed the value of being an artisan of being a craftsman of being a tradesman and of being an expert with vocational qualifications. 
In a funny way it arrived at a point where its ideologists wanted it to be and changed some of the foundation influences of what a Kiwi is proud to be. Thousands of our households come from families—not this small narrow privileged farmer class that is going to get $600 million of free money for water that they will never pay for. But rest assured once we bring in our capital gains tax that show will be over. Those people who have farmed purely for capital gain—that show will be ta-ta “Goodnight Irene”. That pleasure awaits us once the voters give us the privilege of governing again. But I digress. That belongs in another time. 
One thing I will wind up on is that although it is a good opportunity for us to exchange ideas and exchange views it is sad that the Government does not appear interested in or capable of changing tack. Just to remind ourselves this is a Government that believes we can improve the fortunes of New Zealanders by selling assets we already own. If we just look at the sell-off of the Fonterra shares it gives you an indication of who will end up owning the shares of our energy companies—40 percent foreign-owned. How on earth does that transform the fortunes of ordinary households in New Zealand? Secondly on the question of Fonterra I suspect that as we drill into the Minister responsible for primary produce we are going to learn how implicated and how acquiescent the Government was in actually covering up information associated with the recent Fonterra scandal. But that is another matter. A group of parliamentarians who are back and happy to do the best for their country heard a speech from the Prime Minister that just fills us with dread because it is the same dismal tired irrelevant and very thoughtless rhetoric. Kia ora tatou.