Robson Matt: General Debate 
Robson Matt: General Debate 
[Volume:623;Page:18684] 
Hon MATT ROBSON (Deputy Leader—Progressive) 
: 
 Recently I spoke with parliamentarians in another jurisdiction and they asked me why this Parliament operates by insult. I thought that was a good question to ask. On listening today to question time and to many of the speeches particularly to the speech made by the Hon Bill English I think it is time to reflect on whether we should actually look at issues and at the way we can move the country ahead rather than continuing to operate by insult. National ACT and New Zealand First lead the pack but many of us are tainted by it. It was good to have the Swedish Prime Minister in New Zealand this week. His Government is the successor of a string of socialist Governments that have concentrated for over 6 decades with rarely a break in Government on public investment in infrastructure on building security for their people and on having a planned economy. In contrast New Zealand started off in the 1930s at the same time as Sweden did with a Government committed to using public resources to build the economy and social infrastructure in a planned and rational way. But unfortunately there have been very long periods of right-wing Government which have interrupted the progress that would otherwise have been made for the benefit of all people. 
Over the past 5½ years however we have had in a coalition Government a progressive administration that for the first time in three generations—the first time in almost 60 years—has a realistic chance of winning a third consecutive election. The Government has learnt from the Swedish model. The fact that pundits judge that there is the chance of a third term shows that achievement. It has been made possible because this progressive Government has had a clear strategy of partnership of sensible intervention in the economy of social development and of investing sensibly in our infrastructure. A reflection of that success is the unemployment rate which is the very lowest in the entire OECD group of wealthy nations. It has been reflected in the breaking of all records on job creation in the extending by 33 percent of workers’ annual holiday entitlement to 4 weeks’ leave and in the introduction and extension of paid parental leave for working parents. It has been further reflected in putting investment into regional and industry sectors that have delivered economic development better than Australia’s over the past 5 years so reversing the previous 30-year record of failure. Those achievements have come about because attention has been given to the key issues. We have seen an increase in the investment in public health and education to the benefit of all New Zealanders. The list of achievements is extraordinarily long because the work behind it has been extraordinary. 
Sweden’s Government has kept winning elections for decade after decade because it has stood four-square for strong investment in public education and health services combined with intelligent pragmatic economic and social policies conducive to ensuring that Sweden is able to sell to the world. Just last week that country with some of the highest and most progressive income taxes in Europe announced that it will over the next decade increase them further in order to further bolster its already world-class public services which are the envy of the world. The Swedes enjoy free high-quality school and university education generous unemployment benefits if people fall out of work State-funded maternity and paternity leave guaranteed childcare and much more. But Sweden has a pragmatic approach to its economy. For example alongside its progressive taxation system it has a headline business tax rate of 28 percent so that it can compete with its European Union partners. There is no contradiction for a successful social democratic party in raising income by a progressive taxation system while simultaneously reducing the corporate headline tax rate and promoting planned economic development with flexible policies. 
I started off by talking about the policies of insult and I have a warning for ACT. ACT is presently throwing accusation after accusation against Te Wananga o Aotearoa. The Progressives do not advocate that there be a turning away from the allegations that have been raised—there have been some serious allegations—but that the process of investigation be fair and not be conducted in the atmosphere of a kangaroo court. It does no good in New Zealand when we have a successful institution that has developed successful literacy programmes to tackle the 530000 adult New Zealanders who are illiterate or functionally illiterate to have ACT in a scramble to get above 5 percent in the polls intoxicated by the politics of insult. I believe and the Progressive Party believes that a country moves ahead if it looks seriously at its problems but does so in an atmosphere of analysis and informed debate and not in one of the politics of insult.