Address in Reply 
Address in Reply 
[Volume:628;Page:402] 
Address in Reply 
Debate resumed from 22 November. 
PITA PARAONE (NZ First) 
: 
 The 2005 election result has allowed New Zealand First to leverage significant gains for all New Zealanders. Given that that is our reason for being here I defy anyone here to take issue with our post-election position. Are we not all here to make New Zealand a better place? If not I suggest that those who have that contrary view move aside for a party that wants to be here for the right reasons. We have no doubts at all about what we are here to do so I tell others to watch and learn. 
I can sympathise with the National Party for being the bridesmaid for a third consecutive term. I can even understand why National members have this fixation about New Zealand First’s leader given that he has essentially been the real Leader of the Opposition for the past two parliamentary terms. Even in his absence National members seek him. Their fixation is merely a sign of a party that is I believe bereft of leadership and dare I say it policy. Having said that the reality is that within the National caucus are a number of members who believe that they should be the leader. Already the numbers game has begun. To the National members’ credit however they watched and learnt from New Zealand First members during the last term and they have been rewarded with a whole new group of back-benchers. National members are doomed to the Opposition benches for another 3 years and are resorting to name-calling out of sheer frustration at seeing a party with 5.8 percent of the vote and seven MPs that will achieve a lot more for New Zealand than they will with their so-called 39 percent of the vote and 48 seats. I can well understand their frustrations. As the Opposition benches seem to be engraved with the National Party logo for the foreseeable future I repeat my invitation to those members to learn from New Zealand First. Part of the lesson certainly will not include being allocated responsibilities because of the heritage of one’s spouse. 
I will touch on those things that New Zealand First has been able to gain for all New Zealanders: we have gained in policies relating to senior citizens the Treaty of Waitangi immigration and more police. Our economic policies will advance the economic situation of New Zealand. Even in the area of health we think that we have done well and good by our supporters. There are legislative proposals that we will certainly seek a review of particularly in terms of support for the reintroduction of the Electoral Integrity (Amendment) Bill. We will seek support for the bill relating to treaty principles going to a select committee for consideration and for a bill proposing to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years of age. I conclude by saying wow what baubles! 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Deputy Prime Minister) 
: 
 Madam Assistant Speaker I begin by congratulating yourself and your fellow Assistant Speaker Madam Speaker Margaret Wilson and Clem Simich Deputy Speaker of the House. The House will be well served I am sure by these officers. 
I congratulate all those who gave their maiden speeches. I am not quite so convinced about this sort of Latinate habit of everyone kissing each other after every maiden speech these days—it is a relatively recent convention within this House. There was a degree of an “h” word in there that one is not allowed to use within this Parliament. For many people it is a terrifying thing on occasion to give their maiden speeches. Many of us—I know; I remember well—were strung up with tension at the point of giving our maiden speeches. 
I was particularly pleased to see a number of the new National MPs subtly distancing themselves from their party’s pre-election policy on matters Maori in a way that I think would have been quite difficult for their leader. I just want to say a couple of things to a couple of the maiden speakers from National. Firstly I know that Mr Groser has been overseas for a long time but I tell him that benefit numbers have gone down under this Government not up. It was under a National Government that benefit numbers went up. If he had been in the country since 1999 he would know that the numbers have been going down under this Government. I say to Mr Finlayson: “Get over it Chris!”. I know that I did not make you a QC but you should not have written that abusive letter to the Solicitor-General because he had nothing to do with the decision and deserved better than that display of bad judgment and bad manners on your part. 
Hon Bill English 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. The member has been here for some time and he knows that it is out of order to address any MP as “you”. When a member uses the word “you” he or she can refer only to the Speaker. 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I apologise for using the member’s Christian name. I say: “Get over it Mr Finlayson!”. 
Christopher Finlayson 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Dr Cullen has deliberately misled the House by saying that I wrote an abusive letter to the Solicitor-General and I think he should be called on to withdraw and apologise for that remark. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: I will just rule on the point of order. A member cannot accuse another member of deliberately misleading the House. That is not a point of order. 
Christopher Finlayson 
: Dr Cullen tried to mislead the House. As to the form in which I raised that point it is for you Madam Assistant Speaker to determine but I take offence at what the Minister has said. [ 
Interruption 
] 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: I need to rule on the point of order. It is a debating point. 
Christopher Finlayson 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker I refer you to Standing Order 116. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: I remind the member that he needs to make it clear that he has taken offence. That is different. 
Christopher Finlayson 
: That is what I said. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: All right. I ask the member to withdraw. 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I apologise. I say to Mr Finlayson that he should not have written a letter to the Solicitor-General. It was not becoming to Mr Finlayson or to his profession and it was certainly not becoming to Mr Terence Arnold who deserves a great deal better in that respect. I was solely responsible for that decision not Mr Arnold. 
Finally I say to Dr Sharples that in some ways I found his speech quite disturbing and quite worrying from a New Zealand perspective. What he said was in large part right—that in part we have largely ignored our Maori heritage and Maori history within this country and that we need to place that much more securely in the front of our knowledge about ourselves and our past. But he himself in saying that seemed to deny his European heritage. I think it is important for us to say that if we come from a mixed heritage we honour all of our heritage not just part of it otherwise it starts to exclude many of us in this House from being New Zealanders and being part of the heritage of this country. That kind of language is quite indicative of an attitude that I believe that the Maori Party has to look at very carefully in terms of moving forward race relations within this country. 
Tariana Turia 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I resent Dr Michael Cullen implying that the Maori Party intends to create division in race relations in this country. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: I will rule on the point of order. That is a debating point. 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: Now we come to the National Party. It is facing for the first time since it became Government in 1949 the prospect of at least 9 long years in Opposition and it cannot cope with it. The remnants of the brat pack will move from being young hopefuls to bitter elderly middle-aged men by the time they have another chance to get into Government. Are they not already showing that day after day with their behaviour in the House? They are bitter men moving forward knowing that young and not-so-young hopefuls are coming behind them and looking to push them out by the time we reach the next general election. 
It was of course a close-run election. But in the end in my view the outcome can be regarded as an ethical victory for Labour because what we defeated was the Opposition’s appeal to all the basest instincts in human character. No base instinct was left unturned by National in its attempt to win that particular election. 
National’s election campaign was backed by huge money—not just huge money from the business sector but also huge money from a small religious sect that says it does not even participate in politics. Dr Brash’s definition of the mainstream somehow includes a small enclosed Protestant sect that does not vote and that excludes over half the population by definition. That I think is utterly disgraceful. In relation to a man who has a proud heritage to call upon and who is descended from one of the great liberal tolerant ecumenicist leaders of Christianity within this country it was a particularly sick sight to see the way in which the National Party was bought and paid for by a small religious sect. 
It was a matter of organisation as well. In our region push-polling was organised out of an Exclusive Brethren school. When people insisted that they were going to vote Labour—when they repeatedly said: “No I’m voting Labour.”—often a teenaged voice on the other end of the phone said: “Of course you know they’re going to legalise incest don’t you?” and remarks of the sort. That was the kind of dirty politics that National tried to pretend it knew nothing about at all. They were “deep-donkey-do” in with that kind of approach to the election campaign and Dr Brash himself had to admit that he knew about those pamphlets and that he knew about the campaign that was going to be waged. Is it not funny that the day the pamphlets came out and everything hit the fan activity started to cease in a building near the electorate office of Mr Brownlee—who knew nothing? That building had been the site for a lot of activity by the National Party. 
So we had a campaign based around issues of homophobia based around greed and based around a word that we are not allowed to use in this House but that is about denigrating people of different ethnic origins within this country and saying that they are not part of the mainstream. When Dr Brash was finally challenged to say what the mainstream was he said: “Er it is those people who support the National Party.” So nearly 60 percent of the population immediately were not mainstream New Zealanders. Only those who supported the National Party—which presumably in the 2002 election was 21 percent of the population—were mainstream New Zealanders. So over 60 percent of New Zealanders were not mainstream but a few thousand members of the exclusive sect were mainstream. How can the National Party look itself in the face over those kinds of claims? How can it build linkages to other groups in society? And that has gone on since the election. 
Goodness me just yesterday afternoon National yet again decided to alienate every minor party in Parliament by refusing leave for people to sit on select committees as members without the right to vote. What was the purpose of that exercise except pique on Gerry Brownlee’s part because he hated the fact that one has to allow minor parties to speak on first second and third reading debates? Mr Brownlee should get used to it. It is called MMP and I am afraid the two big elephants do not get to fight by themselves any longer; we have to make some room for other people to come in and participate within the process. That was another extraordinary indication of what the National Party is about these days. 
What happened after the election is that everything that was said before the election went by the board. National said: “Maori seats? You can have those again now. We’ll repeal the Foreshore and Seabed Act to let you have private title to the foreshore and seabed—no price is too high to pay.” But of course what National has done since is to say: “How terrible of Mr Peters to do a deal.” Well National should explain to me why about 2 months before the election Mr Key at a meeting in Wellington was boasting that National had already done a deal with Mr Winston Peters for him to become the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr Key was boasting about that at a function weeks before the election. I wonder how National members can explain that. Can they tell us the following: if National had had the chance to form the Government would it have offered Mr Peters the job of Minister of Foreign Affairs? 
Hon Members 
: No! 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: Really? But then this is the party that would never do anything except get rid of the Maori seats—until it thought there were four votes in the Maori Party that might help them get into Government. The National Party is as firm as a bit of jelly sitting on the Equator when it comes to political principles and getting into office. That is the reality. 
Finally since then we have had the farce of the National Party spokespeople appointments. You see they had so many candidates for foreign affairs such as Mr Hayes—who now wishes to rid himself of foreign entanglements so I understand particularly Japanese ones—and Mr Groser who has some claim to knowledge in these matters. And there was Locky Smith. With all those people who could they compromise on? “Murray McCully—he knows nothing about foreign affairs. Let’s make him the spokesperson.” I have a lesson for Mr McCully: his first job is not to do the numbers on overthrowing foreign leaders. That is not the job of the Opposition spokesperson on foreign affairs. 
Then they had to find a job for Mr Mapp and he could not be liaised on with all sorts of different people because he has various problems there. So his job is to stamp out political correctness. I ask what he can denounce so far in all these weeks—what has he stamped out? 
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) 
: 
 I seek leave to make a personal explanation pursuant to Standing Order 350 on a matter arising out of the Deputy Prime Minister’s vitriol. Earlier this year I received a phone call from the Solicitor-General inviting me to apply to take silk—that is to become a QC. Therefore I made an application along the lines of his suggestion. My name went forward along with a number of others to the Attorney-General as part of the appointments process and because I was a National Party person my application was turned down. The Deputy Prime Minister has suggested that I then wrote “an abusive letter to the Solicitor-General”. That is in fact incorrect. What I did was to return the Solicitor-General’s letter to him which was the letter in which he declined my application formally. 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Deputy Prime Minister) 
: 
 I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. There is a very important point here. Matters of personal explanation cannot include assertions that are untrue. I did not decline Mr Finlayson because he is a National Party member; I declined him because he was on a party list just before an election. I determined that nobody on any party list should be appointed because if we had appointed a Labour Party person National Party members would have been the first to object and call it cronyism. [ 
Interruption 
] 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Please be seated. I would just remind all members again that a point of order was being heard. I cannot deal with points of order unless I can hear them and all the members on the Opposition benches were making a lot of noise. 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: A personal explanation must contain only matters of fact. Mr Finlayson asserted something about my motives—that my decision was to do with his being a member of the National Party. It was not that; it was the fact that he was on a party list. The fact that it was the National Party list was irrelevant. The same criterion would have applied to somebody who was on the Labour Party list. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: The matter cannot be dealt with by a point of order. If the member thinks that there is a matter that needs to be dealt with it can be dealt with by the Speaker as a matter of privilege. 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Otago) 
: 
 I am encouraged that the last speaker will not prove to be a hard act to follow. Bring on the new I say! I want to thank Dr Cullen for giving New Zealand a very good reason to vote National next time. 
Around 18 months ago I was offered a challenge by the National Party: win Otago back for National—and I did. It was not easy. I acknowledge list MP David Parker for a tough but good-natured contest. Actually as I think about it the challenge to me was more like “win Otago or else” and I would like to thank the former whip Simon Power for that. It was very motivating. 
Madam Assistant Speaker I offer my congratulations to you on your appointment and also to Margaret Wilson on her re-election to the role of Speaker and I also offer my warm congratulations to the Deputy Speaker Clem Simich who has been a friend and who brings dignity to his role. I look forward to working with you all. 
Greetings to my many friends in Otago who are listening to this speech on the radio. I am sorry that they cannot be here but I know that they are tuned in. My thanks go to the wonderful National Party volunteers in our campaign team who have become my friends especially Derek Austin. Thanks also go to my family—to Bill to Mick to Steffy and to Aiden and to Ra and Jude. Thanks also go to Big Ted Little Ted Manu Jemima and Humpty. Like my opponent Mr Parker who brought in veteran movie star Sam Neill to help with his campaign I too had my celebrity mates. But there was one big difference: my mates know when to keep their mouths shut. 
Let me tell members a little about where I come from and what makes me the very proud National Party member that I am. I am the eldest of five girls with only one older brother who tried to push me around. We six kids are very close together in age with my next sister being 10½ months younger than me—go figure!—which has always led me to believe that mum and dad kind of liked each other. We grew up in a three-bedroomed bungalow with three kids bunking together in each of the two kids’ bedrooms. Mum who had been a nurse seemed to be endlessly pegging nappies on the line and I always had a small sister on one hip. Our brother would chase us around the fruit trees on the back lawn with a dead pukeko head on a stick or we would make the most wonderful stink bombs out in the chook shed. I tell members it was a great childhood. 
We did not see much of our dad though because he spent many hours working. Dad was a general practitioner. When he was not in his surgery he was visiting his patients in hospital delivering babies doing house calls being on call and being called out every day including the weekends. I did not find out until much later but what I thought were fun family outings in the car were actually dad visiting patients in hospital or in their homes. We would play in the car while mum had a rest at home. 
Dad was a doctor but he was certainly no businessman. His heart was much too soft. He carried a huge debtor’s ledger and would continue treating whole families long after expecting any payment from them. That was the way it was in those days. He did not clock on he did not clock off and he had a real calling to help others. My dad worked very hard all his life. I tell members this because I have heard the term “worker” bandied about in this House as if it were the province of a particular political party. Well I can tell members that I too come from a family of workers. 
I had already decided at about the age of 3 that I would be an actor. So when I left school I embarked on a brilliant career on the stage. It was so brilliant that my acting work alternated with stints of waitressing motel cleaning bar work and even a brief stint at the Inland Revenue Department. That was fun. I met my husband Bill when working in a bar. He was the barman in the bikie bar at the Commercial Hotel and I was the barmaid in the lounge bar. When the odd foolish lounge bar patron got a little too fresh with me members of the Mongrel Mob would spill forth from the public bar and sort him out. It worked a treat. How could one not love a guy with mates like that? 
So armed with a variety of work experiences and an impressive skills set I auditioned for and landed a role on television’s  
Play School 
. It was a great job. It had regular pay and—even better—regular work. Around that time I also began a long association as an actor with Dunedin’s Fortune Theatre with amongst other roles major roles in four of Roger Hall’s New Zealand premieres. 
I retired after starring in Roger Hall’s solo show  
The Book Club 
 
because 2 hours alone on stage nearly killed me and I also figured that it was not going to get much better than that. It was while working at the Fortune Theatre that I joined the actors union New Zealand Actors Equity. Twenty-five years later I still carry my rather tatty Equity card around in my wallet because I am incredibly proud of having been a professional in a difficult career that I absolutely loved. I will never forget rehearsing in an old hall day after day as a professional where it was so cold that we had to wear hats and gloves all day long. Management would not heat the hall because of the cost the water out of the tap was absolutely undrinkable and although we were professionals we often had to provide our own costumes. Twenty-five years ago actors’ pay and conditions were pitiful and we worked hard to change working conditions and rates of pay. 
To fast forward a bit when my son was 6 weeks old I went back to full-time work from maternity leave and went on to part-time work only a couple of years later when my daughter was born. I have worked part-time and full-time ever since—some of it paid much of it voluntary. 
Around 7 years ago I was at a function in Oamaru. Watching the mayor in action I thought: “I could do that.” Well I never made it to mayor but I served as Deputy Mayor for the Waitaki District. I have a very high regard for the functions of local government. Any decisions we made had a direct and tangible effect on people’s pockets and we were very accountable to them. I can tell members that fronting up to a country hall full of angry ratepayers and explaining one’s actions is character building. I remember once during the Project Aqua debate leaving an “energetic” meeting in Kurow after having got an absolute filleting at the hands of the locals. The mayor and I went out and got in his car. We looked at each other and said: “Oh well we’re still in one piece.” and members can believe we meant it. 
Local government in New Zealand however is burdened with excessive requirements to consult and to write reports for reports’ sake. Local government is now in the farcical position of having its 10-year plans audited. It is being audited for things that it may want to do in the future and at huge expense. To me that is carrying Government control way too far. Then one day the local MP strayed into my sights and I thought: “I could do that.” 
Otago—Otago is Queenstown lakes North Otago and Central Otago—is without doubt the most beautiful part of New Zealand. A number of my new colleagues have already outlined the concerns and the vision that we all share for rural and provincial New Zealand and like them I too will be a warrior for my electorate. 
The most concerning thing I heard in my campaign to win Otago was from the young guy who rang me to talk about his business. He and his wife run a rural agricultural contracting business based around Wanaka. The demand from farmers is there to expand the operation but because of the Employment Relations Act the Holidays Act OSH regulations accident compensation levies the price of diesel and I do not know what else I have missed out they have decided that it is just too hard to take on any more workers so it would remain operated just by him and his wife and he regretted that. Imagine the benefits to a small community from every extra person or two people should they be taken on by this small business. With each person might come a wife a partner a kid two kids three kids—so the school has more pupils the supermarket has more customers and the garage sells more petrol. This seems like such a small thing but it matters so much in rural Otago. For me it sums up why I will work for the people of Otago. We must provide the framework for ordinary New Zealanders to take a punt on hiring an extra person giving the owner the confidence to grow the business. 
But in my view water—how we look after it how we use it and how we manage its use—is the single most important issue facing Otago and indeed New Zealand. We are only now beginning to realise that water is such a precious resource and we in Otago need it to drink to water our stock and to irrigate our crops. We need it to play in and we need it for hydro generation. 
Recently Bill and I went to Palmerston North to visit our son. We then drove through the Hawke’s Bay to see a game of rugby. It seemed like a good idea at the time—until we lost! On the way to Napier we drove through the Te Apiti wind farm. Frankly I would rather look at a lake. I would rather look at a hydro lake than the hills in the Manawatu which now look like a scene from  
War of the Worlds 
 with these great white sails rotating through the sky and completely dominating the landscape. 
New hydroelectricity initiatives on the Waitaki are without doubt necessary to provide for the present and future demands on electricity supply in New Zealand. We must supply industry with electricity and we must support productivity. Or is the current Government content as it appears to see our country continue to fall evermore behind the living standards of those enjoyed by our neighbours? 
I am concerned that the previous member for Otago now Minister of Energy appears opposed to further hydroelectricity generation on the Waitaki. New hydro development on the Waitaki has the potential carried out in a measured and sensible way not only to make a major contribution to future energy needs but also by negotiation and agreement with Meridian Energy to provide ongoing benefit to the local community and most important to enhance and improve the riverbed which is currently populated by gorse broom and vermin. I would like to know I believe that the country needs to know where the Minister of Energy stands on this. 
And to Pita Sharples greetings. I thank him for his passionate challenge to Parliament to work with his party in an open and constructive way. I accept that challenge. I offer him a challenge. I invite him to look at a part of New Zealand that is very different from his own. I invite him and his party to see what life is like for us in the deep south where our population is mostly Pakeha and where our Chinese goldmining pioneers are also a significant part of our southern heritage. I look forward to working with Pita Sharples and to looking at issues that affect all New Zealand not just some. I am here for Otago and all New Zealand. Can they meet that challenge? 
Madam Speaker throughout this Address in Reply debate I have sat here and heard members of the Government crowing over their success at the polls. As one Labour MP commented: “You lost and we won.” Well fair enough but I have a message for that MP and for the Government: “My heartfelt congratulations on winning Winston and look out we’re coming.” 
Hon MARK BURTON (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 I am pleased to join this debate. I say to the member who has just completed her maiden speech that it is great to hear her express the passion and the belief she has in the region she represents just as many other members have done in respect of their regions both in this debate and in their maiden speeches in the past. Of course although the member’s enthusiasm overshadowed the truth that I represent the most beautiful part of New Zealand I will concede that some of the finest pinot noir in New Zealand comes from within the boundaries of her electorate. I say to her: “Well done!” for an enthusiastic speech. 
I want to congratulate the many members who as part of this Address in Reply debate have in the last little while made their maiden speeches in this House. For all of us a maiden speech is a profoundly important speech. It is a time to set down the things we believe in the things we will be judged by—and believe me we are judged by them. Others refer to them from time to time to remind us of the fine ideals that brought us here. It is not a bad thing for each of us quite regularly to go back—as I do myself—to remind ourselves of some of the things that brought us to this House. 
I congratulate you Madam Assistant Speaker on your re-election to the position of a presiding officer. It is an important and a challenging role and I think you fulfil it with great dignity. Similarly I congratulate your co-associate Ross Robertson. I also congratulate Clem Simich on his election to the office of Deputy Speaker and the Hon Margaret Wilson on her re-election to the office of Speaker. I want to put on record my enormous confidence in all four of our presiding officers. I think that no other Parliament can be better served than this one in terms of the quality and integrity of its presiding officers and I thank them for their willingness to serve us. Our appreciation is not always as obvious as perhaps it is in our expressions during this particular debate. 
As I said I think that for all members our maiden speeches are a time for making our purpose in being here clear—to ourselves our constituents and our families. It is a time to acknowledge those who have supported us in coming here and a time perhaps to set down some challenges for the way ahead. The Address in Reply debate is of course also a debate in which we look to the leaders of parties to make their mark for the parliamentary term—to set down their platform if you will—and it should be a launching pad from which the members of each party can rally to their leader’s flag and be inspired for the term ahead. For the Labour Party that was certainly the case with a fine rousing speech from a Prime Minister who is returning for a historic third successive term and leading a strong a motivated and an active Government with much more to do. Before that it was Dr Don Brash’s turn. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: What happened to this member’s majority? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: I tell Dr Smith that I am still here and I am still the member for Taupo. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: We’ll get you next time. 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: I tell Dr Smith that as a practitioner for many years of the martial art of aikido my sensei—my teacher—frequently reminded all of her students: “Close doesn’t count.” I am still here and I am still enormously privileged to be the servant of the people of the Taupo electorate. I say to Dr Smith that I will continue to serve them for as long as they give me that great honour. This is my fifth term. 
Hon Nanaia Mahuta 
: How many? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: I have been returned for a fifth term as the representative of the people of that good electorate. For however long they choose to do that I will serve them with great honour and I regard it as a privilege. 
I want to return briefly to that utterly forgettable speech made by Dr Brash. I watched the eyes rolling. Of course many of the new members over there on the National benches had made inspiring speeches that were worth remembering. Then their leader got up and they were embarrassed. Their eyes rolled back in their heads. But not everybody was dismayed; a couple of back-benchers were not. That is the only point of difference I actually have with my leader on that speech. She mentioned that John Key looked very pleased. Well his benchmate on that day who is in the House at this time looked equally pleased with Dr Brash’s performance because those members are doing the numbers. 
Dr Nick Smith is in the business of making predictions today about how long the term will be and about how long I will be a member of Parliament. Well I have been written off by Dr Smith on more than one occasion. I will make him and this House a prediction: long before the 2 years that Dr Smith is talking about in relation to anyone’s term as an MP is up the term of the current tired and worn-out short-term leader of the National Party will be a matter of a small byline in the political history of New Zealand and the real fight that is already under way will have taken the National Party into meltdown. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: You can do better than this. 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: I say to Dr Smith that I have seen leadership change. I understand the dynamics of a party. 
I have to say that I like the senior Opposition whip. I like the senior Government whip too. Both members are very fine whips. I have a great respect for whips in this Parliament. I served as a senior whip for 3 years—and I see Eric Roy sitting back there; he has served in that capacity. Nobody who has served as a whip can have anything other than respect for those who carry out that role. I say to Lindsay Tisch that I think he has drawn the short straw because frankly having as many new members of a caucus as National has is by any measure a challenge on a good day. It is herding kittens on a good day. Let us be honest. When three or four contenders are lining up with their little clusters of supporters behind them and all of them are working day and night on the affections of the new MPs then I have every sympathy for the senior Opposition whip. We should all cut him a bit of slack. He will need a lot of moral support from members of the House. I know he can rely on all the former whips because we understand what the member is going through. 
But it is time to move on from Dr Brash’s speech because it was a particularly poor speech. It reflected the utterly depressing lack of any policy and any substance on the part of that once-great National Party. I was appalled during the election campaign in my previous role as the Minister of Defence—and I left that portfolio with great sadness and regret—to be going through that campaign with I think my fourth National Party opposite number as spokesperson on defence. There have been four of them in 6 years. After we went into the campaign we sat around the table with the defence spokespeople of the major parties for an intense interview with a very intelligent political editor from Radio New Zealand. I have to say that one or two of the other parties—and Ron Mark was there—had some policy. Ron Mark and I do not agree on everything in the area of defence but he had some policy. The New Zealand First Party had some policy and we debated it. When John Carter had his turn to contribute I felt sorry for him. I would have thought that all those preceding members of the National Party who had been its spokesperson on defence would leave him something to say. 
What was the policy of the National Party after 6 years in Opposition? What was it going to do if it became the Government on 17 September in that critical area of defence—the area it tells us is so important? Do members know what National was going to do? It was going to have a review. It was going to have a hui about defence. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: What’s Labour’s policy? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: What this Government has done in 6 years I say to Dr Smith is to put in place a historic 10-year funding track. This is the first time in the history of the New Zealand Defence Force that it has had a long-term development plan. It has a long-term development plan across three united services. It has a 10-year funding plan so that defence managers can predict and plan with confidence the future of the New Zealand Defence Force. 
What was National’s answer to all that? What was National’s answer to the re-equipment of all three services? What was National’s answer to that multibillion dollar reinvestment in ships in— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Tell us about the man who destroyed it all. 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: I will tell Dr Smith about the man who as the Minister of Defence signed the contracts on multiple acquisitions. National was going to have a hui! 
HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 As the member who has just resumed his seat said at the beginning of his speech—the only part of it that I agreed with—it has indeed been a treat to hear many of the maiden speeches of the new members over the past 2 parliamentary weeks. Many have been very impressive. I have to agree with Mr Burton about the passion he spoke of and the enthusiasm is quite infectious. 
Well the Speech from the Throne—there it is and I have to say that if that is the plan for the next 3 years it is completely devoid of vision for New Zealand. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: We’re in trouble. 
HEATHER ROY 
: We are in trouble all right. The Speech from the Throne is full of what are perceived successes but it is actually full of biased accounts of what 6 years of Labour Government have brought to this country. In terms of self-reliance and less government involvement in the lives of Kiwis this Labour Government has been an overwhelming failure. A further 3 years of that assisted now by New Zealand First and United Future will move New Zealand backwards. A good example is State dependency. It will increase with more people being dependent for some of their income on the State. The example that springs to mind quickly is the expansion of the Working for Families package but it should be remembered by this Labour minority Government that 60 percent of New Zealanders voted for parties advocating tax cuts. 
So let us look at the Speech from the Throne and members are right—it is probably not worth looking at but there are some things we should look at and debate critically. One of the statements on the first page is: “Ours is now a country more confident of its economic future …”. Well it would seem that since that speech was written and certainly since it was delivered there has been quite a lot disagreement about that not only here in Parliament but outside the parliamentary walls. Today there has been heavy reporting of the Reserve Bank report that shows we have the biggest drop in business confidence since the 1987 crash. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Really? 
HEATHER ROY 
: Absolutely! Last week of course we had Treasury’s report challenging the Government’s policy. Dr Cullen did not like either of those reports—not surprisingly—but in fact both Treasury and the Reserve Bank have made very pertinent and relevant remarks that we should pay heed to. Those are things also I should point out that members on this side of the House and in particular ACT members advocated at election time. 
A bit further on in the Speech from the Throne is the statement: “… significant fiscal loosening—either by way of large expenditure increases above those already signalled or by way of significant tax cuts—cannot be considered.” Well during the election campaign Dr Cullen said that tax cuts would be inflationary and he went on about that at quite some length. But he told only half the story. In fact tax cuts on their own can be inflationary but what he omitted to say and what is every bit as relevant is that increased Government spending is also inflationary—and what have we had in the past 6 years and what will we be getting in the next 3 years? We will be getting increased Government spending that will cause inflation. 
The Government should remember that 60 percent of New Zealanders—and New Zealanders are not stupid people—voted for parties advocating tax relief. But what is this minority Labour Government doing? It is ignoring that message completely. We should not forget that as well as the Reserve Bank report and Treasury’s report of last week there is the McLeod Tax Review of 2001 which also advocated significant tax relief for New Zealanders. But Dr Cullen does not take advice well. He knows best—in his own mind. He reportedly threw the McLeod review across the room when he received it saying: “I’ve just paid a million dollars for ACT’s tax policy.” Well New Zealand would be in better shape today if he had heeded that advice in 2001. 
There is a further quote from the Speech from the Throne: “Over the last six years my government has transformed our system of social assistance so that it is focused on assisting people to find sustainable employment.” How can we take that statement seriously? 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Ha! They should stop telling porkies. 
HEATHER ROY 
: It is a joke—Mr Williamson is quite correct. We have heard a lot of talk about unemployment figures dropping and that is undeniable but let us look at the other part of the story. That is the problem with Labour—it only ever tells half the story. The number of people on the sickness benefit has increased by 35 percent since 2000 and the number on the invalids benefit has increased by 41 percent since 2000. So the unemployment rate might have dropped but suddenly we have become an extraordinarily sick nation—that and a nation that loves learning because everybody else has gone off to the local tertiary institutes and is learning. That is of benefit of course to the Government because those people do not feature in the unemployment statistics. 
My last quote from the Speech from the Throne—because we have probably had enough—is: “My government’s priorities in health are to focus on primary health care through the continued roll out of accessible and affordable primary services;”. The fact that most people are still paying the same or more for their primary health care seems to have escaped notice. I go on: “… the implementation of preventative health care services; and increasing elective surgery numbers through initiatives such as the orthopaedics and cataracts projects.” Well let me tell members that the number of people on waiting lists now—180000—is the same number as when Labour came to power. The Government thinks it is addressing the problem of elective surgery by picking favourites—by picking orthopaedics and cataracts—and by ignoring everybody else on waiting lists. The area of health is a disaster just waiting to happen. 
Two words that new MPs can look forward to hearing a lot of from this Government particularly from Labour Ministers are “transparency” and “accountability”. This Government thinks it is transparent and accountable. The Minister who thinks like that most of all is the previous Minister of Health Annette King. She thought that by hiding the number of deaths of people on waiting lists by hiding the real numbers of people on waiting lists she was being transparent and accountable. Well she was wrong but we have another 3 years of apparent transparency and accountability to look forward to. 
Accountability is one thing we did not hear about in the Speech from the Throne because the Prime Minister knows that it is not the case at all. As an illustration of that point I would like to briefly mention golden handshakes. In 1999 Helen Clark had this to say—members should remember that National was in Government at time. The woman who was about to become Prime Minister said: “I’ve had a gutsful. I don’t intend if I’m Prime Minister to have to sit there and suffer one humiliation after another because of a culture of extravagance which has been allowed to grow in the public sector. Whatever’s in there and hidden we want out.” Yet a very quick search of media reports revealed the following golden handshakes between 2000 and 2005. There were actually 17 of them but two of the biggest and most recent of course are the Television New Zealand golden handshake—Ian Fraser’s $420000—and the Families Commission golden handshake of $50000. One big difference between the previous Government and this Government is that at least the previous Government’s golden handshakes were for people who had been fired. This Labour Government has made a real thing about giving people golden handshakes for quitting. It is setting quite a new precedent. 
I thought it was not unreasonable to investigate golden handshakes better so I asked a parliamentary question of departments a couple of weeks ago about golden handshakes or other payments including termination payments for former employees. Somebody probably somebody on the ninth floor I expect got hold of all the questions and said: “You must answer them in a very particular way. You must say ‘I refer the member to the answer to one particular question.’ ” Regarding the question to the State Services Commission the answer says: “The scope of the question which potentially includes a wide range of payments such as redundancy and superannuation payments is too broad to answer meaningfully.” But the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) answered the question in the right way and then sent through to me the chart of the work it had done. ACC did not find it too hard. Members might be interested to know that in 2002-03 ACC paid out $919000 in settlements. Those settlements decreased in the next 2 years but interestingly somebody at ACC forgot to delete the table from the answer to the question. Just imagine what we might have known. I took the Prime Minister at her word: “Whatever’s in there … we want out.” she said. I took her at her word but no she does not really want it out at all. 
That brings me to a common theme in the maiden speeches of many of the new MPs—that is that less government involvement in the lives of New Zealanders is a very good thing. I was very pleased to hear that from this side of the House particularly. It made me remember a quote I had read a while back from Lord Salisbury who said that anything a Government does is likely to go awry so it is best to do as little as possible. That is the message I would like to leave with the Government today. I am looking forward to the lighter sitting hours this Government has presented us with because it is lazy but also because it will have much less scope to go awry and perhaps that will lead to moving New Zealand forward. 
JO GOODHEW (National—Aoraki) 
: 
 Madam Assistant Speaker I congratulate you on your election to your role. I also congratulate Margaret Wilson on her re-election to the role of Speaker my colleague Clem Simich on his election as Deputy Speaker and Assistant Speaker Ross Robertson. I would also like to acknowledge the Hon Rob Talbot former member for South Canterbury and Ashburton who is in the House today. I am honoured. 
I add my congratulations to Dr Brash the leader of the National Party and Judy Kirk our party president. As a member of the National Party caucus I salute your leadership because the National Party caucus is stunningly different from that of the last Parliament. The last caucus worked tirelessly to give me a platform of policies to sell to the people of Aoraki and that caucus was just over half the size of today’s so I thank you. The feeling within the caucus today is thanks to those people one of energy numbers impatience and eagerness. I feel that sense of purpose and I know that we will not let this Labour - New Zealand First Government forget the squandered opportunities of the last 6 years. I will take every opportunity to show that these same policies continued into the future will increase dependency on the State destroy economic stability and send a raft of confusing messages to the electorate. 
My speech has three parts: I will introduce myself; I will introduce my electorate; I will share my hopes for a better New Zealand. So who is Jo Goodhew and why has she come to Parliament? I am a wife a mother a daughter and a sister. I am a registered nurse a former teacher a crime prevention worker and a volunteer in many organisations. I am the daughter of farmers. I was born Joanne McCully the eldest of three children born to Bruce and Winnie. I am proud that they are here with me today as they have so often been supporting me through the momentous occasions of my life. My husband Mark and our daughters Emily Harriet and Abigail are also here today. I have said it before and I will repeat it today. I owe them a debt of gratitude and love for the many ways in which they have supported my journey into politics and shared me with the people of Aoraki. My family know the passion I have for this challenge. 
My ancestors were known as De Caillot Huguenots who fled France to Scotland. Caillot became Cully and the “Mc” prefix was added. Two of a number of brothers migrated to Ireland. In 1872 Samuel and Mary McCully sailed to Canterbury aboard the  
Crusader 
. They settled in South Canterbury where their son Henry worked for a settler who could not afford to pay him. Instead the settler gave Henry some land which he subsequently named Clandeboye after his home in Ireland. Today Clandeboye is marked by two clusters of buildings. The first is the recently closed primary school where I was educated. The other is New Zealand’s second-largest Fonterra manufacturing site. There we have rural provincial growth alongside rural provincial pain. 
Throughout the campaign and now into my career as a member of Parliament Theodore Roosevelt’s words ring in my ears: “It is not the critic that counts not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred with sweat dust and blood.” My electorate is Aoraki. To some Mount Cook to many Aoraki the magnificence of the mountain draws many visitors to Aoraki - Mount Cook National Park. The park is also part of Te Wahipounamu - South West New Zealand World Heritage Area in recognition of its outstanding natural values. For me the spellbinding natural beauty peace and tranquillity of the Mackenzie Country explain why my family and I have spent many holidays there. Every year New Zealanders and tourists flock to this special place to recharge their batteries. 
I am here as a result of the people of Aoraki voting overwhelmingly for change. That we did not get a National administration is unfortunate so my continuing role is to strive towards returning a strong National Government to meet the needs of this rural province. I thank the former member for Aoraki the Hon Jim Sutton for a cleanly fought battle and for his stewardship since 1993. This is just the fourth maiden speech to be given in the New Zealand Parliament by a new member representing a seat that encompasses Timaru in 77 years. This is why I have taken the time to introduce my electorate. In my quest to represent Aoraki a strong team backed me. I salute today the campaign chair John Rushton for his guidance and calm and the electorate chair Allan Booth for toughing it out with National through some difficult years. I also salute the host of people both inside the campaign team and outside it who guided and assisted my progress to this day. 
In Aoraki there are five territorial local authorities: Timaru Mackenzie and Waimate districts; a small part of the Waitaki district; and the Canterbury Regional Council. The people of the region have a lot of government going on. It takes me 3½ hours to drive from the northernmost point to the southernmost point as long as I do not break any speed limits. The mighty Rangitata River and Waitaki River are natural boundaries and controversy over the use of the lifeblood of those rivers has dogged our recent history. Our biggest territorial local authority Timaru District Council has for the most part no access to the waters of either river at any part of their journey to the sea. That fact will be a decided barrier to further development in parts of the region. 
Aoraki relies heavily on an economic base of agriculture and agricultural processing as we know does the rest of New Zealand. The average income of the people of Aoraki is just under $29000 somewhat below the New Zealand average. The people of the electorate are mainly of European descent with all other ethnicities represented in lower numbers than the New Zealand average. Over-65-year-olds make up more than 17 percent of the constituents. Unemployment is low. There are approximately 500 unemployed but nearly 3000 people on other benefits in the Timaru Work and Income area. I believe that these people represent significant numbers and should not be forgotten. Despite that low unemployment I still have people coming into my office and asking me to help them get a job. 
The people of Aoraki are great examples of strong communities. There are towns such as Omarama Otematata Kurow and Twizel that are reinventing themselves as holidaying destinations after the doomsayers predicted that they would gradually die after the Waitaki hydro schemes were completed. There are rural service centres such as Fairlie Waimate Temuka Geraldine and Pleasant Point that are challenged by the centralisation of primary production service centres by the closure of schools and by the lowering of rural workforce numbers. So too these small towns reel from business closures brought about by the need for business to be lean and mean pay high taxes and exist in a high compliance cost environment. 
Now my hopes for a better New Zealand: I want New Zealand to be a place where families are strong and communities are caring; a country whose people are encouraged to work hard and smarter by the reward this should bring; and a country where there is an expectation that if people can do something to help themselves they will. I want our country to be a place where our taxes are spent on delivering health and education not on paying more bureaucrats to shuffle more forms. Our children deserve to be represented by politicians who are not here solely for the technology of power and manipulation which was Vaclav Havel’s description of undesirable politics. These children deserve to be represented by New Zealanders who have had to juggle work and family who scorn political correctness who value self-reliance and who believe that working hard should bring personal benefits not increased taxation. 
My background has taught me that when someone comes to another for help the cruellest thing one can do is simply hand over the help for in doing so we set them up to rely on other people. When I was door-knocking thousands of doors before the election I met many beneficiaries and many of them thought I would try to make their lives difficult if elected. But I convinced them otherwise. On hearing that under National an employer could take a risk and employ a long-term beneficiary for 90 days without fear of personal grievance their eyes lit up. They said to me: “You know that means I can show what I am able to do.” For them this represented hope. I defy anyone to find a beneficiary who is also a parent who wants his or her children to share that same fate. Of course they do not. We need to raise expectations in this country for those who experience hopelessness. We need to raise our expectations that those who are able to do some work will work. 
I also want to say something about the volunteers of Aoraki. They have a strong sense of community and a willingness to help out their neighbours and the rest of New Zealand. I am not suggesting that the people of Aoraki are unusual in that respect but I do believe that that sense of community is stronger in rural provincial New Zealand than in urbanised areas. Why? Because it is either do or die. This community spirit is worth millions to the economy of New Zealand. In its simplest form it is the people who deliver Meals on Wheels to the elderly and help them stay in their homes. In a more complex example it is the many hundreds who banded together in the Relay For Life to raise $147000 over a weekend for cancer care and research. This community will continue to rise to the occasion as long as we parliamentarians allow it. Why would we stop New Zealanders giving away the scant dollars they have left after taxation? Put quite simply bossy interfering patronising Governments threaten the goodwill of those strong communities and have forgotten that “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. Or maybe these same interfering lawmakers have not forgotten they simply want to fix everyone because a small percentage needed fixing. 
The lawmakers are running the risk that they just as surely as high fuel prices threaten the goodwill of New Zealand’s volunteers. I will make it my crusade to ask these questions: “Will this new law change more good practices than bad or poor practices? Will it make the boat go faster?” Will the volunteers who are told that their organisation will be more professional if they comply with this or that rule or regulation say to the Government that relies on their goodwill: “Take a hike!”. This is not the volunteers’ profession; it is their voluntary passion. Examples include volunteer drivers charity collectors and organisers of public events. Some of the volunteers will say to me: “It’s OK if we jump through the hoops we can access the money.” I say to the volunteers that petty rules and bureaucracy hold them to ransom and that their time is immensely valuable and should not be undermined. 
In conclusion I say that I stood on the doorsteps and I promised to work hard for the people of Aoraki. They have like many other rural provincial electorates sent a clear message to the Government that all is not well. Twenty-three new National Party MPs are the faces of that message. The people have asked me to represent their views on many issues that are about access: access to education and health-care options; access to water; restricting access to private property; access to improved funding for aged-care services; access to timely determinations under the Resource Management Act; access to a fair deal under tenure review; access to a business-friendly approach to legislation; and access to improvements in roading and energy infrastructure. 
The people of Aoraki want access to their MP and I will represent their views. We as parliamentarians must enable and empower those who are not self-reliant. We must always have a welfare system that is there for those who need it but a temporary measure for most not a trapdoor to poverty. We must cherish and support our volunteers who enrich our communities not bog them down with paper wars and petty rules. I finish with Vaclav Havel’s description of desirable politics: “that is politics not as the technology of power and manipulation … or as the art of the useful … but politics as practical morality as service to the truth as essentially human and humanly measured care for our fellow humans.” 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister of Corrections) 
: 
 It is always an honour to rise at the start of a parliamentary session and make a speech. It is always an honour to be here. I would like firstly to acknowledge you Mr Assistant Speaker and fellow Speakers and congratulate you on your re-election. I would like to acknowledge all the new members in the House. Every one of us comes here to start our career and has great ambitions and great hopes and for the most part makes a very positive contribution to Parliament. I would also like to acknowledge Rod Donald’s death. I suppose it was a very sad reminder for each and every one of us of the effect that Parliament has on one’s family life. I think that we were reminded through the different ceremonies that occurred up and down this country that the effect on Rod Donald’s family was the most significant given the fact that he had been away from them for so long during his parliamentary career. 
It is an honour indeed to be re-elected as the West Coast - Tasman MP. It is an area of proud history. It is a very special area—perhaps the most spectacular in the country—and one that borders on eight national parks. I do not think there would be a constituency in the world that could lay claim to that. I would also like to note that at the very furthest most north-eastern tip of my electorate is a farm owned by our family and it is where my ancestors came to in 1846. While my electorate is very big and the boundaries change it is quite an honour to have that back under I suppose my representation. The electorate goes all the way to Jackson Bay right at the bottom of the West Coast and again it is an area founded by pioneers—tough people—and by Maori. An unfortunate debate is going on at the moment over the ownership and control of pounamu and I just hope that that is resolved fairly and amicably between Ngai Tahu who are now the rightful owners and those people who helped to discover and utilise that wonderful stone. 
What makes me the most proud though is to be re-elected as part of a Labour Government. As a Labour Party we have done much for this country over the years. Even in the last 6 years we have done much to transform this country from one that after 9 years of a selfish National Government was inward-looking. We have turned the economy around to one that is positive and vibrant and is looking ahead. It is indeed an honour to be part of that. 
The most significant thing of course that we did at the election was to keep from power a party that would have dragged us back into the 1990s and I would like to remind people what that meant. 
Jill Pettis 
: 1890s! 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: Well it might very well have been the 1890s as well because the first thing National did when it came into power was to cut benefits. Some very good speeches have been made by incoming members about looking after people and giving opportunities to everyone. National Party members should realise that their party is about cutting benefits and selling assets—[ 
Interruption 
]—yes it is and it is about changing employment law to make it difficult if not impossible for many employees to get a fair deal. Well I am proud to be part of a party that has formed a Government in partnership with other sensible parties and has kept from power that bunch of Tories who would have sold assets and cut taxes particularly for those who are wealthy and who would have once again carried on in their ideological way. 
The thing that saddened me about the campaign is that Don Brash John Key and Gerry Brownlee were trying to turn Kiwi into “Ki-me”. They do not realise that Kiwi— 
Dr Don Brash 
: How long did it take you to come up with that? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: Listen Don. You might learn something! 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member must use the full name of the member or his or her title. 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I say to Dr Don Brash that Kiwi is about us collectively. “Ki-me” what you were promoting— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: No the member is now bringing me into debate. 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: What Don Brash and his party were promoting was the selfish self-interested politics of racial division of selling assets to mates of coming down on those workers who need decent wages and conditions and of cutting back on beneficiaries. Well Mr Brash might now give us an assurance. Was the National Party going to sell State assets to pay for tax cuts? He cannot answer that. Yes it was. Mr Brash should not be confused about that. He was confused during the campaign not only on the issue of State asset sales but also on whether to go to Iraq—whether he would have taken young New Zealanders to fight a war that was not ours. People have to be reminded about this because that was the alternative and that will be the alternative in 3 years’ time because nothing has changed. 
The National Party represents self-interest selling State assets to mates and going to war for a regime that looks after its mates. It is a party that cannot make up its mind on whether it should cut down West Coast forests. The National Party could not make up its mind on that issue during the campaign. It could not work out whether the Brethren were supporting them. It did not know whether a National Government would sell State houses again—previously it sold 13000 State houses. [ 
Interruption 
] David Carter indicates that it would. I thank him for that. Would National have sold Landcorp? 
Hon David Carter 
: We would have sold Landcorp. 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: Yes it would have sold Landcorp. Mr Brash says it was just a few farms. Well I think they should get that sorted out. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I seek leave of the House to table documents showing that as we sit here the Labour Government has Landcorp farms for sale and further documents showing that the Labour Government has sold State houses in recent times and I believe has some for sale now. 
Documents not tabled. 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: It is absolutely essential that this country knows quite clearly what it was voting for because it was unclear during the election. There is no doubt about that. Don Brash could not make up his mind what policies the National Party supported. Every time he was asked he was not quite sure or he did a flip-flop on policy. What this party stands for is not just any old schools as the previous speaker referred to; they have to be schools that deliver quality education regardless of where students live. It is not acceptable just to have a local rural school that is not delivering quality education. That is what this Government is about. No matter where students live they are entitled to quality education. No matter where people live they are entitled to quality public health-care. The National Party was going to deliver to New Zealand a privatised health system that simply would never deliver to people in rural areas because the economies of scale and the return on investment were simply never there. Those were the policies of the 1990s. Those were the policies that the National Party would have returned to. As Mr Carter quite rightly and honestly points out National would have returned to the sale of State assets and the privatisation of health. 
I am proud to be part of a party that has led this country forward through the previous century at different times and will lead this country forward into the next century. We will not privatise roads and we will not privatise the health system. We will ensure there is infrastructure to allow this economy to grow and in the same way that we have seen economic growth in this country in the last 6 years which was never seen before we will guide that forward into the future. I am proud to be here as the West Coast - Tasman Labour MP in a Labour Government. 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (National—Northcote) 
: 
 Mr Speaker as my new parliamentary colleagues have done before me through you I wish to congratulate the new Speaker on her reappointment and I look forward to serving under her direction in this House for the duration of the forty-eighth Parliament. 
It is an honour indeed to be addressing this House as the new member of Parliament for Northcote. I thank the people of Northcote for the faith they have expressed in me and I will do my utmost to serve them faithfully in return. Now as people look north from the Auckland Harbour Bridge over the beautiful Waitemata Harbour they can be confident in the knowledge that the next Labour electorate is on the south coast of England. That is due in no small part to the magnificent team who supported me through a tough campaign which saw us hurdle Labour in Northcote. Northcote is the only seat that we took off the Government in any of the four main centres and that is an achievement that National Party people in Northcote can take great pride in. 
I am thrilled that some of that team have made the trip down here from Northcote today. I tell Gavin Cook that he is definitely the National Party kaumatua of Birkenhead. This is the third time he has been involved in winning this seat off Labour in 30 years and I am certainly hoping that we do not have to call on his services to do that again. To Mike Elliott to Jamie Turner to Stephen Elliot and to Margaret I say that their input was mighty and I am thrilled that they have made the trip here today. To the others listening back up north—Callum Dixon Colin Hartwell Jason Shoebridge Scott Martins Martin Gummer Jeremy Sole Aaron Bethune Alan Croot and the helpers who gave me countless hours of support—I say that I owe them all a debt of gratitude as well. I also acknowledge the president Judy Kirk our leader Don Brash Peter Kiely and Wayne Mapp who have all helped me to get here today. It is great to see John Banks the champion of “truth radio” here in the gallery today. John’s door-knocking feats in his early Birkenhead days really set the benchmark for my own campaign and I thank him for his support. 
I am especially proud that my fiancée Sandra Keaney is in the gallery here today. She certainly lived every part of the road to Parliament and I am very much looking forward to our wedding on 6 January. I acknowledge my mother Patricia who brought up three rowdy teenage boys pretty much on her own—I thank you Mum for all you have done for me over the years; it is great to have you and Jack Rom and John and Kaye here today. I also thank those two other rowdy teenage boys who flew 12000 miles to stand with me on Onewa Road in the last week of the election campaign. 
I pay tribute to my predecessors who have represented the area with distinction: Norman King the Hon Jim McLay who is still a household name in Northcote and Ian Revell. Jim and Ian were both generous in their support and their counsel was much appreciated. More recently Ann Hartley the Assistant Speaker has represented the people of Northcote. Though Ann and I can be relied upon to disagree on just about everything politically there is no doubt that she has the interests of the area at heart. It is certainly one of the ironies of MMP that I now find myself serving with her on the Health Committee. It would have been too much of an irony had she been in the Chair today. 
My own family’s history is deeply entwined with that of the Northcote electorate. My great-great-great-grandfather came to Northcote in 1845 and he started a farm behind what is now the Poenamo Hotel. That farm continued to provide the Northcote town milk supply for over a century. Five generations straight lived in the area and I am proud now to have come back to Northcote to represent the electorate in which so much of my family history took place. There is a street in the electorate named after my grandmother Jessmae. My late father Ron born and raised in Northcote would have taken great pride in this day. I believe it to be a rare occurrence for a member to represent an urban seat where his or her forebears lived for so long and I am privileged. 
But just as the farm paddocks and the strawberry fields along Northcote Road have given way over time to suburban housing so too the demographic make-up of the Northcote electorate has evolved to reflect the changing face of urban New Zealand. The electorate is as diverse in its settings as it is in its peoples. From the beautiful native bush reserves of the Waitemata coastline to the urban heart of the Northcote town centre from the Victorian villas of Northcote Point to State housing further inland from Koreans and Chinese-speaking peoples to Pacific Islanders Maori and Pakeha the Northcote electorate is truly a microcosm of modern urban New Zealand. 
But to build successful communities there has to be something that binds the diverse peoples of our fortunate land other than lines on a map. There is. On the doorsteps of Beachhaven in Glenfield Mall and in the streets of Birkenhead if we stop just long enough to listen to people they will tell us what they have in common with people of every colour of every race and of every history who now claim New Zealand as their turangawaewae. To put it simply like all New Zealanders the people of Northcote aspire. Although each person will express it in a different way they aspire to an education that gives them and their children the best possible chance to compete in the world. They aspire to the outstanding health of body and mind that is the prerequisite for maximising all that life has to offer. They aspire to a level of prosperity that guarantees the enjoyment of the present and the safeguarding of the future. And to deliver on those aspirations our people demand the best schools health systems that are the envy of other nations and an economy that provides the opportunity to build businesses and futures right here in New Zealand. 
I suggest to the House that that ambition is the common thread that has linked all the peoples of New Zealand who have come to Aotearoa over the course of a millennium. From the first waka that landed on these shores to the new immigrants of the 21st century people have come to New Zealand from places as far afield as Hawaiki Europe Asia and Africa because we have all sought a better life than the one we have left behind. If there is a theme that I believe runs through the stories of all the peoples of Aotearoa it is that aspirational inquisitive entrepreneurial competitive instinct that brings every new arrival here. 
In the Speech from the Throne reference was made to a distinctive New Zealand way of responding to the challenges of the 21st century that the Government has developed over the past few years. I suggest that the real New Zealand way is defined by its people not by its Government. I further suggest that the real New Zealand way the mark that is stamped on our history and the New Zealand way that will define our future is a willingness to compete to seek excellence and to demand that potential does not remain unfulfilled. It was the way of Kupe it was the way of Rutherford and it is embodied in the All Black ethos. That New Zealand way that is so easily illustrated in outstanding deeds of exploration academic excellence and sporting prowess translates to the aspiration that I believe all New Zealanders hold for their family their community and their country. 
I have been impressed throughout the course of this series of maiden speeches with the diversity of experience and life-knowledge to be found across this House. But the one thing that is apparent is that what binds National members of Parliament together is the belief that the culture at the very heart of National Party values is the key to New Zealand’s success in the 21st century. It is the National Party way; it is the true New Zealand way. The reason for the long-term success of the National Party is that those very values that our party is founded on are the values that resonate down the generations with every New Zealander as a guide for progress in life both for the individual and the community. National is the party whose every policy can be explained in terms of an underlying philosophy and it is that strength and integrity of values that makes me proud to be a member of the National Party. 
Results must prevail over dogma if New Zealand is to be worthy of a place as a leading Pacific Rim nation. We must analyse what is not currently working then set about finding the most practical and realistic solutions to serve our people’s needs. The Government should serve the people not be their master. 
Whatever one’s claims to the title of “Dr” one wants to be one of those docs who make people well in whatever sense. Universal access to health care is now a fundamental tenet of New Zealand life. Yet as advances in medicine mean there are evermore treatment options available the ability of the State to meet the reasonable expectations of its citizens is lagging further and further behind. We have to avoid ideological blind spots that refuse to contemplate alternative ways of delivering on New Zealanders’ basic right to health care. We have to use all the intelligence innovative capacity and resources at our disposal to deliver on those aspirations for modern New Zealand. We have to be open to the opportunity to deploy alternative funding models in State-provided health-care where we need to. We have to keep the focus on preventing illness and providing service and we will have to summon all the capacity in the public and private systems in order to meet the aspirations of our peoples. 
The country I want to live in is a nation where the peoples of this land lay down the divisions of race of geography of tribe of urban and rural and focus on moving ahead with a broad set of common values that emphasise choice excellence and compassion. We are too small a nation and our interests are too insignificant on the international stage not to seek the things that bring our peoples together. 
I have long believed that economic vision is the key to progress. It is futile to debate the future of health care education policing and social services without a sustainable economic plan that will provide the income to pay for them. We cannot help the most needy in our society without the economic strength to do so. It is aspiration that binds the strands of our history and it is aspiration that melds our futures as New Zealanders together. If we are to allow 21st century New Zealand to deliver on its dreams. We must allow people to strive unhindered. We must reward endeavour. We must give free expression to the New Zealand way. 
Thirteen medical doctors have taken seats in this House over the course of the history of the New Zealand Parliament and I am proud to be one of three in the National Party caucus. I put myself forward because I have always been committed to public service and I believe that this is the best place in which to help see one’s aspirations for one’s country realised. Although as a doctor there is no question that one can do many fine deeds to help individuals and communities equally I have no doubt that it is through the political process that greater good for one’s country might be achieved. 
I come here with no illusions about the realities of political life but equally I remain confident that this is an arena in which humanity—if not always humility—might be expressed. For that is ultimately the purpose for which every member must surely enter this House: the betterment of one’s fellow New Zealander. The philosophies may be different but the purpose must surely be the same. 
RUSSELL FAIRBROTHER (Labour) 
: 
 Mr Assistant Speaker I congratulate you along with the Hon Margaret Wilson Clem Simich and Ann Hartley on your re-election as Speakers in this Parliament. I am sure that you led by the Hon Margaret Wilson are already putting your stamp on Parliament by showing leadership and precision in the rulings. I think that this collection of Speakers led by the Hon Margaret Wilson will go down on the record as being a very successful leadership of the affairs of the House. 
I thank the 14000-odd people of Napier who voted for me this time—in fact that is about the same number of people as voted for me last time when I was successful. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I do not wish to interrupt the member but it is customary to allow a minute or so whilst members congratulate a member particularly one who has made a maiden speech before another member starts. Mr Fairbrother started straight into his speech and I think he would have done the House a courtesy if he had waited at least a brief moment of time. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I thank Dr Mapp. I accept responsibility for that. 
RUSSELL FAIRBROTHER 
: I say to Dr Mapp that I in fact waited for the indication from the Speaker. 
I thank my campaign team who worked very hard and were led by Joan Coppell. I thank the two staff members Raewyn Barry and Jason Smith who ran a very busy electorate office. They worked very hard for the last 3 years—far and above the hours required by the Parliamentary Service. It was indeed a busy electorate office. One of the first realisations I had after the tragedy of the loss of the Napier seat for this next 3 years was that I would be free of constituency work. That ambition however failed in the first few weeks. The workload is increasing as people realise that the only way to get accurate and successful representation is with a Government member of Parliament and particularly one with experience in advocacy. 
That takes me to my friends the members of the Maori Party. I sought this speaking slot because following the speech of Dr Pita Sharples— 
Hon Bill English 
: How could you lose Napier? 
RUSSELL FAIRBROTHER 
: I know where Napier is; I did not lose any votes. I enjoyed the passion of Dr Sharples’ maiden speech. I share some of his identification as tangata whenua although I do not claim that status—as a lawyer I believe I cannot lay claim to that status. However I take issue with the part of his speech that referred to the Foreshore and Seabed Act. Although he made an assertion that he no doubt believes and he gets support from some academic quarters—as shown particularly in the latest issue of the  
Victoria University of Wellington Law Review 
 which has a 30-page article on the process before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination—his speech contained as did the article written by the learned authors in that law review a fundamental misconception about why the Foreshore and Seabed Act was so necessary. 
I take issue with Dr Sharples’ comments that the legislation produced the single greatest act of confiscation against all tribes since the formation of this Westminster Parliament. That assumes that Maori title whatever it would have been is the same as European freehold title. The long 30-page article in the  
Victoria University of Wellington Law Review 
 that I referred to touches on and deals with the difference but in about 25 words. The learned authors state: “In fact Maori do have a strong legal relationship with land under Maori customary law it is only that the term ‘ownership’ as understood in an English-sense is an inappropriate word to describe that relationship.” 
Of course that is the heart of the debate. The English construct of ownership and the Maori law - based construct of ownership are at the heart of the difference. That was recognised by the Waitangi Tribunal which stated in paragraph 4.3.1(3) of its  
Report on the Crown’s Foreshore and Seabed Policy 
: “It appears that the undesirability of titles being created that may be sold is a matter on which Maori and the Government agree.” Then the tribunal wrote: “Would it not be possible to introduce by legislation a simple limitation on any title that might be issued to effect this common objective?”. 
Once we prevent the ability to sell then we no longer have freehold title. The true elements of the English construct of freehold title are the ability to alienate that title and the right of exclusivity. The irony of the tribunal’s statement is that if it wanted to tag a freehold title that would have resulted from claims on the foreshore and seabed made by successful Maori applicants so that it became inalienable then that would be an act of discrimination because European title does not have that tag so would have had lesser status than the freehold title that would have been the outcome of any claim should Maori have gone to the tribunal. 
Of course the Court of Appeal in the Ngati Apa case did not state that Maori owned the foreshore and seabed. It merely stated that the Ninety Mile Beach case which was previously understood to be the law for 40-odd years was no longer a barrier to claims being made for the foreshore and seabed. The Court of Appeal noted that the prospect of any such claim being successful was very remote. It was stating there was no common law in New Zealand to interpret indigenous rights so that any applicant had to interpret the developing law from overseas. 
The Fisheries and Other Sea-related Legislation Committee was much assisted by the work of the Ngai Tahu fellow at Cambridge University Professor Paul McHugh. He interpreted the common law interpretation in New Zealand of indigenous rights as being one that is a bundle of rights rather than a right to exclusive title and the right to alienate that title. He acknowledged as is true that the indigenous title is in fact a burden on the Crown but that the Crown in assuming sovereignty under the Treaty could not sell or give better title than what it held. The title the Crown assumed in the face of a customary rights claim was less than exclusive title. Professor McHugh’s thesis generally accepted by many was that the Foreshore and Seabed Act offered a clearer route to a greater right of title than aboriginal law would deliver through jurisprudence. 
So it is possible under the redress provisions of the legislation for an iwi to negotiate directly with the Government with the good-faith provisions that surround that for a form of title that is considerably more exclusive—and even perhaps alienable—and one that could not be granted under the application of indigenous rights. When it is argued in this House as it is argued elsewhere—and it is being argued while the rapporteur is in the country at present—that the legislation produces the single greatest act of confiscation against all tribes since the formation of this Westminster Government then that proposition just cannot stand the scrutiny of the law. Just as the 4000 submitters to the committee expressed their anger that the Government had to move quickly on the issue it may well be that there is a feeling that the right to take the time to consider the issue had been taken from them. But of course the exigencies of the Resource Management Act which is presaged on the fact that the Crown has sovereignty over the foreshore and seabed required an early decision. There seems to be very little factual or even academic debate about that aspect. 
My argument for Dr Pita Sharples whom I respect considerably—and he is one of eight members of Parliament who can call Hawke’s Bay home—is that there is much to argue for tangata whenua to claim a separate status and a right to a separate consideration in our law. But to argue that case as I think it is important to do—from a legal sense at least—one must not make exaggerated statements that are populist but legally incorrect and untrue. It is particularly important since the United Nations representative is touring the country at present that his attention be drawn to the distinct difference between aboriginal title—the title that could be given from that—and the English construct of freehold title. I note that the Ngai Tahu submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination—and one of the advocates there was one of the authors of the  
Victoria University of Wellington Law Review  
article—also appears to gloss over that difference by noting correctly that under indigenous law there is no better class of title or inferior class of title. But that is different from saying that the concepts are the same. 
In the submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination as I have read the Ngai Tahu submission that point again is glossed over which no doubt is the explanation for the tentative response from the committee. One hopes that the rapporteur will look at the essential characteristics will read carefully the tribunal decision will look at the redress provisions and will look at the ability for claimants to negotiate a better deal with the Government than may have been possible through the jurisprudence of our court system. But of course the other aspect that will give most encouragement to the rapporteur is that there is certainty now. Any claimant can approach this issue with the certainty of legal concepts knowing the outcomes that they can negotiate for at no great expense. 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 I would love to address the issues raised by Russell Fairbrother but time and circumstances prevent me from doing so—except to say that his view that the common law would have provided even less for Maori than the Foreshore and Seabed Act provides is quite frankly completely wrong. I look forward to taking another opportunity to demonstrate how that is so. 
On the West Coast of the South Island which is one of our most beautiful areas in this country and where tourism provides one of the biggest economic opportunities there are two examples of threatened indigenous species that may be lost or irreparably damaged by the human pursuit of profit over the environment—the Hector’s dolphin and the giant New Zealand snail whose name I cannot and will not even try to pronounce. [ 
Interruption 
] Yes the great New Zealand land snail! 
First I want to talk about the Hector’s dolphin a quintessentially New Zealand icon. Recently the West Coast Regional Council decided not to notify a resource consent application by Seafield Resources Ltd to prospect for gold and other minerals in the West Coast seabed—partly a result I might say of the Foreshore and Seabed Act. Only a few thousand Hector’s dolphins are left on the coast. It is the smallest sea-living dolphin and is the rarest oceanic species. Hector’s dolphins are extremely vulnerable to human impacts and fishing technologies. They use eco-location to locate their prey and to communicate and they live within the 8500 square kilometres covered by the Seafield Resources prospecting application. 
This application by a company that is owned in part by De Beers an international mining company will use a number of grab sampling techniques and seismic testing to hunt for gold right within the habitat of the endangered Hector’s dolphins. Those sampling techniques involve taking samples off the seabed which may include extracting parts of the dolphins’ habitat and food sources dumping the waste and debris of sea life killed in the sampling process then smothering the area into which it is dumped. The seismic testing could cause serious disruption to the dolphins’ communications and hunting systems. Studies overseas link the use of seismic testing with whale strandings and disruption to fish breeding habits. 
Gill-nets are of course the greatest threat to Hector’s dolphins and we urge the Minister of Fisheries to ensure that the Threat Management Plan for Hector’s dolphins which was promised before the election contains stringent mandatory restrictions on the use of gill-nets. Only a few weeks ago four Hector’s dolphins were found dead on the coast. They had evidently been caught in gill-nets. We cannot continue to allow that fishing method given its undeniably destructive impact on this fragile species. 
We must also control and prohibit other human activities within the habitat of the endangered species that have the potential to kill or seriously threaten them. Hence the Green Party calls on the Government to prohibit any seabed mining or prospecting such as that sought by Seafield Resources within any significant habitat of an endangered species. 
On the West Coast there is also an application by Solid Energy New Zealand to engage in a purposeful process to render the largest New Zealand land snail entirely extinct. The “Augustus” snail—that is part of its name—an indigenous species absolutely protected by the Wildlife Act lives only on a small section of the Stockton plateau north-east of Westport. This is an area where Solid Energy has a coalmining licence. It wants to move the snail population by use of a digger. Clearly it does not care that it is likely to cause the absolute extinction of the species by using that technique. Solid Energy’s cynical use of the law in order to get its way is an absolute disgrace. 
Despite the efforts of Solid Energy and Seafield Resources the West Coast Regional Council and communities on the coast are fighting against the drive for profits based on the destruction of New Zealand’s native species. Across the country there are protests and community actions to support the coasters and the ecology of that precious coast. When species are gone they are gone forever. We must not knowingly allow them to become extinct in this country in the 21st century. We have no right to steal them from our descendants. 
Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) 
: 
 I would like to offer my congratulations to the Hon Margaret Wilson on her election as Speaker to Clem Simich on his election as Deputy Speaker and to you on your election as Assistant Speaker. On 7 October 1999 I was in the public gallery listening to the Hon John Banks give his valedictory speech. Little did I know that 6 years on the roles would be reversed and I would be giving my maiden speech in the House and John Banks would be in the public gallery listening to me. Indeed if anyone had suggested this was a possibility I would have thought it totally bizarre. John Banks has been my cheerleader on the sideline and I would like to thank him for that. 
But there are current members of Parliament whom I would also like to thank for being here today. One of them is the Hon Annette King. That may surprise members but I will explain. Although my deliberate path into politics started only a few years ago looking back now I can see that it actually began 13 years ago. It began in 1992 when working as a general practitioner I was asked by Auckland breast surgeon John Harman to train as New Zealand’s first breast physician. Breast physicians are doctors specialising in the diagnosis and follow-up of women’s breast conditions and concerns. John was visionary and charismatic. I had no hesitation in leaving general practice. Together we set up the first truly multidisciplinary breast centre in New Zealand. Over time this model has been reproduced in centres all around New Zealand. History needs to recognise John Harman. By pioneering the multidisciplinary breast centre in New Zealand he has raised the standard of how women with breast problems and concerns are managed and treated in this country. 
I worked hard in my new profession campaigned tirelessly for breast cancer screening and over time built up a solid reputation. But my work as a breast physician was new and it threatened traditional medical models. Very early on it became clear that breast physicians needed to be formally recognised and this was achieved in 1999 with Medical Council recognition. However try as I might—and I tried very very hard—I could not get formal recognition with BreastScreen Aotearoa the national breast-screening programme. I was extremely frustrated. 
John Harman suggested I should attend a Wellington medical women’s conference in July 2001 specifically to lobby Annette King the then Minister of Health who was opening the conference. I even bought a new red jacket to wear so I could be more appealing to Annette King. It did not work. I went to Wellington and as fate would have it also speaking at the conference was Wellington general practitioner Dr Mary English. At the conference dinner that night I spoke with Mary and she introduced me to her husband Bill who happened to be the deputy leader of the National Party. It was a pivotal meeting for me and as a result of my friendship with Mary and Bill I knew I wanted to help in some way. They encouraged me to join the National Party in Auckland. That is when my political life began and it is why I must thank Annette King for giving me the opportunity to meet Bill and Mary English. 
The irony is that breast physicians who have worked in the breast-screening programme since its inception in late 1998 are still not formally recognised. This is quite strange really when we have a critical lack of workforce that threatens the implementation of our programme particularly to the younger woman. Clearly my work is not finished yet. The year 2004 was busy for me. I was elected on to the Auckland District Health Board on the Citizens and Ratepayers Now ticket. Earlier that same year I had been voted on to the National Party northern region list ranking committee and in fact in November 2004 I had been involved in the selection of my colleague Dr Jonathan Coleman for the Northcote seat. 
I had absolutely no intention of standing for Parliament; I was in the business of selecting the candidates. Fate however was to step in and 1 week before Christmas Dr Don Brash approached me at a National Party function and asked me whether I would consider standing. It was a simple question but it floored me. I have the greatest amount of respect and admiration for our leader Dr Don Brash so I went away and thought long and hard over the Christmas break. Like a lot of people I was extremely unhappy at the direction New Zealand was heading in. It was a make or break election for New Zealand and the National Party. I wanted to do what I could whatever it took. I took the plunge and in early 2005 I was selected to stand in Mt Roskill. 
After the initial elation of being selected to stand in Mt Roskill my emotional state alternated between excitement despair and terror—mostly the latter two. Being a novice I anguished about how on earth I could pull a campaign team together and deliver a respectable result against a seasoned and well-respected political opponent Labour MP Phil Goff while not embarrassing or humiliating myself or the party on the way through. Again fate intervened by way of Nick Albrecht who generously agreed to be my campaign manager even though he had his hands full being Maurice Williamson’s campaign manager. My wonderful talented team was quickly formed: Charles and Leigh Hay Ram Rai Ian Andrews Aaron Bhatnagar Gillian Moody Sean Palmer Simon O’Connor David Cooke Gareth Jenkins Surendra Sharma Josh Beddell Malcolm Butler Dale Burden Stephen Sharp and Margaret Voyce who has also joined me in my Wellington office. 
My extraordinary thanks must go to my family who are here today. My husband David Miller is an exceptional man who has unconditionally supported me throughout my career with the wisdom of knowing when to steer a wide berth and when to haul me in when I get out of line. I would like to acknowledge my two beautiful daughters Jessie and Paddy my mother Doris McHale a strong woman and a loving mother who grew up in the Depression and who would have gone far if she had had the educational opportunities and my father-in-law Austin Miller who—incredibly at the age of 75—is still working full time. I would also like to honour my late father Stuart Aitken Strang Blue who served in World War II as an army major and dentist in the Middle East. They are all here today. I am so proud of them all. Also here today is my twin sister Robyn Blue my niece Ruth Egermayer and her aunt Vera Egermayer who is New Zealand’s honorary consul in the Czech Republic. I would like to thank other family and friends who have travelled to be here today and those who are listening over the airwaves. 
I have worked for over 20 years in the private health sector with the past 13 years being spent in the breast cancer field. I would like to share some thoughts. Breast cancer is a major public issue. Its incidence is increasing in both developed and developing countries. Why is this? It is clear that total oestrogen exposure over a lifetime is implicated in breast cancer development. This links reproductive dietary lifestyle and environmental factors together. All of those factors either increase levels of oestrogen or affect the way it is metabolised in the body. There are some things we cannot change such as age of menarche and menopause. There are other factors that will depend on individual choice and opportunity such as when a woman decides to have a family or how many children she has. However there are some things that we do have control over and can modify—that is diet lifestyle and environmental factors. That is where we must focus our efforts if we are ever to hope to get control over this disease. 
Using the scientific evidence available a targeted programme to reduce breast cancer risk is needed urgently. It is really about getting New Zealanders healthy exercising maintaining a healthy weight having a moderate intake of alcohol eating a diet low in animal fat and making healthy choices in food. That basic programme will also form a central strategy to tackle other public health enemies such as diabetes cardiovascular disease obesity and other cancers. However specific to breast cancer development is the effect of long-term hormone replacement therapy use and there is a growing body of evidence supporting the influence of foreign oestrogens which are found in some herbicides chemicals and pharmaceuticals. 
But in the here and now we face an increase in the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer. Although a public health strategy will help in the medium to long term it will not help women right now. What we need right now is an effective national breast cancer screening programme which means solving our serious workforce issues and understanding the extent of our problem. It requires a comprehensive national database and timely access to appropriate treatments. Those goals along with the formation of a national consumer advocacy group were the objectives of the Breast Cancer Advocacy Coalition which was formed in November 2004 and represents 12 key breast cancer organisations. 
Access to more effective breast cancer chemotherapy treatments and revolutionary drugs such as Herceptin which has been shown to markedly reduce breast cancer recurrence must be opened up. These lifesaving drugs are expensive and New Zealand is Third World when it comes to access to new effective drugs. The economic growth that would have been kick-started by National’s tax policy has been lost. Only wealthy countries can afford to pay their health workforces well and invest in infrastructure new drugs and technologies. Tragically New Zealanders will have to wait 3 more long years. 
I mentioned earlier the need for a focused public health strategy to get New Zealanders healthy. Changing behaviour will not be easy but it can be done. It must be done—we do not have an option. Fight the Obesity Epidemic is one of the organisations leading the way. Its members have just launched a petition to be presented to Parliament later this year. I predict that public support and the will for change will be massive. The experts on that team are warning that social marketing and education alone will not change behaviour. There also needs to be a change in the regulatory framework. I have worked in the public health sector for over 20 years and I would like to make a plug for it. It is a resource that is ready willing and able to help. The private health sector by necessity has had to be competitive efficient cost-conscious consumer focused and profitable. The public health sector despite having billions of dollars poured into it has become bloated overly bureaucratic and bogged down with ever-expanding waiting lists. 
We are losing precious medical staff overseas. We cannot compete with international medical salaries—that is a fact of life. Boosting the private health sector would entice many of our health professionals back. Many specialists have a part-time private practice to support their public practice and that would encourage doctors to settle back in New Zealand particularly in the provinces where there is a desperate shortage. By encouraging utilisation of the private health sector the burden on the struggling public sector will lessen. Encouragement could be by way of a tax incentive for those who elect to have private health insurance. 
The National Party has given me the important shadow portfolio of liaison with women’s groups. I am absolutely committed to this task. In the 21st century it is not acceptable that violence towards women and children an ever-increasing gender pay gap and under-representation of women in many professions still exist. 
In conclusion I am enormously honoured and proud to be here representing the people of New Zealand. I have no idea where this particular path is leading me but I would like to assure Parliament and the people of New Zealand that I will serve them with integrity and to the very best of my ability. 
JUDY TURNER (Deputy Leader—United Future) 
: 
 I begin by adding my congratulations to the Hon Margaret Wilson who was elected as Speaker and to yourself Mr Assistant Speaker and to the others who have been elected in supporting roles to the office of Speaker. I also congratulate the many new MPs on their election and on some very excellent maiden speeches which I have enjoyed immensely and been inspired by. I reflect also on the recent election which saw a changing of the guard in the East Coast electorate as our long-serving MP Janet Mackey retired and National’s Anne Tolley received the mandate to take up the baton. I congratulate her and offer my support as an extra hand to the plough in my capacity as a list MP within that electorate. Janet Mackey’s valedictory speech made deliberate reference to the inadequate resourcing of MPs who serve large electorates like the East Coast. Let me assure Anne Tolley that I will support any move to see that issue reconsidered in her favour. 
The East Coast is a huge and diverse electorate which has pockets of extreme deprivation but is loaded with industry and potential that is yet to be tapped. I do not believe that the current resourcing of out-of-Parliament allowances gives the people of the East Coast the access they need and deserve. With that in mind I take a moment to honour Janet Mackey who supplied additional resources out of her own pocket so that East Coasters were not short-changed. I also thank the other candidates for the East Coast electorate for the way they played the campaign—in particular Moana Mackey and Catherine Delahunty for helping to make this campaign at times even fun. I thank my electorate team which continued to support my candidacy and United Future. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Are any boys allowed to run a campaign up there? 
JUDY TURNER 
: No women only. My contribution to this debate will focus on those parts of the Speech from the Throne that relate to the intentions of the Government in this 48th Parliament with regard to education. As a primary trained teacher who spent some of her most enjoyable teaching years in the new entrant classes I think the Government’s move towards a 1:15 teacher-pupil ratio in new entrant classes is an extremely positive one. It will be welcomed by all those who work in that specialised area of teaching. 
The myriad of essential skills that are important prerequisites to literacy and numeracy success are all covered intensely at that level. However what is not clear about this announcement is how this extra funding will be applied to junior classes in rural schools that include new entrants along with year 1 2 and 3 students. The additional challenges that rural schools face are well documented and in particular I bring to the Minister’s attention the plight of teaching principals who are the unsung heroes of the primary school sector. The burgeoning compliance demands are usually the very first complaint one hears about when visiting those schools. The amount of data requested by the ministry on a weekly basis is out of control. For teaching principals that is an outrageous requirement and it takes up way too much of their precious non-contact time. 
I am interested that this Government wants to have “all 15 to 19-year-olds engaged in some sort of work training or other income-generating activity”. That is a noble enough goal but if the Government is serious about this and I surely hope it is I challenge it to review the current provisions around the use of the independent youth benefit. The process by which a young person individuates from his or her parents has traditionally been fraught with difficulty. So it is not surprising that some of today’s young people like many before them feel that the constraints of living at home are unbearable. However unlike previous generations today’s youth can make a case to a teacher social worker or counsellor and move in with a boyfriend—on a benefit. That benefit allows young people to live away from home for reasons that are often dealt with very subjectively. Young people before they have even left school are introduced to welfarism. 
I well remember a letter I received in the last Parliament from a constituent whose daughter arrived home in a teacher’s car announced she was moving out packed her bags and left. No one had consulted the parents about the claims she had made. No one seemed to have any ongoing concerns about the drug dealing that was part of the flatting environment she was assisted into and no one questioned why if her relationship with her parents was so terrible she went home for dinner most nights did her laundry at home and spent most of every weekend at her parents’ home. Young people do need to be encouraged to develop independent life choices but that does not have to include State-funded isolation from their families. There are situations where young people do need to be supported to leave home but where the State feels the need to intervene so dramatically in the life of a family then surely it should maintain responsibility for the out-working of that decision with regard to the safety and suitability of the accommodation that is chosen. 
The additional Modern Apprenticeships and opportunities that currently exist for those with trade and technical skills means that there is no excuse for the Government to be party to behaviour that sends the wrong messages and is the starting place for unconstructive habits in our young people. In the matter of education the Speech from the Throne included an acknowledgment of the growing concern among businesses that young people emerging from education and training were still insufficiently prepared for the labour market. United Future believes that there are two contributing factors. The first as the Speech from the Throne alluded is the need to line up tertiary education with the job market so that what is on offer is of high quality and is relevant. Second we believe that employment competence is not just the result of acquiring sufficient information; we believe it is also about developing the relational skills and the work ethic that make one employable. 
The Speech from the Throne railed against poorly designed courses and called for a change in emphasis from valuing participation in favour of quality qualifications. Although much fun is being poked at some of these questionable courses can I please sound a voice of caution that we do not walk away from second-chance education. For those who have experienced only disappointment and failure in educational environments participation can be an insurmountable hurdle if it is accompanied by seemingly unattainable standards. Participation is a very acceptable goal as long as students having begun to participate are then encouraged to move on into more robust fields of study. I know that there has been lots of criticism about the wananga and that it has been considered a key culprit in this. But I am also very aware anecdotally of some wonderful stories of people who would never have become involved in education through any other means and have since gone on to get very reputable qualifications although they began that process in some courses that were geared specifically towards encouraging positive participation. I would be very concerned if we start to undermine that important aspect of second-chance education. 
I am excited about the opportunity to make a difference that United Future has been offered. It is what we have always said we were about. We are a little bit—if I am honest—gobsmacked at the opportunity that came our way. It was not what we anticipated would be the result after the election but we are more than happy to now be part of working with this Government to achieve some very noble goals. I welcome the Maori Party to this Parliament. It is exciting that it is here. I believe its people are long overdue for representation in this way and I look forward to working with it. Kia ora katoa. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister for Economic Development) 
: 
 I want mainly to focus in my speech on the issues around economic development which is the area I have recently been given responsibility for. My view is that we have to ensure that the rising tide of economic prosperity lifts all boats. For that to happen vision leadership and stable Government are required. I thank New Zealand First and United Future for the work they have done in order to ensure we have a stable Government in New Zealand when at one stage it looked a little wobbly. 
Under Labour’s leadership New Zealand is going well. We have had 6 years of delivering more jobs and of having lower unemployment sustained economic growth and steadily increasing household incomes. The average household income in New Zealand has increased by over $200 a week compared with what it was in 1997-98—$10500 a year extra has gone into households during that time. A $10-a-week tax cut rather pales into insignificance when one sees the sort of change that occurs when more and better jobs are available for people to get into. That has been the focus of this Government. It was clear from the election result that most Kiwis want to see New Zealand move forward. 
It has been great over the last few days to see the sense of optimism that has occurred as a result of the Rugby World Cup decision. We want to keep on delivering those sorts of gains. I contrast that with the approach of members opposite who want to give more of the cake to their rich mates to hock off the State assets to them and to leave average Kiwis with the crumbs as they did in the 1990s. We want to grow the cake and make sure that all New Zealanders get their fair share. 
That involves a vision of an inclusive high-wage high-value high-growth economy. We need a strong economy. We need an economy that can adapt to change. I signal to members in the House that the next few years will not be as good for growth as the years until now have been and that we will have to be adaptable. We will have to encourage and support innovation and increase productivity. We have just about reached the limits of finding more and more people to work for longer and longer. Over the next period of time we will have to switch over from working more to working smarter to having more capital investment and to lifting productivity per hour rather than just lifting the hours worked. 
We will have to work together. We will have to foster innovation and that just does not happen in isolation. It happens in collaboration between firms; it happens when firms and industries consult the workers who work in their area taking some of the very best ideas and going forward. They have to work with universities with Crown research institutes and with other players. It is important to have good links between the private sector and the Government. 
We have to be better at celebrating success. In New Zealand we do that pretty well for sport and over the last few years we have actually begun to learn to do it for artistic things. But as far as business and economic success is concerned far too many people including members opposite have a tall-poppy syndrome and attack people who do well and create jobs. Especially they seem to want to attack the people who create the best jobs. A small country like ours just cannot afford to waste its potential. At a time when competitive pressure is growing globally we need to make the best use of all available resources. 
The small size of our domestic market means that in order to have the standard of living we aspire to we need more firms to internationalise and to export. We are a small country and we cannot get the sort of growth we need from within New Zealand. We must expand our markets. In a way the strong labour market the increases in household income and a high Kiwi dollar have all led to an increase in the amount of money that has flowed overseas. We have had the cheap consumer goods the high incomes the televisions the stereos and the cheap overseas holidays. 
 Our export sector is not able to keep up in the way that many of us would like it to and while more of the money flows out of New Zealand the money flowing back has not kept up in the way that is needed. That is why growing the export sector and to a limited extent growing the import substitution sector as well is very very important. 
Gordon Copeland 
: What about the world cup? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: What about the world cup? 
Gordon Copeland 
: Think it will help? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I am sure the world cup will help. I think it will help with how we perceive ourselves as a country as well as through the cash flows that will occur. I think it will bring New Zealanders recognition for being special people who can identify objectives make plans and go for them. In a way that is likely to help our export of services even more than large numbers of people coming here for the event will. 
We do lots of things well and the Rugby World Cup will certainly be one of them. I say to the member that if he wants to keep reminding the Prime Minister about the importance of having a Minister in charge I would appreciate his support. 
Gordon Copeland 
: Want some help? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Does the member want the job for himself? He would have to come into the coalition for that to occur. 
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise will have to refocus more clearly on growing our export market than it has been doing. We will continue to advocate internationally for more liberalised trade and to foster closer relationships with developing economies. The challenges ahead are huge but so too is our capacity to meet them. I am proud to be a member of a Government that is so passionate about and committed to New Zealand and the ideals we stand for. 
In conclusion I have a challenge for members opposite. It is clear to all members in this House who are honest with themselves that the National Party cannot go on until the next election with its current leader. I think it is particularly important for stability in New Zealand that the campaign to get rid of Don Brash is not an extended one and that it is over quickly. The traditional time for having coups détat in our political system is the period just before or just after Christmas. I am slightly agnostic on this but I think Bill English would be a better leader than John Key. 
John Hayes 
: Rubbish! 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: The member says that is rubbish. 
John Hayes 
: You’ll have to get Winston to replace Helen. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Well that is the member who drives the Japanese out of the country. The member who is interjecting is the member who does not pay his bills. 
John Hayes 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would like that statement to be repeated outside the House. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: That is not a point of order. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: For it to be repeated out of the House one need only to read the newspaper or have a beer over in the Wairarapa—one will hear it all the time. 
Anne Tolley 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I refer to Standing Order 116 “Personal reflections”. The Minister knows that he cannot make an imputation of improper motives against another member. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I thank the member for bringing that to my attention. Under Standing Order 116 “Personal reflections” it is actually up to the member himself to raise the matter if he so wishes. 
John Hayes 
: Yes I do. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: No the issue must be raised at the time—immediately. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: The advice to the member if he wants to make a personal statement is that he makes it at the end of my speech. I would welcome him doing that and if he does so he will probably join his mate Chris Finlayson at the Privileges Committee soon. 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 It is my privilege to speak on behalf of New Zealand First in this debate. I must begin in the same way as my colleagues by offering my congratulations to the Prime Minister and to the Hon Margaret Wilson the Hon Clem Simich yourself Mr Assistant Speaker and Ann Hartley on the achievement of high office. It is not an easy task; however it is one that you all carry out well. I would also like to welcome all the new members to the House. Being an MP is indeed one of the most interesting and exciting roles that one will ever have the privilege of being involved in and I wish them all well. My congratulations also go to the Rt Hon Winston Peters. I know he will do a wonderful job of representing New Zealand overseas. 
My condolences and sympathy go to the families of Rod Donald and Tahu Asher. We valued and respected the contributions that each made in this House. 
To those people who supported New Zealand First at the recent election I say thank you. We are very honoured and proud to represent them in this House. I say thank you too to our many volunteers who worked tirelessly throughout New Zealand. The New Zealand First team will definitely be working to ensure that the policy programme that is part of the confidence and supply agreement we have with the Government proceeds expeditiously. We are absolutely committed to those policies and we are proud to be working on behalf of those New Zealanders. 
There has been a lot of comment about New Zealand First sitting on this side of the House—a side of the House that actually understands and respects the way that MMP works and that can achieve policy objectives that will benefit many New Zealanders. New Zealanders are better served by MMP. They will never accept a single-party majority again. We have heard regularly about New Zealand First receiving the baubles of power. Yes we have but the bottom line is that we are sharing our baubles with every New Zealander and they were outlined in the Speech from the Throne. We want all New Zealanders to get a share in our baubles and we are more than happy to share them. 
In New Zealand First we are really looking forward to this term of Parliament. This term will see the implementation of many of the policies that are important to us. We want to make a positive difference to the lives of New Zealanders. For our senior citizens we will see the introduction of a seniors card and the holders will be eligible for all public sector entitlements. We are very pleased too that the rate of New Zealand superannuation will be set at 66 percent of the average ordinary-time weekly earnings as from 1 April 2006. This is a start in the right direction for our seniors. New Zealand First will also investigate ways to improve options for senior citizens who may be eligible for foreign pensions as well as New Zealand superannuation. All MPs receive numerous letters on that very subject and I do not think any New Zealander including the members opposite would be disappointed with it being investigated. 
New Zealand First will be a part of the thorough review of immigration legislation which the former Minister of Immigration Mr Swain famously described as “a dog’s breakfast”. This review is a long way overdue and New Zealanders can feel safe in the knowledge that with New Zealand First involved the review will be a full and thorough one. 
Some of our economic policies have also been adopted as part of the confidence and supply agreement with Labour. New Zealand First has long recognised that exports are the backbone of a prosperous future for our economy. We want to make sure that the emphasis of economic policy will again prioritise measures to grow our export sector. 
Being a resident of the Waikato I am delighted to be able to announce that we have secured a new and fairer taxation regime for the racing industry. We will ensure that the new regime will at least put racing on an equal footing with other parts of the gambling sector. 
There are many policies that will enhance New Zealanders’ lives over the next 3 years and they have all been outlined. The opposition we have heard from the other side of the House is very often proof that we are on the right track. We know that success has very little to do with what people accomplish for themselves; it is about what we do for others. The key thing for New Zealand First is that all New Zealanders get to share in our baubles and we are more than happy to share each of them. 
Hon RICK BARKER (Minister of Internal Affairs) 
: 
 I want firstly to congratulate you Mr Assistant Speaker on your re-election and Ann Hartley as well. I would like to congratulate Margaret Wilson on her election as Speaker. I think she brings dignity and respect to this Chamber. I also congratulate Clem Simich for whom I have had a great deal of respect over many years. I think he also will add to the dignity of the office. These positions are Parliament’s positions and I am sure all four of you will do your utmost to preserve the standing of this House and will be respectful of its traditions and the people who participate in the debates. 
Secondly I want to thank the people of Tukituki my former electorate for electing me to be their representative for a period of 12 years. It is a humbling experience to represent an electorate and one that I have greatly enjoyed. It is interesting to note that my Labour Party predecessor David Butcher represented the area for 12 years before he was defeated to be followed by 3 years of National representation. If we go back before that it was 12 years for Duncan MacIntyre before he was unelected as well. It is an interesting electorate. It does change from time to time. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: You’ve got a long time to wait this time around. 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: Well I am just making the connection that it is 12 years followed by 3 years followed by 12 years. We will just see how the maths plays out in the future. 
Thirdly having thanked the electorate for its support for me over the last 12 years I would like to thank my campaign team. Those people worked very hard and assiduously—well supported by my family and well supported in the electorate too I might add. The issue of Tukituki was that the votes coalesced almost exclusively around the most conservative candidate in the field. A number of candidates were not there before parties that were formerly represented were not represented and the votes of parties that were represented in 2005 and also in 2002 fell away. 
It is very interesting to look at the situation in Hawke’s Bay and around New Zealand to examine what happened in the electorate and to understand where this leaves us for the future. The first point that needs to be appreciated is that this Labour-led Government has been outstanding. We now have the lowest rate of unemployment in the Western World which is something that no one would have believed possible 6 years ago or 3 years ago. We have the lowest rate of unemployment in the OECD. When people think about that they recall that New Zealand had always had the highest rate of unemployment and it was almost accepted that New Zealand would always be at the top end of the unemployment rate. 
We have the highest growth rate in the OECD. For ordinary New Zealanders it means that the kids are getting jobs—they are getting jobs they have better jobs and they are better paid. Nearly all the people in my electorate I know whether they be carpenters or truckdrivers are now paid two and three times what they were paid before under the miserable National Government of the 1990s that chopped slashed and burned. 
Company profits are up. Everything is going up. Everything that should be up is up and everything that should be down is down. The other thing that is very good is that we have better education better police numbers better health services better transport and better Government systems. 
The National Party had no way through that by fighting a positive campaign. The National Party knew that if it went out there to fight on its economic record it would not win the argument. We saw the approach the National Party was going to take in the speech at Orewa by Don Brash which was essentially to be anti-Maori. It was to say that Maori had privilege and National was going to remove Maori privilege. National tried to argue that there were two levels of citizenship in this country and that some had more than others. But if we had a look at the issue of Maori privilege and calculated it by any measure whether by the rate of incarceration in our jails by longevity by educational success by quality of housing or by average income we would find that Maori were always at the bottom. Yet the National Party and Don Brash argued that Maori had privilege—that there were two systems and that Maori had a so-called privilege. 
The National Party knows from other experiences overseas that voters quite often coalesce around a candidate because of what they are against rather than what they are for. The negative can be the most powerful campaigning tool we have. It is very often difficult to argue and campaign in the positive because people like to be scared and like to be pushed into thinking that they should exercise their will by what they are against. 
We now have the National Party coming to the House and trying to make out that it is somehow very pro-Maori—speaking in Maori talking about going to marae and so on. I find this really quite extraordinary given the approach of the National Party to Maori during the election campaign. It was the National Party that said it would abolish the Maori seats. It was interesting on the campaign trail to listen to a question from the audience to the National Party candidate which asked firstly whether the candidate could explain the history behind the Maori seats secondly whether the candidate could give an analysis or a rational argument as to why they should be abolished and thirdly what the consequences would be of abolishing the Maori seats. The candidate said he did not know he could not articulate what the consequences would be and he had no idea about the future. That was a key plank for the National Party and it was playing to resentment and envy. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: What did the royal commission on MMP say? 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: Well that member might be a bit more informed than those people but the point was that those were slogans. They were saying that people were advantaged and that they were different somehow from the rest. We get that theme again with the talk about mainstream New Zealand—so people could identify with who they were and know that the other people were somehow different and against them. 
We had the traditional “who we are against” in the National Party campaign. National was bashing beneficiaries and solo parents. But if we go to see a solo parent which solo parent says: “I really want to be here. This is my life. I wanted to be abandoned by my husband with three kids and a mortgage and with all the rest of the chaos that goes with life.”? That is what National tries to claim solo parents want but they do not. But a lot of New Zealanders are not solo parents so when National members bash solo parents they can then say: “Well that is whom we should be against because they are bludging off you and your taxes and we should deal to them.” So it is about attacking minority groups to drive voters to the cause. 
That is what the National Party did. It was supported—and I thought in a very surprising way—by the Exclusive Brethren whom I want to deal with just briefly. Two of the members of the Exclusive Brethren who appeared on the front page of the  
Dominion Post  
live in Hastings and I know them. They said they spent $500000 on the election campaign; they said that after having been forced out of the shadows and after consistent denials by the National Party. I want to say that $500000 is a gross underestimate. 
I do not have a problem with anybody getting involved in election campaigns but I do have a problem with people who do it dishonestly. I think people should be upfront. I know that the National Party grumbles about the Council of Trade Unions and unions but at least they put their name on their pamphlets say who they are and say upfront as to what they are. But the Exclusive Brethren hid under noms de plume. I know they went to other organisations and said: “We want you to publish an attack on the Government’s defence policy we want you to publish papers that support the Americans in the war on Iraq and we will pay for that as long as you put your name on it.” That is what the Exclusive Brethren are about. They were campaigning for the National Party but they did not put their names on the pamphlets and front up. The Exclusive Brethren telephone canvassed extensively they pushed polls they pamphleted and they ran election day systems. 
The hypocrisy of all of this is that when it comes to their pro-war stance on Iraq and their attitude of being pro-development of the defence establishment the truth is that the Exclusive Brethren also say they are a pacifist organisation and their kids should not have to ever go to war. So they are articulating a position that would see the kids of other parents going to war being in the front line and putting their lives at risk when they want their kids to stay at home be safe and make money for them in their family businesses. That is what I find to be the most despicable and disgusting thing. 
The election campaign has been a very interesting reflection on New Zealand. The fact is that despite what the National Party wants to think the Labour Party won 41 percent of the votes. It is the biggest party in this Parliament. It has a mandate to govern. The National Party is trying to say that this Clark Government will not last 3 years. Well I want to say that the predictions about this Government falling apart before 3 years are up are wrong. It will last 3 years. The only people who are hoping it will not last are the National Party members and that will not come to fruition. This Government will last 3 years and New Zealand will continue to have growth rates that are better than the average for the OECD unemployment will continue to be at low levels we will continue to invest in good-quality government services and we will continue to make a better life for New Zealanders. Young New Zealanders can now get trades qualifications which they could not get under the National Government because it had abolished the Apprenticeship Act. This Government will continue to invest in health services and education services to give every young New Zealander the opportunity for a better life here in New Zealand. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (National—Pakuranga) 
: 
 Tonight I want to run the House through a series of unfortunate events and anyone who has followed Lemony Snicket will know what that is about. I want to go back to earlier in the year when Dr Don Brash was on the campaign trail and made what I think was one of the best announcements of the campaign. It was that the National Party if elected would spend all the petrol tax on roading. It would not do it immediately as $600 million could not be put across in one shot but over a 6-year period it would move $100 million then $200 million then $300 million then $400 million and so on. For those members opposite who are not good at hard sums over 10 years that adds up to $4.2 billion. That is $4.2 billion extra in addition to and above what is already in the National Land Transport Programme. 
Hon David Carter 
: Solve a lot of problems! 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: It would solve a helluva lot of problems as my colleague the Hon David Carter says. 
I have a number of press releases that were issued by both the Hon Dr Michael Cullen and the Hon Pete Hodgson at the time and I want to share with the House what they said about National’s policy. They said that Dr Brash’s plan was to cut back the amount of fuel duty used to offset the costs in the normal account which would leave the taxpayer with a $4 billion gaping hole. They also said that Dr Brash had not created a single dollar of new money to cover roading costs and that all he was doing was shifting money from one account to another. “How will he make up the shortfall?” asked Pete Hodgson. I want the House to listen to this because it is what the Minister said: “Will he cut expenditure on health and education? Or will he borrow like some born-again Muldoon”—I do not think that is something Dr Brash has been accused of very often in his life—“and cause interest rates to increase?”. Both Minister Hodgson and Minister Cullen said that National’s plan to move the petrol tax to the road account was fiscally irresponsible. I have three press releases here if they want to see them. They are actually on the Labour Party’s website. I do not know why it does not take them off it. That is what those Ministers said about our proposal which was announced on 1 April to move the petrol tax to the road account. 
What happened? I can tell members what happened. Over the next few months it became very clear from our internal polling—and clearly from Labour’s polling because they poll like fruitcakes over there; they were out there every night—that the policy of moving the petrol tax to the road account was very popular. The public said that it had had a gutsful of spending so much money at the bowser that was headed off to hip-hop tours twilight golf and so on—money that did not go to the roads as they wanted it to. 
It became clear to Labour that it was in a bit of a bind so we started to see the slippage. At first it was gradual. Like any great landslide it was just a bit of a slippage. The first one was the Budget. In May Dr Michael Cullen said that Labour would put in another $100 million for the next 3 years—that is three lots of $100 million or $300 million. It certainly was not quite as much as National had pledged but it was a start along the way. Then we started to see the one-off commitments. Members should remember that they were in addition to what National had already pledged as well. Labour said that it was starting with the Auckland programme and that it would commit an extra $900 million of money from the Crown account. It had two packages for Wellington one of which was for $600 million. It then announced another one for $225 million. That comes to $825 million if Labour members want to add up the two numbers. 
Then the doozy of them all occurred in July. It fell from the sky. I know not from where it fell but it fell—a $544 million windfall. The public fell around their latte glasses laughing at that because Dr Cullen’s management of the economy was so good that $544 million which is not a small amount of money just popped out from nowhere. What was that money to be for? I can tell members how much amazing analysis went into where it should go. On the very same day he announced it would go to roading. It was really getting very good. The Bay of Plenty package was the next to come out. Obviously that was to try to shore up some things in the Bay of Plenty party vote. Then we got the classic in August. If we add up National’s petrol-tax commitment we find we had pledged to spend an extra $600 million in the first 3 years—$100 million then $200 million then $300 million. Let us work with just the first 3 years of budget. The Labour Minister’s press statement stated: “National halves transport spending to fund tax cuts.” When I saw that I went “What?”. We had just been accused of fiscal irresponsibility and asked how we could afford to spend $600 million. We were told that we had better front up and say where the money was coming from yet 4 months later that press release came from the Hon Pete Hodgson. Then he put out a table to show the numbers. That was even better. It showed that Labour would spend $1200 million extra on roading. 
I want to ask every Labour member in this House including the Ministers about that. If $600 million extra on roading was fiscally irresponsible—if it was “Muldoon-esque” if it meant we had to cut health and education—then what the hell was $1200 million? Darren Hughes looks dumbstruck. He cannot even begin to answer what the hell $1200 million would be if $600 million was fiscally irresponsible. We have won the rights to the Rugby World Cup in 2011. On a rugby field one can see a great thing called a goalpost and it looks like the letter “H”. There is a word that starts with the letter “H” that I think that smacks of. I cannot use that word—you will not let me use it Mr Deputy Speaker; I understand that—but everybody in this House knows what it is. When for example in April $600 million was fiscally irresponsible it was dreadful and Dr Brash was told he had better say where he was going to fund it from yet 4 months later Labour said it would double that amount to $1200 million. 
There is still a long way to go and in the second half of my speech I want to deal with my real concern for the Auckland situation when it comes to the Rugby World Cup. If we have the influx of visitor numbers into Auckland that is expected—and I hope we do—then I can tell members that the roading network will not cope. It cannot cope now. I can tell Darren Hughes that if he flew into Auckland on a Friday afternoon and arrived at Mangere airport at 5 o’clock and tried to make his way into the city he would spend about an hour in a long long queue of traffic trying to get across the Mangere Bridge with nothing but a stream of red lights ahead of him. Then suddenly he would come to an intersection that should have a sign on it saying: “You are on your own from here sucker. Find your way to town because there ain’t a road to do it on.” and he would then have to work himself out into a series of little urban tree-lined streets and cul-de-sacs and try to work his way into the city. 
Several things were planned to fix that. The first one I want to deal with is the State Highway 20 Mount Roskill extension. If any members are interested they should look at Transit’s website to see when that was going to be built. Right back in 2000 Transit said it would start later that year. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Which year? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: That is what it said in 2000 so I presume it meant 2000. Then 2001 came and Transit said: “Later this year.” The doozy of them all came on 31 October 2001 when it stated: “State Highway 20 Mount Roskill extension to start early next year and be completed by May 2005.” 
Dr Don Brash 
: Was it finished? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Dr Brash asks a very good question. I can tell him that it was not finished by May 2005. It was not started by May 2005! I can tell members when it was started: 3 weeks before the election! Three weeks before the election we saw Helen Clark Phil Goff and Pete Hodgson all with their spades looking as though they had done something in 6 years. That was because they knew how vulnerable they were in relation to that road which had been desperately needed for years. All I can say is that if the other parts of that roading network experience anything like the delays that have been experienced under this Labour Government then Auckland is in for nothing but sheer chaos in 2011. To get from Mangere airport into the city State Highway 20 needs to be completed. People need to be able to connect to the north-western motorway and get down it. There is one nice little bit of that project that does not even have a scheduled start date and that is the Avondale extension that goes through the Prime Minister’s electorate. I tell the House that it is on record that the Prime Minister has said: “That road will go through my electorate over my dead body.” I say to the House that that is a very small price to pay for a good road. 
Darren Hughes 
: Dream on. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: No there is no dreaming on. It is the Prime Minister who is the dreamer. She said she would allow the road as long as it was a tunnel. A tunnel would add over $1 billion to the cost of the project. It would make it totally uneconomic and nonsensical and it will not happen. But the fear I have is that that road must be completed before the Rugby World Cup starts; otherwise all of the showcasing of New Zealand to foreign countries will make us look like a parking lot with cars stuck going nowhere. People will need to leave on a Friday to get to a Saturday rugby match if Auckland experiences the sorts of things that will happen without that project being completed. And that is if everything is done according to the schedule. Nothing ever has been done according to the schedule and this House should hold the Government to account for that. 
Hon MAHARA OKEROA (Minister of State) 
: 
 A ka tu mai ahau ki te mihi i toku nei mihi tuatahi ki te tahu korero o tenei pouwhare tawhito nei. Mihi hoki ana au ki nga mema hou i tukuna atu o ratou nei whaikorero te tuatahi me o ratau nei hinengaro whakaaro hoki no reira tena tatau tena tatau kia ora mai tatau katoa. 
[An interpretation in English was given to the House.] 
[ 
I rise to make my first address before the speaking-perch of this ancient pillar. I also acknowledge the maiden speeches by the new members and their aspirations so greetings greetings and thank you to all of us 
.]  
It has been my great fate or misfortune to follow a speech more notable for its volume than for any sense. But I want to be fair because I have taken a sampling of some wisdom from the Opposition. Bill English said: “The new voters will be young and brown. If we’re not getting their vote we’re not going to get into Parliament.” 
Now here is a statement from Doug Graham the elder statesman whom we acknowledged previously in the National Party: “I make a plea to all New Zealanders Maori and non-Maori alike. Let us see this settlement as a demonstration to the rest of the world that we in this country have pride in our cultural diversity; that with goodwill we can correct past errors; and that our vision of justice fair play and generosity of spirit one to the other still beckons us forward.” Let me quote again that elder statesman from the Opposition when he was talking about the Waikato-Tainui raupatu claim settlement bill at its third reading in October 1995: “What does the settlement mean to all New Zealanders? It means the ability of each one of us and our children and our grandchildren to enjoy harmonious race relations is enhanced. It means that cultural differences can and must be respected. It means that where generosity of spirit exists no obstacle need be insurmountable.” 
Then along came Dr Brash and National’s journey backwards began. National has cut all ties with Maori in a game of cheap political point-scoring based on a campaign dedicated to greed and race relationships. [ 
Interruption 
] Gerry Brownleee will never be a Minister of State. He will never ever be a Minister of Maori Affairs. Gerry Brownlee should sit there as a loser and take his sorrow elsewhere. So what has National committed itself to do? It has committed itself not only to abolish the Maori electorate seats—[ 
Interruption 
] What is the member laughing for? I know he went to Duntroon—not the best place to go. But National is also against the establishment of Maori wards. National in fact feels that the logic behind Maori seats is skimpy. 
Let me quote Dr Brash again: “We will remove the anachronism of the Maori seats in Parliament.” There is only one anachronism here; he is just not in the House at this time. We know who that is. Dr Brash said that in National’s view we no longer need special Maori representation in Parliament and that there can be no basis for separate Maori electorates. He also said: “There can be … no basis for government funding based on race no basis for introducing Maori wards in local authority elections and no obligation for local governments to consult Maori in preference to other New Zealanders.”—he reckons. How pitiful! 
When asked a question about Maori Television in an interview Don Brash said: “I think there is an obligation on the ground to support the Maori language. The question is is Maori Television an effective way of doing that? I think that what we have seen so far is not encouraging about this being an effective or efficient way of encouraging Maori language. I suspect that it might have been very much more efficient to provide more Maori language school books or books in general.” Hey we have been there! “I think the way they have gone about it is very expensive and rather inefficient.” he said. When asked whether that meant he was not sure his response was: “I’m not sure.” 
People who have engaged themselves in the renaissance of the Maori language—or of any language whatsoever—know that television is not only the strongest medium to encourage the revival of a language but also the fundamental building block for Maori language development. Let me give this old adage: “Ignorance is bliss; tikanga Maori is a virtue”. Kia ora tatou katoa. 
We have had a kind of SIS presence: a PC eradicator an annihilator of diverse and ethnic cultural needs and identifications. Why did the member Mr Mapp get that job? Dr Brash told TV3 that one of Dr Mapp’s qualifications—I ask members to listen to this—for this new post was the fact that he was “married to a Maori person”. It is not clear from that who that Maori person is. It may not be a female according to that. Surely Dr Brash is not suggesting that the ethnicity of an MP’s spouse has any bearing on the MP’s fitness to hold a position as a merit-based shadow Minister? Now I ask members to listen to this. I bring to the attention of the House an excerpt from Wayne Mapp’s maiden speech: “The liberating experience of education led me to develop equity admission programmes at the University of Auckland for Maori and Polynesian students undertaking commerce degrees”—[ 
Interruption 
] Unlike that member I do not have to eat it; I am a bit more discerning than that. 
I ask members to imagine a person who has gone through three different political reincarnations and who now sits in the National Party a party that is committed to the abolition of the Maori seats. The member represented Te Tai Tokerau in the Maori seat and in the second term he represented Te Tai Tokerau again and was a Minister of Maori Affairs to boot. There can be only one reason for that. The man has had a classic metamorphosis in shape colour and code. That is the kind of consistency that is sitting on the Opposition benches. The member’s name of course is the Hon Tau Henare. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Has this taken all day to put together? 
Hon MAHARA OKEROA 
: No not at all. Not all of us are slow learners. Some of us have an intellectual capacity that even surpasses that member’s capacity. 
This morning’s  
New Zealand Herald  
had a comment made by Chris Tremain. It is an excellent statement and I was moved by it. He acknowledged Maori as the “first tangata whenua” and acknowledged the “beautiful language” te reo the customs nga tikanga and the treasures—taonga. He said: “While by no means am I fluent in te reo I am learning Maori because I believe that it is the founding language of this country and that it should never be lost.” However unfortunately I am confused. If a member of the National caucus is saying that in total opposition to what the leadership of the National Party is saying then I have a problem. Yes I have a problem but at least that member has the mana and the strength to espouse something that is in total contradiction to what the leadership of the National Party is saying about our future in New Zealand in terms of our race relations. 
No reira pai hoki te mihi ki a tatau. Tena koutou tena koutou ka mutu. 
[ 
It is good to acknowledge ourselves. Greetings to you collectively and thank you. I end here 
.]  
SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
: 
 First of all tonight I would like to acknowledge the kind words of all those members who have made mention of Rod Donald in their speeches in this debate. On behalf of my colleagues here in the House the Green Party more generally and Rod’s family I thank them again for remembering Rod for the larger-than-life person that he was and for the tremendous contribution he made to this Parliament during his time here and to our evolving parliamentary system. I would also like to thank members of Parliament more broadly too for the presence of so many at Rod’s funeral in Christchurch and at his memorial service here on Monday this week and for their general kind understanding about how it has been for us over this period—and still is. We do appreciate their thoughtfulness and support at this time. 
Turning now to the Speech from the Throne I would like particularly to pick up on comments made about our country’s social welfare system. Although I welcome the assurance that the Government intends to “continue to provide a base of security for all New Zealanders alongside the provision of opportunities for work” I have considerable apprehension about what lies behind those nice words. The Government states its intention to take further action to “encourage and support those on sickness and invalids benefits to participate in the workforce.” Although on the face of it that could be construed as an entirely laudable goal when those words are allied with recommendations in the briefing paper from the Ministry of Social Development to the incoming Minister my sense of foreboding increases exponentially. 
The relevant briefing paper—part of what the Hon David Benson Pope called a “social encyclopaedia” when it was released last week—talks about eligibility for sickness and invalids benefits moving to a similar basis to the way that the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) administers its support for claimants. If the Government takes that up it would be the next step in a logical process which started in the Government’s last term of more stringent work-testing and the increasing use of accredited doctors as the department moves to push people off those benefits and into either paid work of any sort or on to the unemployment benefit which is tested much more punitively. 
The Green Party has no problem whatsoever with this or any other Government pledging to do more to help sickness and invalids beneficiaries to seek careers advice paid employment or training. But we are concerned about the current apparent strengthening of the ideological drive that says that ultimately almost all sick injured and disabled people should be in the paid workforce at almost any cost and behind that about the use of the administration of the social welfare bureaucracy to help make that happen. There are many accident compensation claimants around the country who tell their stories of the hell their lives have been reduced to through a system that focuses on getting people off income-related compensation as soon as possible rather than on fully rehabilitating people and getting them into jobs they really want to do leaving them often enough to languish on the dole on the sickness or invalids benefit or on nothing at all. In fact it is clear that one of the reasons we have an increasing proportion of sickness and invalids beneficiaries is that a number of them are people who have been driven off accident compensation and have nowhere else to turn. It will be a miserable thing if this Labour Government chooses to side with the doctrines of the right and intensifies its systemic harassment of the very people who are already suffering ill-health and impairment. 
The Government also needs to realise that despite record low unemployment figures and labour shortages in a number of geographical and industrial areas there are still hundreds of thousands of able-bodied people who want work and cannot get it or who cannot get enough of it to survive financially. Until and unless the problem of unemployment among the able-bodied and well population is solved I do not see any reason why sickness and invalids beneficiaries should soon be the subject of things like the notorious ACC work capacity tests or a global accredited doctor scheme. The Government should also acknowledge that many people on those benefits would love to have paid jobs but that the barriers to their gaining employment remain in many cases enormous. The Disability Strategy is great on paper but the reality of life for many people with or recovering from severe mental illness major physical sickness or injury and/or intellectual impairment is that there are still massive barriers to acceptance by employers and funding for support services remains far lower than the existing need—much less any future need driven up by those new policies that might come in. 
The second area of concern for the Green Party is the recommendation in the briefing paper from the Ministry of Social Development that states: “Consideration should be given to a part-time work test for sole parents strengthening the current planning approach.” Why is the much-vaunted personal development and employment planning process not good enough now? As I quoted in the House earlier today the Hon Steve Maharey in 2002 commented: “The vast majority of people currently receiving the widow’s benefit or the domestic purposes benefit are highly motivated to move into work and do not need to be shoehorned into any job going and the new rules recognise that raising healthy successful children is important. Being a good parent must come first.” Great stuff Mr Maharey! I wonder whether Mr Maharey has changed his mind or whether the new Minister has some new ideas that are actually based on the Jenny Shipley – Margaret Bazley thinking of the 1990s which was all about getting solo parents—mainly mums—out to work at almost any cost. 
The Labour Government of the last 6 years has had the decency to recognise that bringing up children on one’s own is and can be a worthy full-time job and that when children are young when there are many of them or when they are sick or disabled that job becomes even more difficult—not just when the children are under 5 or under 7. The current personal development and employment plan regime is a finely tuned balance between helping sole parents to plan ahead for training education and paid work which at the same time avoids forcing people into the paid workforce when the time is not right for either parent or children. I hope that the Minister and his colleagues will not cave in to the advice from the Ministry of Social Development or to pressure from their partners on the right. However I am worried by the fact that when I asked the Minister the Hon David Benson Pope at question time today whether he could assure the House and the public that he would not be taking up that ministry advice on sole parents and invalid and sickness beneficiaries he gave no such assurance. Instead he avoided that part of my question and wandered off into the realm of disability payments. 
The Green Party will be watching the Government’s next moves on the benefit system very closely. We will not get a high-wage high-skill full-employment economy by following the advice of officials who seem sadly to be held in the thrall of 1990s Treasury economists. Nor will we get it by cutting the special benefit and plunging the next generation of beneficiaries into deeper despair degradation and debt after the middle of next year. It ill behoves the Labour Government to turn back to the days of beneficiary-bashing social welfare reform during a term of Parliament when it is likely sadly to see rising unemployment again and more rather than fewer people forced into reliance on the benefit system. 
Alongside unemployed workers of course are their fellows who are fortunate enough to be on wages and in paid employment. Again the Government is dragging the chain totally unnecessarily. The Green Party went into the recent election calling for an immediate rise in the minimum wage to $12 an hour. Some other political parties and the union movement also supported that call yet sadly Labour seems determined to put that off for at least another 3 years. Even then it is not making a definite commitment. Nor is Labour doing anything about getting rid of the iniquitous youth minimum wage for 16 and 17-year-olds which sees them on a base rate of $7.60 an hour. I congratulate the Unite! trade union members who today launched their “Supersize my pay!” campaign with a groundbreaking strike and picket at an Auckland Starbucks Coffee outlet. 
Starbucks Coffee workers are typical of those who have been left to languish on wages that are far too low for anyone to live on much less people who live in Auckland. The Working for Families package and accommodation supplement continue to provide massive subsidies to employers like Starbucks Coffee and to others who have no scruples about paying their staff as little as they can get away with at the expense of the taxpayer. Three years is far too long for workers like those to wait and I wish Unite! all the best for its campaign alongside similar moves from other unions that are happening at present. 
Hopelessly low wages and a dysfunctional inadequate benefit system underpin the ongoing high rates of child poverty in this country. The same Ministry of Social Development briefing that I referred to earlier states that in 2003-04 94000 children in sole parent families and 120000 children in two-parent families were living in poverty or below what the social report likes to call the “low-income threshold”. I doubt that those numbers are much different today. That is a disgrace in a developed country like ours. A Labour Government in its third term should be doing everything it possibly can to end poverty. It should not compound it by continuing the structural discrimination against beneficiaries by further harassment of beneficiaries or by persisting with unbelievably low minimum wages. 
Over the next 3 years we in the Green Party will be doing everything we can to hold this Government to account. We would love to see a Labour Government that this time round sticks to principles of fairness and equity for all its citizens and does not get suckered into further attacks on low-wage workers unemployed people and beneficiaries and their children. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: New Zealand First has a split call of 5 minutes for each speaker. 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY (NZ First) 
: 
 First Mr Deputy Speaker I extend my congratulations to Madam Speaker to yourself and to the two Assistant Speakers on your election to your respective roles. 
Back in 1998 on the break-up of the New Zealand First – National Government I sat on the Opposition benches for a week while still a member of the executive. Sir Geoffrey Palmer called it a constitutional outrage and said that there was no precedent for such a situation. However my doing so was consistent with my pledge to the then Prime Minister Jenny Shipley to enable a secure transfer of power. Parliamentary precedence is made by what MPs do when faced with novel circumstances. So it is with the current arrangements that New Zealand First has made post-election. However I must admit that yesterday I was faced with a huge procedural dilemma. I wanted a glass of water and I could not quite work out which lobby I should go to in order to get it. In the end I got one from the centre Table but seeing that I am not part of the Government I probably should have gone to the Noes lobby. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: New Zealand First is part of the Government. 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY 
: We might just mention Robert Reich if Mr Henare keeps on with that. 
In the Speech from the Throne the following point was made: “The security of the New Zealand economy in the 21st century will come from the ability of our firms to be part of a high skill high productivity and high wage economy.” Such outcomes are premised on an education system that delivers people with the necessary skills. 
That brings me to a point in the confidence and supply agreement negotiated by New Zealand First which contains a pledge for further exploration of the creation of a non - university “university of technology” class of institution. At present our tertiary structure is missing a vital piece. We have for example a university of technology that in fact is not a university of technology because there is no such entity in New Zealand. The chair of the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors’ Committee indicated to the Education and Science Committee that the institution is not a university either yet the Government classifies it as such. I ask members not to take it from my remarks that the institution is anything but a quality institution but the situation highlights the mess we have got ourselves into. 
The point of tension in the system began when polytechnics and institutions of technology were allowed to issue degrees. The issuing of degrees was inevitable as the nature of knowledge in the vocational areas traditionally taught by those institutions became more complex. For example in 1990 the radiography course was taught by the Auckland Hospital Board and dealt with administering X-rays. Now the technology requires an understanding of magnetic resonance imaging ultrasound radiotherapy and a whole range of elements that almost demand a degree in physics. So for us to continue to recognise the acquisition of the necessary knowledge and skills for what is now called “imaging” with a 2-year diploma is no longer adequate. A bachelors degree and indeed a masters degree are appropriate. We now have for example degree programmes in auto-mechanics. 
The problem is that the institutions granting those degrees justifiably desire parity of esteem for their qualifications. But when a couple of institutions applied to be converted to university status—as far back I might say as 1996—there was nothing in the legislation but a relatively vague definition of what a university was. So some profile around the proportion of degree programmes and the volume and nature of research etc. had to be established. The Auckland University of Technology of course successfully negotiated that process albeit the chair of the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors’ Committee was not convinced. Unitec was not able to get through the process by the time Labour became the Government. The difficulty is that for institutions to gain parity of esteem for their qualifications they have to create a profile in order to become like traditional universities. 
New Zealand First looks forward to being able to cut the Gordian knot of this intractable policy problem as a result of its confidence and supply agreement. It is just another bauble that we are happy to accept. 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 Firstly Mr Deputy Speaker I congratulate you. I can think of no person in this House more worthy of the position than the Hon Clem Simich. It is interesting that the National Party did not nominate you as Speaker but I say well done and congratulations—it is about time. 
I also congratulate the new members in the House and in particular all the new list MPs. Is it not amazing the number of people who have sat in this House in their pious and pompous manner as supposedly “Group A” MPs—in being constituency MPs—criticising and slandering Green members and New Zealand First members because they were list MPs but ignoring the fact that the Deputy Prime Minister and deputy leader of the Labour Party is himself a list MP? Many of those people are now having to eat humble pie and accept their new status as list MPs also. I hope they do not struggle too hard on the reduced budget. I hope they do not struggle with the increased workload as they meet the expectation of their being constituency MPs for the whole country. A man once told me that a constituency MP was the only real type of MP and that man Mr Tau Henare now also sits here as a list MP. I congratulate him and welcome him to the club. 
I congratulate Nathan Guy. It is good to have a farmer’s voice in the House. Unfortunately we have had to put up with National MPs who have described farming in their own words as a sunset industry that has had its day. Maurice Williamson Lockwood Smith and David Carter all saw farming as a sort of backwater industry that had seen its best years. I welcome Nathan Guy to this House. It is good to hear a strong farmer’s voice. 
I say to Bob Clarkson: “Enjoy your stay mate. See ya later; you’ll be gone.” I congratulate John Hayes on the article— 
Bob Clarkson 
: I raise a point of order Mr Deputy Speaker— 
RON MARK 
: The member should sit down; he does not have a point of order. He should learn the rules. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I will deal with matters like that from the Chair. 
RON MARK 
: I know but he is so new.  
Bob Clarkson 
: I raise a point of order Mr Deputy Speaker. The member has his facts wrong. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: That is not a point of order. 
RON MARK 
: Speaking to the point of order I hope that I have not lost that time from my speech. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: No absolutely not. 
RON MARK 
: I emphasise again that members must learn the rules. There was a good article in the  
Sunday Star-Times  
about National’s John Hayes 
.  
He should just 
pay the lady her money and get on with being an MP. Clearly there will be an investigation into Mr John Hayes’ dealings in the Wairarapa and as a born and raised Wairarapa boy I can tell the House that many long-standing National Party people are gravely concerned. National was warned. 
Moving right along I thank Maurice Williamson. He gave a speech about National’s road transport policy that was directly stolen from New Zealand First. The policy goes back to Bill Birch and the National Party team. When New Zealand First—and Tau Henare fought with us—fought to get that very same transport policy enacted what did National members say? They said that it was unaffordable and could not be done and now they claim that it was their idea. All I say to National members is that they should sit back and watch the ride. 
They can watch New Zealand First put into place initiatives that they envy. We will have 1000 extra police on the ground and a review of the home detention system. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I say to Mr Henare that that was a running commentary which is not acceptable. 
RON MARK 
: He is still a new boy—a little rough around the edges and going to get rougher. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I do not want to have a go at your ruling but if the barrage is continuous at a member of the House surely there must be some leeway for that person whomever it is to reply. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: No there is not actually. But your turn for debate will come. 
RON MARK 
: He did not know the rules then; he does not know the rules now. Yet National members laud him as someone who will lead them on to nirvana. I say to Mr Henare that he is a good man but he has to learn the rules he has to brush up and—[ 
Interruption 
] People like the elderly statesman down the back—the short-time MP—will have to learn the rules as well. 
We in New Zealand First will progress the review on home detention bring on stream more police and review youth offending. And I have a message for Mr Sharples. He had a great maiden speech but he needs to understand that the reason Maori are in jail is that they break the law. As Maori we have to accept that we have a culture of violence that starts in the family. Any man who accepts within his family a man who would beat women beat his wife beat his children and abuse and assault people is condoning and promoting violence. That man is the very man who contributes to the high incarceration rates of Maori—not my colleague David Carter not Brian Donnelly and not Michael Cullen. Maori themselves need to accept their responsibility for their culture of violence. I would have thought that Don Brash would be saying that now as opposed to hongi-ing Hone Harawira. 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Minister of Labour) 
: 
 I add my congratulations to you Mr Deputy Speaker on your very well-deserved appointment. It has been rather frustrating to listen to the National Party tonight. It has been a bit like the days—as many people in the House will recall—when we used to hear confession. That is what it has been like to listen to the National Party tonight. 
The star confessor has been Maurice Williamson who was tonight promising absolute heaven on earth for Auckland motorists. If National was the Government there would be no traffic problem in Auckland because Maurice Williamson would have fixed it! He would have sorted it out if only people had known better because National had all this money put aside to spend on Auckland roads. Maurice Williamson seems to have forgotten that he was the Minister of Transport under the previous National Government and that not only did he do nothing about Auckland’s traffic congestion but it became worse. He left that shambles when he was unelected as Minister of Transport when that National-led Government was thrown out. 
Ron Mark 
: He vetoed that policy. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: I say to Mr Mark that he should take another call if he can. He has a lot to contribute to this debate. He has done only a little tonight but the volume more than makes up for it. 
Maurice Williamson is a bit like the rest of the National caucus—it promises everything and delivers nothing—but because he used to be a Minister he is worse. He did absolutely nothing in all that time to help with the Auckland gridlock problem. The only good contribution Maurice Williamson made in this House was in his singing ability. I can well remember his songs when he used to sing alongside Brian Neeson and Wyatt Creech about the “Deadwood - Blues Brothers”—about how he was part of the “Deadwoods” and how he was about to get cut out of the National Party by the then president Michelle Boag. He sang very well but he did nothing at all about the Auckland traffic problem. 
So Maurice Williamson should not come into this House and tell us just a few weeks after the election that he has all the solutions because we in this House all know that when Mr Williamson had the chance as Minister things went backwards and that they would again if he was in that position. He was the man who was knocked out by National’s then leader Bill English for being disloyal to his party. But when Don Brash was elected as leader back came Maurice Williamson. Frankly some people are beyond recycling. 
Even though Maurice Williamson’s singing is great he is clearly past his best as is Don Brash the current leader of the National Party. Don Brash is perhaps best described by the  
National Business Review 
 which is not a paper that I often quote from. But I was very attracted to its headline which stated in reference to Don Brash’s speech in the Address in Reply debate “It’s like taking a soufflé to a barbecue.” The article stated that Don Brash needs to learn to take a little more advice and that in his reply to the Speech from the Throne his words fell short. It stated: “… National squandered a major opportunity.” That is what every major media outlet in the country has been saying. The article further stated: “Brash likes to retain responsibility for the content of his own speeches.”—well frankly no one else would claim credit for the content of his speeches—“He writes the majority himself and seeks opinions from pointy-headed acquaintances. … National staff need to wrest the pen out of his hands.” 
Dr Brash’s deputy leader Gerry Brownlee is shining just as poorly. Disregarded by most of his colleagues he started off this parliamentary term with an extraordinary attack on the Governor-General. To quote the  
New Zealand Herald 
: “One of the prime requisites of political leadership is an understanding of constitutional procedures and a certain sensitivity to the position of Governor-General. Mr Brownlee has declared himself deficient on both counts.” Well the article was counting only two things; if it had counted more he would have been found deficient on all counts I am sure. 
I wonder whether that was yet another Maurice Williamson - type cunning plan. That attack on the Governor-General may actually have been a back-door attack on the leader of the National Party Don Brash. Perhaps Mr Brownlee does not have the self-confidence of Brian Connell who said upfront what a poor view he has of his leader. Gerry Brownlee must have known that Don Brash had received a letter from the Governor-General saying: “Call me because I won’t call you.” He is the deputy leader of the National Party so he must have known that that letter had been received by his leader yet he attacked the Governor-General for not ringing Don Brash. Dr Brash clearly did not feel under attack. He clearly felt very strongly in support of his deputy because only 3 days later he leapt to the defence of his deputy saying that he was a first-class deputy leader—only 3 days after Mr Brownlee had embarrassed himself up and down the countryside. 
Perhaps Mr Brownlee should take a lead from Brian Connell who after his most recent mistake issued a full and an absolutely credible—not—apology saying that he deeply regretted the way his comments were interpreted. Dr Brash said that Mr Connell had clearly apologised to himself and the caucus but Dr Brash refused to express confidence in Mr Connell or to say whether any further action would be taken against him. Brian Connell did not return any calls over that period but he again said that he deeply regretted the way his comments were interpreted. It is no wonder that that caucus with so many new people looking so distressed about the performance of their leader—in the House and outside it—and the behaviour of their deputy is now scouting around way beyond John Key and Simon Power for someone who will be a leader in the future. 
The best part of being in this Parliament is having robust debates with a competent Opposition. Frankly over the last 6 years that has not been possible. I was hoping that with the new intake of National MPs and with the increased diversity—although smaller membership—in the House we would have that possibility. After hearing the maiden speeches and seeing the performances in the Address in Reply debate I was deeply disappointed. This again will be hard work for our Government but with the support of New Zealand First United Future and the Greens I am confident that we will deliver on our manifesto and continue well into the coming term. 
A party vote was called for on the question  
That the following words be added to the Address: and that it informs Her Excellency that this House has no confidence in the Labour - New Zealand First Government because it has no serious programme to secure rising incomes for all New Zealanders; because the Labour component of the Government has coasted over the last six years on the back of strong export prices and utterly failed to lay the foundations for reducing the gap between living standards on this side of the Tasman and those in Australia; because it fought a dishonest election campaign one that ransacked the public purse for irresponsible party purposes; because during that campaign it suppressed vital information about the financial consequences of its policies; and because it has trampled over all previous constitutional conventions in cobbling together a bizarre set of coalition arrangements that put personal ambitions well ahead of the national interest.” 
Ayes 50 
New Zealand National 48; ACT New Zealand 2. 
Noes 67 
New Zealand Labour 50; New Zealand First 7; Green Party 6; United Future 3; Progressive 1. 
Abstentions 4 
Maori Party 4. 
Amendment not agreed to. 
Address in Reply agreed to. 
"