Goff Phil: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Goff Phil: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 24 October 2007. Volume:643;Page:12654. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Defence) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. In 10 days’ time the Labour Party conference will be celebrating the achievements of this Labour-led Government. People will be celebrating the fact that this is the fifth Labour Government and that the social and economic progress that has been made through the history of this country has been made when Labour has been in Government. They will be celebrating the leadership of Helen Clark whose leadership has endured whereas the National Party—that hopeless group across the Chamber—has been through five different leaders. We remember when Jenny Shipley stabbed Jim Bolger in the back Bill English stabbed Jenny Shipley Don Brash stabbed Bill English and John Key moved in when Don Brash saw what was coming and got out of the way. 
The Labour Party conference will reflect on the fact that while the National Party has been involved in internecine conflict between factions this Labour Government has been united and collaborative in taking this country forward. And how we have taken this country forward! Since 1999 the New Zealand economy has grown by over 28 percent. That is a higher per annum average growth rate than that of either the OECD or our partners in Australia and the United States. The conference will be celebrating the fact that this Labour-led Government has created a third of a million more jobs for New Zealanders; we have halved the unemployment rate in this country. 
The conference will be celebrating the fact that this is a Government that achieves for families and a Government that recognises the cost of raising children. Let us take a person on $35000 a year with a family. That person’s tax credits under Working for Families are worth $199 a week to that family. What orthodox tax cut policy would deliver to a family in need in the way that Michael Cullen’s Working for Families package has delivered for those low-income New Zealanders? Let us take even middle-income New Zealanders—a couple on $62000 a year. They would be getting back $92 a week under Working for Families. Those are real cuts making real differences in the living standards of ordinary New Zealanders. Put that together with cheaper doctors’ visits cheaper prescriptions the 20 hours of free early childhood education and we can see what a real difference this Labour-led Government has made for ordinary New Zealand families. 
One of the things that I am most proud of is that the cut in unemployment more people being in work and Working for Families will have lifted 130000 New Zealand children out of poverty. That is a track record for New Zealanders as a whole to be truly proud of. Businesses had their rate of tax cut; that was the first tax cut for businesses in decades by a Labour Government but that policy was opposed by the National Party. The sound economic management of Michael Cullen will mean that personal tax cuts will be available but not funded by overseas borrowing like John Key and Bill English propose; they will not be funded by cuts in investment in social services but funded because this is a country that has real and enduring growth. 
Let us look at the social investment that we have made. We now have 4000 more nurses in this country who were written off by the National Party as simply bureaucrats. We have 28 new public hospitals from Kaitaia to Bluff. We have 10000 additional elective surgery procedures each year. They are part of the achievements of this Labour-led Government. We have nearly 5000 new teachers over and above what the roll growth would normally justify. We have a 180 percent increase in the funding of early childhood education. 
We can compare those sorts of achievements with the National Party’s proposals—like the secret agenda of privatisation let out of the bag by Bill English a couple of weeks ago; the proposal by Tony Ryall to lift the cap on doctors’ fees; and the proposal to lift the cap on tertiary student fees. That party cannot remember backing the war in Iraq and cannot remember the way that the previous National Government cut education cut health and cut superannuation in the 1990s. The National Party is a party embarrassed about its own ideology and therefore it will not reveal its policies publicly.