Smith Nick: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Smith Nick: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:623;Page:18254] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 That was the “Minister for Health Bureaucracy”. That Minister for all she says about health care needs to be reminded that in the time she has been the Minister of Health the number of New Zealanders on sickness and invalids benefits has grown by 32000. There are 32000 more beneficiaries—an extra 1000 in my community of Nelson alone—and that shows something of the failed Government record on health. If the best this Government can do is to produce the tired boring agenda that was outlined yesterday then it is time for Labour to call it quits. It is a do-nothing Government. It stands for nothing and it is taking New Zealand absolutely nowhere. 
If we put aside all the flowery rhetoric of Helen Clark’s speech we see that the Government’s programme is truly pathetic. At the end of the speech we were told of the legislation that this Government intends to pass to make the bold new nation the Labour Party favours. The legislation includes the Architects Amendment Bill the Charities Bill the Securities Legislation Bill and the Lawyers and Conveyancers Bill. For all the challenges that this nation in 2005 has that is the work programme for this Parliament! 
This will be the fifth general election since I have been in Parliament and the Government’s programme is the most pathetic I have seen in that period. The only elements that have any substance at all are the Resource Management Amendment Bill the Overseas Investment Bill and the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Bill. But everybody knows that the only reason for those bills is the heat coming from the Opposition on those issues. My message to the voter is that if the policy agenda of any issues of substance is to be written by the Opposition then cut out the middle man and put National in so the job can be done properly. 
The only other bill that was left on the Government’s programme is the Relationships (Statutory References) Bill which is about making de facto gay and married relationships all the same. As if that is going to take New Zealand anywhere! This is just another part of this Government’s anti-family agenda. 
The part of Helen Clark’s speech that had me choking at the throat was her rhetoric about Labour creating an ownership society. Coming from the community of Nelson where house prices have doubled I want to ask the House today about the issues of income interest rates and housing costs. In all three of those areas for the average New Zealand family Labour has made the dream of getting their own home only harder. Let us take the issue of income. It has been well exposed by Dr Don Brash and John Key that despite the economic growth of the last 5 years real per household income has been static. It is true that we have had buoyant times. The income of the average New Zealand household has gone up in real terms by $4000 a year but taxes have gone up by $3700 a year. 
In other words this Government has taken all the economic dividend. It is absolutely no wonder that the average New Zealand family is struggling. 
Then if we look at rates they have gone up under this Government’s local government policy by 33 percent since it has been in office and families have to struggle with those bills. Let us look at the area of education. Average school fees have gone up by over 30 percent since this Government has been in office and again that is why families are feeling squeezed. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Those terrible private schools putting fees up. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: That Minister and that Government are totally out of touch with the real struggle that the ordinary New Zealand family is facing with the increased costs and taxes imposed on them by this Government. 
Then we come to the issue of housing costs. Government members somehow believe from the Prime Minister’s speech that they can be the ownership party. On 1 March new building laws come into effect. They will double the cost for the average New Zealand family to get a building permit from the local council. How will that help the average family who wants to put another room on the house or those who are building the new houses that our nation needs? 
Then there is the Government’s mad policy in respect of the Resource Management Act and the impact that that is having on pushing housing prices well out of the reach of ordinary families. There is also the Government’s record on interest rates. Interest rates have gone up by 25 percent from the time this Government took office and that has a very real bearing on the cost that families have in trying to aspire to own their own home. The idea that this Labour Party can in any way claim a stake to homeownership has to be one of the biggest jokes I have heard in this Parliament in a very very long time. 
Then there is the real crunch issue. I want to challenge the Prime Minister. She says that the figures produced by our Parliamentary Library are rubbish. Let me put those figures on the record so that New Zealanders know just how much the gap has opened up between New Zealand and Australia over the last 5 years. Back in 1999 when this Government took office there was a gap of $111 a week in the net weekly earnings of New Zealand households compared with Australian households yet now just 5 years later that gap has opened up to $169. It is no wonder that some of our best and brightest citizens are crossing the Tasman when this Government’s policies drive the net income gap so much wider between New Zealand and Australia. 
I will summarise the figures in this way because it really is the verdict of failure on this Government: over the last 5 years net weekly family wages in Australia have gone up by $75 a week; in New Zealand they have gone up by $16 a week over 5 years. Is that as much as this Government thinks is acceptable? My goodness if they are the good times God save New Zealand if we get into the bad times! 
I want to contrast the Prime Minister’s speech—the speech that stated that the minor amendments to the Architects Act and a few other bills will somehow drive the next stage of growth for the New Zealand economy—with the sort of speech we heard from Don Brash. It was a speech that outlined that by giving New Zealanders back their hard-earned earnings the country will be far better off and that rather than having the nation indulge more and more in welfare we want to promote independence and self-reliance. 
It is an awful indictment on this Government that its own Budget says that there will be 18000 more beneficiaries in 3 years’ time. That is the Budget that Trevor Mallard signed off last year. He thinks it is OK that over the next 3 years there will be another 18000 beneficiaries. National members say that that is not good enough we need to get those benefit numbers down and Don Brash has set out a very detailed programme on how to do that. 
In relation to law and order New Zealanders have had a gutsful of this Government’s soft policies. National has been absolutely specific on the bail changes the parole changes the prison changes and the victims’ rights changes that we will advance to get on top of that very real New Zealand concern about law and order. 
Then there is education. In no area has this Government failed so badly as in the area of education. The implementation of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement has been a disaster. Employers and parents want to know what in the heck is going on. Why is it that we have a politically correct Government that says we are no longer allowed to use the word “fail”? Why did Trevor Mallard back in 2001 make a decision that the Qualifications Authority would not record when people did not achieve such is the PC nonsense of this Government? 
New Zealanders have had enough of this tired Government. They want a Government that is committed to raising the stakes of living and raising education standards so that they might prosper and not be held back by the pathetic people who make up this Government.