Goodhew Jo: General Debate 
Goodhew Jo: General Debate 
[Volume:638;Page:8845] 
JO GOODHEW (National—Aoraki) 
: 
 In rising to contribute to the general debate I can report that much has changed in the few months since I last spoke in this debate. A sense of unease has beset New Zealanders and a sense of failure has gripped the Government benches. New Zealanders are uneasy because they have had a dawning realisation that their country is succumbing to a tyranny of mismanagement and misjudgment by the Labour-led Government. The Government has got a number of things wrong. In fact the list is endless but I will name just a few things. 
New Zealanders do not want to have their lives ruled by big Government. I say to the Labour Government that it is wrong. Helen Clark and company got it wrong when they attempted to sweep Taito Phillip Field’s dodgy dealings with illegal immigrants under the carpet. They were wrong to think we would not notice that and wrong to think the issue would go away—very wrong. Helen Clark and company got it wrong when they thought New Zealanders would like to pay for their election campaigns in the future. State funding of elections? Wrong again. Helen Clark and company got it wrong when they thought New Zealanders would believe that Sue Bradford’s bill was not an anti-smacking bill. Having finally realised that New Zealanders believed neither her nor Sue Bradford the Prime Minister has now agreed with John Key’s efforts to amend the bill in order to protect New Zealand parents. It was wrong to think that New Zealanders would be taken in and it was wrong to try to criminalise good parents in an attempt to stop child abuse—wrong; wrong again. 
Helen Clark and company have mismanaged their diversions as well. What is the evidence of that? The Auckland maimai stunt of Trevor Mallard. One billion dollars to be spent on a stadium? I do not think so. New Zealanders said: “No wrong again.” 
In the health sector Pete Hodgson and company have got it wrong as well. You see the Minister of Health thought that New Zealanders were OK with the huge increases in health spending that are occurring without significant health gains or productivity gains—wrong wrong wrong. New Zealanders are sick of reading disaster stories on the front pages of the dailies sick of basic health care failures and sick of descriptions from the Health and Disability Commissioner of deadly communication lapses such as that concerning an acutely ill woman who was discharged from hospital three times without her general practitioner being notified even once. So of course he did not know that she was at home when she died there—the day after her last discharge. 
There are lapses that see patients with pneumonia failing to get the drugs they need because the X-rays were not read. Well when I started out as a nurse many years ago that was basic procedure. People with serious illnesses have been turned away at the emergency department to either die or have their condition worsen and become life-threatening. There is the case of the elderly man for whom a communication lapse saw him get the wrong medication and die—I think the description was “hastened to his death”. Are New Zealanders happy about that? Are New Zealanders heralding the changes that are being made and the money that is being spent in the health system? I do not think so Mr Hodgson. I think Mr Hodgson is wrong. 
Helen Clark and company have been wrong on many fronts. They have been making decisions for New Zealanders as if they have no minds of their own. They have been wrong to interfere in the lives of good parents and wrong to think that New Zealanders want to be dependent on the State. They demean New Zealanders when they say it is OK for the Government to give New Zealanders the Working for Families benefit when in fact one could leave them with the hard-earned money they had earned in the first place. 
The Prime Minister is also wrong if she thinks that it is a very big issue to have royalties paid to artists. If the Prime Minister ever paints her own painting she and Judith Tizard would like to see that Helen Clark gets the royalties for that painting if it is ever sold in the future. You see this Government has run out of good ideas. It thought that that particular one would be a winner when in fact it is not. I wonder what happens when one gives a painting away and whether that means it is worth nothing and there are no royalties there at all in the future. 
This Labour Government has been wrong on many fronts: the pledge card Taito Phillip Field smacking overspending the Auckland stadium art royalties and its health spending—wrong wrong wrong. New Zealanders have had enough of this Government. That is why they come into my office stop me on the street and say they cannot wait to get rid of Labour and are fed up to the back teeth with being told what to think. New Zealanders are fed up to the back teeth full stop.