Roy Heather: Adjournment 
Roy Heather: Adjournment 
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HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 On behalf of the ACT party I would like to join my parliamentary colleagues in thanking all those who work so hard to make our lives easier here at Parliament: the security staff the messengers the library the Hansard staff the Office of the Clerk the select committee staff the Parliamentary Service staff and the travel office. Certainly our lives would not run nearly as smoothly without the contribution that they all make to Parliament. 
Madam Speaker I would also mention you and your team and the contribution that you make to the smooth running of this House as well. Your job is not always easy but you do it with respect to fellow MPs with a great deal of tolerance and usually with very good humour. I thank you for that. To those MPs who are retiring we wish them the very best for their future. 
On behalf of Rodney and myself I also thank with a great deal of sincerity our own staff. To our parliamentary staff Sandy Sally Chas and Andrew and also to our out-of-Parliament staff Priscilla Brian Stuart and Neil we offer our very sincere thanks for the hard work and the support they have provided us with over the last 3 years. 
The dissolving of Parliament means that we inevitably move into full-scale campaigning mode and just in anticipation of that I say it is my view that the election campaign should not be thought of as a sprint to the finish line. In reality it is the beginning of a marathon setting the pace for the long endurance event that is making our nation a much safer and a more prosperous place for all. A vision is obviously needed to achieve that goals need to be established and a plan needs to be put in place. I have stood on a lot of election stages already where candidate after candidate stands and says: “I cannot tell you what our policy is on this yet.” I am proud to belong to a party that has no shortage of policy and we are happy to share that policy. Our policy is based on a vision of our country that can again foot it with the rest of world—and in particular with our neighbour and colleague Australia—by the year 2020. 
The ACT party does not believe that anybody has a monopoly on good ideas. Good ideas should be put forward they should be debated by all and they should be shared around for the benefit of all our citizens. Here are the big issues as we see them for the election campaign. 
Firstly the economy is a big issue. In the face of what seems to be a global financial meltdown we will experience flow-on effects here in New Zealand but given our large degree of self-determination we should not use the global situation as an excuse to not make the tough decisions that need to be made in order to move our nation forward and to lay the groundwork for strong economic growth. The ACT party believes we should be striving for economic growth of 5 percent on top of what we currently have. We should be lifting our performance and growing the economic cake. We should be not constantly quibbling about how we will divide up the cake that currently exists but growing it because that is what will make everyone better off particularly those who are currently struggling. What is needed is an urgent focus on improving productivity shrinking the size of government and letting people keep more of what they earn. 
Law and order too seems to be emerging as a huge election issue this campaign. The ACT party has always taken a strong stand on law and order and our zero tolerance for crime policy—or the slogan at least—now seems to have been adopted by just about every party in this Parliament. We also want to see truth in sentencing and our policy plank this election will be the three strikes and the maximum policy. These policies are ever more relevant today in a society that seems sadly to place much greater importance on the rights of criminals than on those of the victims. 
Education is the greatest gift we can give to our children. Education empowers people and gives them the ability to move forward in life and to make the wise decisions that will help them strive and prosper and we need to place a great deal of emphasis on this. School choice is the tool that will give parents the ability to give their children the greatest gift of all the gift of education. 
Climate change also seems to be a huge election issue. The world’s core temperature has always fluctuated and our scientists seem to have fallen into two camps. There seems to be no agreement on the impact that mankind is having. Although there is no doubt that we should all treat our plant with respect—it is our home after all—we need to be realistic about the influence that New Zealand can have when we contribute just 0.02 percent of the total worldwide carbon emissions. 
ACT is the only party that has opposed an emissions trading scheme from the time it was introduced into this Parliament and right through the process. It is costly it is open to fraud and abuse—of which we have had any number of examples in Europe—and it will increase electricity and fuel costs for all. But most important it will increase costs for those people who are already struggling; those who are least able to afford those increased costs in their budgets now. 
ACT believes in a carbon tax. We should have a carbon tax if we are to do anything at all because that would be a much fairer model as it provides the right incentives. It would see the polluters pay for the amount of pollution they produce with the incentive inevitably being to reduce their carbon emissions so that they pay less tax. What we have now is a certain cost based on uncertain science. 
As we enter into this election campaign and leave Parliament I would say just one thing to my parliamentary colleagues. I hope that as we get out and about on the hustings we can put aside personal grievances and things that have gone before us in this forty-eighth Parliament that we will play the ball rather than the man and that we will discuss the things that will inevitably move our country forward and we make the hard decisions that will do that. [ 
Interruption 
] The ACT party—despite the jostling from the Government members over there who will be on a different side of this Chamber after the election—will take that into account. 
Just in finishing I say that a party vote for National or the ACT party will bring about a change in Government after this election but more important a constituency vote for a National Party candidate plus a party vote for the ACT party will bring about for New Zealanders and their children the change of Government that is so desperately needed. The ACT party looks forward to being back in Parliament—back in the 49th Parliament—after the election with increased numbers so that we can move forward. Particularly we will bring in a taxpayer rights bill to cap Government spending and limit the size of Government so that everybody can get about their business as they should be able to and we will progress the Regulatory Responsibility Bill. 
I wish my parliamentary colleagues the very best in the election campaign. We look forward to being back in the forty-ninth Parliament in ever increased numbers. I offer my thanks again to those who have helped us so willingly and have given their all in the past 3 years.