Mapp Wayne: Appropriation (2007/08 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Mapp Wayne: Appropriation (2007/08 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:641;Page:11086] 
Dr WAYNE MAPP (National—North Shore) 
: 
 If Mr Dover Samuels thinks that last speech was good he has to be dreaming. Members on the other side are dreaming. It has been an extraordinary spectacle over the last 2 weeks in the House to see the desperate flailing around of Labour members. They know they are in decline. I have to be honest and say that National went through a similar experience from 1996 to 1999 so we know the signs of terminal decay in a party. And the Labour Party is showing every image of precisely that. The real indication is when those members give Opposition speeches from the Government benches. That is what they have been giving in the last few days. 
I saw an extraordinary spectacle last week. Mr Phil Goff a senior Minister in the Government gave the most bizarre speech. It was not just a vein-popper; we thought his head was literally going to explode. It was a classic example of an Opposition speech. Those members know that is exactly where they are going to end up—in Opposition. I have to say to the previous speaker Mr Clayton Cosgrove that I am sure he will make an excellent Opposition member of Parliament. I am pleased to see he is in training for that task already. 
At this point I say this country is ready for the new generation of leadership. New Zealanders are asking the simple question as to what kind of country they want New Zealand to be over the next decade. The public have seen Labour and they are saying that this country can do better. To quote Judith Collins: “The Labour Government is so boring.” It is just extraordinary. 
I want to indicate to Labour Party members how they wasted their years in office. The highest growth rates New Zealand has experienced were from 1994—and actually included some part of Labour’s time in Government—to around 2003. We were gaining on the OECD ladder so when people said we would be in the top half of the OECD in 10 years that was a credible proposition. We have only to go at around 0.7 percent of GDP better than the average and we would get there. I have to say that Labour lost its opportunity. 
Back in 1999 this country was crying out for leadership. That is why the growth and innovation conferences were held. I went to those conferences I listened to the debates and I heard the focus. One of the themes of those debates put together by the vice-chancellor of Auckland University Dr Hood was to try to energise the Government—to make it seize the opportunity that it could see was ahead of it. I saw the Prime Minister give her negative speech during those conferences. She gave negative press conferences and basically poured cold water on the idea that this country could drive ahead. Do members know what has happened? Those people have left this country. Professor Hood left Auckland University for greener pastures. I am prepared to say he would still be in this country if the right decisions had been made and this country had seized the opportunity to drive ahead. 
Countries get critical opportunities. This country has had a huge opportunity around commodity prices tourism and globalisation over the last decade. This Government has rejected those opportunities. They are only little things but cumulatively they add up. Why did the Government pass for instance the second part of the employment relations reforms in 2004? That was guaranteed to slow up reform. Why did it do nothing about the Resource Management Act when it is a critical blockage to growth? Why has it loaded on compliance costs through the Transport Act? It is all of those creeping— 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Because it is Labour socialism. 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: It is socialism. It is the control freak mentality of the Government that stultifies the potential of New Zealanders. 
One of the people whom the Government could be listening to is Mr David Skilling. He wants this country to do better. He has been talking about a prescription—so that this country can do better. It needs to be looking more outward. It needs to be providing more investment into research education—particularly higher education—and driving out towards exports. There needs to be a clear focus on economic growth and doing the right things for that. Individually those might not be much by themselves but cumulatively they add up. 
The Government has to ask itself this critical question: “Why has productivity declined so much in the last 2 years?”. There was a period when we were actually getting ahead in productivity—above the OECD. Now we have slipped behind again. Does the Government want to know why it cannot fund Pharmac demands why it cannot deal with the waiting lists in the hospitals why it cannot get energy around broadband and why the country is just slipping behind as a nation? I know that the Government will say the country is not slipping behind but the proof is in the fact that we have declined from 20th in the OECD ranking 5 years ago to 22nd today. Some people might say that that is not a huge decline. But the point is that it is a decline and this Government is responsible. Members of the Government will wash their hands of it and say: “That was not us we did not do that. It is because we do not have the right mix of industries and so forth.” But they have done the things that have stultified initiative. 
I want to draw the Government’s attention to this particular point. Why is it that the number of young New Zealanders going to Australia has increased by 25 percent? Why is it that so many young New Zealanders have decided that the pastures are greener elsewhere? Why is it that they have decided this country does not offer enough hope and opportunity for them? Why is it that the numbers of people leaving have gone from 625 a week to 750 a week in the space of just 12 months? Those people are mostly young people. They are mostly qualified people. It is because they do not have enough hope in this country to be able to better themselves. They see better opportunities elsewhere. 
It might be true that the Government is now starting to hang its head in shame. Its members know they were in office when these things happened. They cannot avoid the accountability around that. That is why New Zealanders do not care what Mr Key might have said about the Iraq war 2 years ago. It is simply not important to people’s lives aspirations or hopes. They want to know what the next agenda is for the country. They want to know whether there is a Government that will make the right decisions that will give incentive and opportunity and will drive ahead to reach the potential that this country has. We have had a decade of wasted opportunities as seen by Dr Hood back in 2000. 
I can say to the Government that the National Party here is ready with policies with ideas and more important with a sense of direction because that is what this Government lacks—a sense of direction. It would sooner muddle around in some pathetic scandals as it calls them about events that occurred years ago when what the public actually want is a sense of hope and aspiration and this Government has completely failed them on that. National will deliver.