Smith Nick: General Debate 
Smith Nick: General Debate 
[Volume:629;Page:1382] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 We know how much trouble the credibility of the Government is in when we hear one of its members speak for 5 minutes without mentioning a single issue of any importance to the people of New Zealand. That is how rotten to the core this Labour Government is and why it is on death row. Don Brash put the issue of the Government’s credibility on the agenda this afternoon. Today at midday the Government put out an expensive document on an issue that matters—an important issue to do with billions of dollars of roading—and within an hour the Government said: “You don’t believe it. Nothing to be believed.” The Government put out a pledge card with the Prime Minister’s own photo and signature on it in breach of the law. The matter is now before the police. 
I want to bring a further issue into the arena—the issues around Kyoto where again this Government does not have any credibility. You see 4 years ago the Government ratified the Kyoto Protocol and said that New Zealanders would make hundreds of millions of dollars from it. That has all turned out to be false. Further we found out that the Government broke the law. The Auditor-General said that Labour broke the law in not disclosing a liability before the election. What is rotten about this Government is that when it gets it wrong it hides it it cheats and it breaks the law. 
Then there are the issues of the last 24 hours. Our fourth-biggest export industry forestry is in crisis. A huge company Weyerhaeuser is pulling all of its investments out of New Zealand because it has completely lost confidence in our forestry industry and in our Government. Yesterday Jim Anderton put out a press release in which he stated that they had had a very positive meeting with the forestry sector. He went on to state that they would be engaging again with officials. But what did the forestry industry say of the same meeting? It said that it was surprised and disappointed with the comments made by Jim Anderton the Minister of Forestry. It said that they did not reflect what had occurred at the meeting. 
What does that mean? It means that one cannot trust the Government. It means that it did not tell the truth. It means that what it said was untrue. We know that further because Jim Anderton said that officials would be back talking with the forestry industry which was what the industry wanted but the industry said exactly the opposite. Your see time and time again on issues that matter you cannot trust any more what Labour Government Ministers say. 
Then we had David Parker the Minister of Transport and also the Minister responsible for Climate Change Issues who has been in the job for only a few months telling the House that we could not rely on the climate change policy because it is in flux. I looked up the meaning of flux in the dictionary. It said that it meant something that is in continuous change. Is that not helpful? We have a Kyoto policy that is in continuous change. We were to have a “fart tax”. We have not had a “fart tax”. The Government had to abandon that. Then we were going to have a carbon tax. Only 8 months ago the Government said that the carbon tax was a critical part of the Government’s Kyoto policies. But that has gone. Now we have the awful Kyoto figures and the fiasco with the forestry industry. 
The reason this Government is stuffed is that we cannot believe anything it says. Whether it is Transit putting out a huge report on its roading projects whether it is the Prime Minister’s photo and signature on the pledge card whether it is David Parker and his fluxing policies on climate change or whether it is what Jim Anderton said in his press release yesterday you simply cannot believe anything that Ministers of this Government say. That matters and that is sad for New Zealand. What sort of Government do we have when New Zealanders can no longer put any credibility on what it says. It has been caught out telling porkies. It has been caught getting it wrong. It has been caught breaking the law so many times that its reputation is in tatters. This is a Government on death row. Its days are numbered. I call on the next speaker to resign and do New Zealand a favour.