Cosgrove Clayton: New Zealand Superannuation and Veterans’ Pensions (Entitlements of Spouses and Partners of People in Long-term Residential Care and Remedial Matters) Bill — Second Reading 
Cosgrove Clayton: New Zealand Superannuation and Veterans’ Pensions (Entitlements of Spouses and Partners of People in Long-term Residential Care and Remedial Matters) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:631;Page:3019] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Minister for Building Issues) 
: 
 For those who missed that diatribe I point out that that was one very humble Nathan Guy who is a list member from somewhere and is claiming to be a constituent member for the Otaki electorate. The truth hurts—he is not. He is in the Opposition. He is a list member. 
I listened with some interest as Mr Guy addressed this bill and talked about council rates increases. I am advised by a very good authority sitting close to me that Nathan Guy was elected to some council or other—I do not recall which council—in 1998 and I am told that when he was elected to Parliament he gave a pledge that he would resign from the council. I am told he still is a councillor. When he talks about rates rises and how awful councils are in imposing rates rises on the elderly I say to him that he has been on that council since 1998—does he take no responsibility for that? What sort of a council was he part of and what management structure did it run? Governments do not increase rates; Governments look after taxes. Councillors increase rates. He is a councillor. He has been in since 1998 but of course he blames everybody else. 
As I look at this bill I see what a superb piece of legislation it is. It is yet another building block that the Government has put in place to look after our elderly folk. That member who has been here 5 minutes gets up pontificates and tries to be the friend of the battling elderly Kiwi man and woman when he is part of a party that when in office cut the pension three times did not inflation-proof it and de-linked it from the average wage. Now every pensioner around the country knows that. Pensioners are not silly people. They are very wise learned Kiwis who can smell bull a mile away and they got plenty of it from him. [ 
Interruption 
] That member squawks like a headless chook. I invite him to get up again and justify how he can stand there with any gall and any credibility when he is a part of a party that when in office cut the elderly’s pension three times. Does he have an answer for that? No the silence is deafening. He does not because he knows he has been done like a dinner. 
Every elderly person who heard that speech tonight knows that Nathan Guy stands for nothing. Nathan Guy thinks he can hoodwink every elderly person and then he claims he is an electorate MP. Well that is two things. He claims he can hoodwink every elderly person and he thinks that just because they are in their retirement years they may forget it was a National Government that cut their pension three times. And we can see Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber on the other side grinning like a couple of Cheshire cats. They were members of a Government that cut the pension of the elderly. What has Labour done? We have inflation-indexed it. We linked it to 65 percent of the average wage as we promised to do and it goes up with our support party New Zealand First to 66 percent. We introduced the rates rebate for pensioners. We did that. We raised the rate of the pension actually when we became the Government. We had not promised to do it but we did it anyway. I will stand on my record of standing beside our elderly pensioners. 
 There was a time when there was a sort of social contract in New Zealand where one generation had an obligation to look after the previous one. And here I acknowledge our veterans. I have never served in uniform—I acknowledge that. I am a part of only a couple of generations who have not been called to arms to serve in uniform. Who cut the veterans pension? The National Government did. Who pulled the rug out from under every veteran when his or her national superannuation was cut? The National Government did. Who reversed inflation-indexing? Who cut the rate? Who de-linked it? Nathan Guy gets up and proudly pontificates about every veteran as if he is their friend. Well I tell him it was a National Government and that crew over there who sold out every one of those people—people who fought to give us the democracy and the Parliament we have now. “Lest we forget them” is as the ode to the fallen goes but I say it should be: “Lest they forget what the National Government did to them”—and every Returned and Services Association member knows that. 
I invite Mr Guy to learn one or two things from the little 10-minute experience he had. He should not make it up. He should tell the truth. He should not pretend to be something he is not—and he is not an electorate MP. He should not pontificate about rates increases and how hard they are on elderly folk when he sat on a council—and continues to sit in a council—that put up rates. That member said on the electorate stump that if he got elected to Parliament he would resign from that council and would not double dip. And has he? No and he has so much time on his hands serving the one or two people who might have had a look at him on the stump that he is doing two jobs. I invite him to reflect on that. This is a good piece— 
Nathan Guy 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would just like to clarify something. I am not double-dipping. I am still on the Horowhenua District Council but I am not— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: That is not a point of order. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: That was not a point of order—and that shows him up again. But I thank him for admitting he is doing two jobs. I do not know which constituency he is trying to be a part of. I do not know what he does with his pay and rations from the council; I do not think anyone does. But I will stand by the record of this Government which has stood by pensioners lifted their standard of living given them a rates rebate and looked after them. I compare that with those members over there. 
Then we have Mr Finlayson the “EQC”—the excluded QC. He still is not over it of course. He is part of a party that when it was in Government cut the pension. But of course with his wage packet from his previous job he would not care about pensioners. This Government is delivering on every election promise we made to elderly people. 
Nathan Guy 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would like to respond under Standing Order 116 “Personal Reflections”. I would like to make a personal reflection; I am not double-dipping on the council. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: No that does not apply to that— 
Lindsay Tisch 
: The member takes offence at being accused by the member opposite of double-dipping and under Standing Order 116 is asking the member who made those comments to apologise for them. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The reason I did not take that from what Mr Guy was saying although I accept that he said he was not double-dipping was that he said he wants to make a personal reflection. Clearly Nathan Guy has taken offence. I ask Mr Cosgrove to withdraw his comments. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I withdraw. But I maintain the position. I am advised that he donates one or the other of the salaries somewhere but nobody knows which salary. That is yet to be proven of course. 
However this bill is a good piece of legislation. It looks after our elderly folk and our veterans. This change will be positive for a whole lot of elderly people. I acknowledge of course that petrol prices and other prices are going up—and that includes rates which that member as a councillor put up. That is why we are including a rates rebate for our senior citizens. This is part of the economic transformation that we as a Government are part of and are putting forward. 
Georgina Beyer 
: Veterans are part of our national identity. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: My colleague is right. All the plaques around this Chamber symbolise battles that our veterans either deceased or still living have fought in order to protect and serve our country. They were sold out by that crew over there who cut their pensions. But we stand by them. We acknowledge them. It was this Government that put in place the Year of the Veteran and it was this Government that put in place funds for veterans’ projects this year. It is this Government that initiated after many years of veterans asking for it the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. I am very very proud of that. [ 
Interruption 
] 
No amount of squawking from the headless chooks on the other side—from the “EQC” the excluded QC over there who still has not got over it—will alter the fact that the elderly know which Government supported them. No amount of squawking from those members will change the fact that the RSA Grey Power and the old folks in rest homes know which Government put in the dollars to assist them which Government gave them a rates rebate and which Government increased their pension. Those folk voted as they will again against a party that during its 9 years in Government degraded their economic circumstances cut their pensions three times—that was Mrs Shipley’s last legacy I think—and pulled out the rug from under them. I commend this bill to the House.