Cunliffe David: General Debate 
Cunliffe David: General Debate 
[Volume:676;Page:21507] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 Minister English said he wanted reasoned debate and then he went on about billboards. He said the net international debt was a problem and his own Budget forecast it to rise for each of the next 5 years. He said the world is ugly because he wants New Zealanders to be frightened into returning his Government. He said New Zealand can only muddle through. Well here is what muddling through looks like: $37 billion more debt since that man became Minister of Finance; 47000 fewer jobs since he took office; and GDP per capita is down 3.6 percent under this Government. 
Before the last election the leader of the National Party said New Zealand had a growth problem not a debt problem. Well $37 billion later it has both a growth problem and a debt problem. Do not take my word for it take the word of the 3000 or more New Zealanders voting with their feet every month and joining the 1 million exiles from this country who have lost hope who have lost patience with muddling through and who want a better answer and a better future. That Government said that it would close the gap with Australia. When it took office it was 30 percent of GDP per capita; today it is 35 percent. 
The numbers do not lie nor do the 3000 Kiwis a month who are joining the 1 million who have already left. They deserve better than photo ops and flimflam. They deserve real debate. They deserve courageous policy that will address the underlying problems the tough problems that are holding us back. They deserve solutions like a capital gains tax that will address the fact there is $200 billion locked up in property paying no tax which is locking young people out the housing market and starving business of capital. They deserve solutions like the strong savings policy that Labour will bring in which will close the savings gap and fix our current account deficit. They want a real plan for jobs and growth not a Prime Minister who just fronts up for the photo opportunities and runs like a rabbit from the hard problems. That is what New Zealanders need but that is not what they have got. They have got photo ops and flimflam not real leadership for tough times. They have got the veneer of a personality cult—the leader of the National Party. 
The thing that National members are betting their next 3 years on is a smile and a vacuous waft past hard problems not real solutions or real leadership for hard times. Even today that public relations double act continues. They want the public to be afraid about the international picture. That is why Bill English said that it is ugly. But National members want New Zealanders to feel OK about the Rugby World Cup and the weather at home. That is why John Key tells us: “Don’t worry. The next three quarters are looking good.” Well they cannot both be right and they are not both right. They are not both right because as everybody knows New Zealand is slipping further behind—growth down debt up unemployment up the gap with Australia widening. 
Well enough of this rubbish. Enough of muddling through enough of borrow and hope enough of running away from tough problems enough of the widening gap enough of the loss of hope and enough of rising unemployment and of 47000 fewer jobs. National members say that there are more jobs today than ever before. There was a 3.4 percent unemployment rate in New Zealand under Labour; there is a 6.5 unemployment rate today—3.4 percent; 6.5 percent. That has gone backwards and one cannot argue with that. Enough of the ever-rising cost of living. Food prices are up by 7 percent. Wages are up by 1.9 percent. Real median wages have gone down by 8 percent since this Government took office. People are feeling poorer. Why? Because they are. The rich have got richer with windfall tax cuts and the poor cannot feed their children. 
National members call that muddling through; I call that injustice. They call that steady as she goes; I call it lining their own pockets. They call it New Zealanders on Glen Innes housing markets— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I call the Hon Anne Tolley.