Jones Shane: Appropriation (2006/07 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Jones Shane: Appropriation (2006/07 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:633;Page:4568] 
SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 In a loud clear bilingual voice I say e Te Mangai o te Whare tena tatou katoa. Let me first begin by saying that this is a great day for the Government despite a flow of negativity and invective from and a complete disregard for the rules of the House by the Opposition. The Opposition members have tried every trick in the book to distract attention from the fact that what lies behind their thinking is a vacuum and what obsesses them is their own sense of disunity. 
There are two young guys in National who will not give up the prize until they have hammered the daylights out of each other although I was tempted to complain today that Gerry Brownlee almost—well “assaulted” is hardly the right word but certainly—assailed his own leader. He did not want the country to see how much of an embarrassment Don Brash was pretending that he can lead the Opposition—ambling from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand wandering over here and within 3 years aimlessly having the top prize. Well even his own deputy is using a great Te Waipounamu myth to say: “Sit down koroua; it’s our turn now. You’ve served our purpose.” But until such time as the two young bulls work out who is the No. 1 rangatira and who is rangatira No. 2 Don Brash serves a purpose. We all know that purpose is firstly to bide time and secondly to hide the fact that other than personal attacks and wild and extreme ideas that have been tested and completely rejected by the electorate over the last year the Opposition members offer nothing to the country. 
That is why when we contrast what we are doing with what the Opposition is doing we find that people are eagerly anticipating over the recess period visits from Ministers events organised by backbenchers and the media from up and down the country being there to report. What are they going to report? They will report policies ideas and initiatives that are taking the country forward as opposed to the ongoing highly negative personal sniping and attacks of the Opposition. The reality however is that the attacks and negativity are doing the National Party a great deal of damage. They do it a great deal of damage because the country does not want to see a continuation of such political venality. People want to see a contest—a contrast. 
One type of vision is proudly announced by the Government and often reported upon—not unfortunately accurately—by the media. Where is the contrasting vision? Well we saw the answer in Te Waipounamu a couple of weeks ago when the National Party had its conference there. Sharper minds that dwell on media matters have already pointed out that it was reminiscent of a Soviet Union conference. People were brought from very very distant areas and were completely confused as to what they were really hearing. However they politely clapped not wanting to emulate the behaviour of National’s own caucus in terms of its disrespect to its koroua Don Brash—the man who unfortunately thought that just because one can be the king of monetary policy one can lead Aotearoa. That was a big mistake; haere ra. But unfortunately for the House we are afflicted with Don Brash for—who knows how much longer? The two bulls have to sort that out. 
Let us talk about the business tax review. What contrasting ideas will match that review? Firstly we have heard from the Opposition that personal tax cuts have not been announced. Well we have a couple more years to go; we will wait and see about that. The Minister of Finance has said that when cuts are made to the corporate rate it raises implications for the personal rate so we will wait and see how that goes. What else has National said? Nothing—other than to stir up the chambers of commerce and the small number of groups from the business community that have any credibility left. But National is finding that a lot of the ideas promoted by our Minister of Finance are quietly being both embraced and endorsed by its own constituencies because they can see that one cannot go forward by dividing the country whether on the basis of urban and rural areas of ethnicity of being employers rather than employees or of being women rather than men. 
Divisiveness was at the vital centre of what National sought to do last year. National came perilously close to achieving that yet despite the fact that it was taking money from all and sundry—from people who would not vote—it completely beggared its own strategy by its unwillingness firstly to be transparent and secondly to own its own strategy. Every day the media wait patiently to hear National’s ideas. National seems to think that if it has no ideas the country will forget the fact that it is devoid of ideas and it will all of a sudden generate ideas at some point in 2008. Well National tried to do that the last time round and it failed miserably. 
Of course not only do we have good ideas but also we have great support from our friends. We have the matamua of the House the Rt Hon Winston Peters and the Minister of Revenue who I am very glad to say is coming to Tai Tokerau and taking up the talk about the business tax review with the painters traders real estate agents lawyers and accountants—in fact the demand to come and hear him talk about the policies is so huge that I am on the verge of selling tickets. Those policies have been released but have not been fully implemented because we are giving people the opportunity to have input on them—to shape influence and enhance them. One can only do that if one has a policy. One can only do that if one is prepared to put initiatives before the community rather than coming to this place week after week and spouting the same old negativity and highly personalised sniping—disrepute. 
Beyond the business tax review we have our KiwiSaver scheme. That scheme is eagerly anticipated by young families. It will provide an opportunity for them to derive some capital to improve their housing prospects. What have we heard as a contrast to the savings scheme? Nothing. What is on offer other than a convenient recitation of the fact that Jenny Shipley led a charge to destroy Winston Peters’ superannuation scheme? Hello kei hea Jenny Shipley; kei hea tena wahine? She is reduced to finding work in Shanghai. Kei hea tena wahine? Kei te ngaro tena wahine. That means that somewhere in a distant place where we cannot hear or see her she is missing. 
R Doug Woolerton 
: She was missing when she was here mate. 
SHANE JONES 
: She was missing when she was here! Well she put the korowai on certain people to lead the party forward. She put the korowai on them by trying to disgrace and undermine a great rangatira of Ngati Wai. And today to that rangatira from Ngati Wai the leader of New Zealand First I offer our best thoughts. He is over in Australia flying the flag and fighting the good fight. He will be back looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger very soon. This is a great day for the Government. Kia ora tatou.