Fenton Darien: General Debate 
Fenton Darien: General Debate 
[Volume:648;Page:17131] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 “Mysteriouser and mysteriouser”—what an interesting week it has been for the National Party. First of all we have had the confusion around rail and its response to that. I was expecting my good colleague Moana Mackey to ask a question about the rail line from Gisborne to Napier and I am sure she will get the chance to do that. If the Government had not intervened then that line would have been cut— 
Moana Mackey 
: Not good. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: —not good—along with many many other lines. 
Today we found out that Australian insurers are getting ready to make a killing out of New Zealand taxpayers because they are expecting National to privatise accident compensation. It is all as we suspected. There was an innocent little statement on National’s two-page policy announcement that it would provide choice and now I hear the words “competition and choice for accident insurance in the workplace”. That is something National members were hoping to keep below the radar and now we know why. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: We’ve been saying it for ages. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: They have been saying it for ages but they are still denying it. Their leader was denying it today. He said that there would be competition and choice but what is unclear is how it would happen. 
Moana Mackey 
: He said yesterday: “We haven’t released any ACC policy.” 
DARIEN FENTON 
: That is right. And he said today that he would release it at the end of July. 
The insurance industry has revealed National’s plans to give its mates millions of dollars of new income through the privatisation of accident compensation should it ever become the Government. We are talking big money; it is something like $2.1 billion of new premium income from insurers and another $200 million going into the industry’s after-tax earnings. That kind of money motivates the buying of an election. The insurance companies tried it last time and I think they are at it again. 
You know every time John Key makes a bit of a botch-up National members hold their breath. Their dreams of the big time go on hold for a few hours. They beat up on the journalists they go into denial overdrive and they ring up Crosby/Textor—the professional manipulators. 
A typical cheap shallow National - Crosby/Textor line is “time for a change”. I want to talk about change because there is good change and there is bad change. Labour stands for good change. Let us talk about some of the changes that this Government has brought in: a change that has given workers jobs and taken them off the benefit; a change that gives workers more holidays and extra pay on public holidays; a change to having better wages particularly for low-paid workers; a change to the minimum wage which has increased it by more than 70 percent and tripled the minimum rate for young workers; a change called Working for Families which is lifting families and children out of poverty and helping families to get ahead; a change that gives us cheaper visits to the doctor and lower prescription charges; and a change that has introduced Kiwibank KiwiSaver and KiwiRail—and we still do not know what National thinks about them. 
This is good change. It is change that has made and will continue to make a difference for New Zealand workers and their families. It is change that has built a strong foundation to address the pressures of the day and the needs of future years. And there is more to come. 
Just last week there were more rights for seasonal and casual workers in respect of accident compensation as well as compensation for workplace injuries due to mental trauma. National voted against that. Yesterday paid parental leave payments were increased and on 1 October there will be tax relief for workers and families. We are bringing in rights for workers to have tea breaks and meal breaks—and I have to say having heard some of the submissions that one would think that that was the end of the world. There will be a change for the better to the rights of casual and temporary workers. The vast array of this Government’s programme is on show in this Parliament every day and National continues to vote against most of these measures. 
Let us talk about bad change. Bad change means the sorts of things we can expect National to do if it ever regains the Treasury benches. We know that from its record the last time it was in Government its voting record over the past few years and the refusal of its members to tell the public about their intentions. The changes I listed earlier—the good changes that Labour has brought in—were all opposed by National members. They stood up and voted against them time and time again. That is their record in this Parliament. 
National is short-changing the people of this country by refusing to own up to the treatment it dished out to ordinary working people the last time it was in Government. It continues to short-change people by voting against every single measure in this Parliament that will make a difference for them and it short-changes the workers and the voters by treating them as though they are stupid by not telling them what its policies are and what it stands for. Right now most of its 14 little policies—or is it 15 now that we know about Crosby/Textor—are slogans promising to undo the good job this Labour-led Government has done.