Parker David: Adjournment — Sittings of the HouseText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParker David: Adjournment — Sittings of the House[Sitting date: 11 December 2013. Volume:695;Page:15497. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID PARKER (Deputy Leader—Labour): This adjournment debate marks the end of the second year of the 50th Parliament of New Zealand. I want to put on record that I think we should reflect occasionally on the fact that a record of 50 Parliaments unbroken by revolution or war is very unusual in the world. Europe has not done it and neither has South America Africa or Asia. They cannot match this proud record. It does not happen by itself. So I would like to begin by thanking on behalf of all of my colleagues in the Labour Party all of the people in and around Parliament who make this place work. You all contribute to our parliamentary democracy and to the important work that we do to represent the people who put us in this place.Thank you Mr Speaker and your assistants for your efforts to ensure the place runs fairly—freedom of speech in the Opposition fulfilling its role to hold the Government to account while enabling the business of government to be done. Thank you to all your staff—the Clerk of the House select committee staff library researchers messengers the cleaners who work for us in the middle of the night the travel office Copperfields staff IT support security staff the Visits and Ceremonial Office Hansard staff and others in the Office of the Clerk and Parliamentary Service. Thank you all.Can I thank the fourth estate which plays a fundamental role in reporting news and exposing failure. It is obvious to all of us who work here that the press gallery is under increasing pressure with social media compressed filing deadlines and fewer numbers. You do it with good humour and you provide an essential ingredient to our functioning democracy. We have to record that your efforts were undermined this year by the inappropriate release of email and security records to the Henry inquiry which was looking into the leaking of theGovernment Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) report. But I hope you have been assured by the Privileges Committee report that we in Parliament are determined to protect your rights.To our Labour staffers in Wellington and in our constituency offices throughout the country a special thanks for a good year of hard work. Rest assured there will be plenty more work next year. I would like to thank the families of MPs on all sides of the House who tolerate long absences and stresses caused by parliamentary life. It is not easy for our families. I take the opportunity to mark the sad passing of our colleague the HonParekuraHoromia and to fondly remember the memories he has left with us.To my caucus colleagues and DavidCunliffe in particular I express my sincere thanks and admiration for how you all go about your work tirelessly representing the interests of those who elect us and who rely upon us. I know this will continue for us long after the House rises but I wish everyone a happy Christmas and a well-deserved break.I turn to the year. The New Zealand Labour Party ends the year reinvigorated. We have a new leadership team in place after a modern outward-looking process that made democracy and the Labour Party stronger. We had astonking victory in Christchurch East. National threw all its money at it but was comprehensively thrashed. Why? Because National stopped listening. After 3 years of delay following the earthquakes the people of Christchurch said “Enough!” and they sent a message to National—2:1 in favour of Labour. Our membership is up 80 percent this year. Our caucus and our party are united and the polling is up. For some months now the polls have Labour and our likely allies neck and neck with National. National tries to pretend otherwise but as with other things it is out of touch and in the past.Hon Steven Joyce: Yeah yeah yeah!Hon DAVID PARKER:It is MMP Mr Joyce not first past the post. It will be the will of the people that decides the outcome of the next election.Whatever election outcome they determine will be legitimate contrary to the claims of National. National members have spent so much of this year trying to assert that MMP Governments that do not include them are somehow illegitimate or wrong. It is just nonsense. None of the MMP Governments—until perhaps this one—has actually stopped early in the term because of a failure of its coalition.It gives me no pleasure to say that these current coalition arrangements are the most unsavoury of any MMP Parliament. The Government is propped up by Peter Dunne and Peter Dunne was forced to resign after leaking a secure document about breaches of the law by the GCSB. Even worse is John Banks being on trial for electoral fraud. His is another vote that props up this Government. He follows on from a long history in ACT that is disreputable. David Garrett the man who stole the identity of a dead baby so hecould get a passport railed against name suppression and short sentences—but he got both. Donna Awatere Huata was jailed for fraud. Rodney Hide was busted for perks after being the perk-buster. Then we had Don Brash taking over the ACT Party from outside the ACT Party and then John Banks shoehorned into Parliament by the Prime Minister John Key after the tea party. Those two parties are disreputable.TheMāori Party is not disreputable. It is not disreputable but it is a shadow of its former self. It is searching around for a celebrity candidate because it is at 1 percent in the polls.In terms of National’s own performance the central economic plank for it this year was a shambles. Its asset sales programme tanked. The energy companies are all trading at less than they were listed for and the Government took a billion dollars less in receipts than it predicted. The Government ended up selling them to 2 percent of New Zealand’s population and it caused a citizens initiated referendum because so many New Zealanders are annoyed that National is not listening to them. More than 300000 people voted for the referendum more than a million people have voted in the referendum and National still says it will ignore them.Let us look at National’s other failures. It has not been listening in respect of the GCSB. In the end we had the Prime Minister come in and say: “Look the Opposition parties are right. No longer will the arm of the State need a warrant in order to snoop upon New Zealanders but you can rely upon me—Mr Key. Trust me. I know what I’m doing. I’m not going to let them do it without a warrant even though the law that the National Government passed allows them to do exactly that.” The Government is not listening and is out of touch.Solid Energy was completely mismanaged by Bill English and Tony Ryall who turned an Export Award - winning company into something that is worthless a basket case that has lost hundreds of millions of dollars by their reckless oversight of that company. They told it to invest more in coal to borrow more money and to pay high dividends and it all ended in tears. This failing National Government is out for the big end of town. Everyone has seen it this year. There was corporate welfare for RioTinto—$30 million without even a jobs guarantee. There was a special deal for Skycity which was criticised by the Auditor-General as being inappropriate because only Skycity had the inside running.What happens to ordinary New Zealanders in the meantime? Well let us look at housing one of the areas of abject failure of policy by the Government because of its tax and housing settings. This year the average Auckland house price has gone up by $85000—$85000. That is $677 a week as housing costs escalate beyond the reach of most New Zealanders in Auckland. I say “most New Zealanders” because most young New Zealanders cannot afford to buy a house. Homeownership rates in Auckland have dropped to under 60 percent. We now have house prices ballooning to 19 years of median income. No wonder people are fed up with the Government on housing.Inequality is higher than it has ever been under this Government. Just today theNew Zealand Herald reported that in South Auckland incomes are down by 16 percent in real terms and by 17 percent in real terms in the neighbouring suburbs while those in the richer suburbs prosper. It is not right. In this country New Zealanders are rightly asking themselves whether they want to live in a country of increasing inequality.Hon Bill English: It’s not increasing.Hon DAVID PARKER: It is increasing. It is increasing Mr English. Your head is in the clouds because you are just looking after the interests of Chorus or RioTinto and not looking after the interests of everyday New Zealanders.Some congratulations should go to Fonterra and to some of our exporters. They are doing well. A Labour Government created Fonterra and then breathed life into itthrough the free-trade agreement with China negotiated by the Hon Phil Goff. [Interruption] Mr Speaker other people seem to have had a bit more latitude than you are giving me. I will end by saying merry Christmas and I hope everyone has a good break. We are really looking forward to election year and we are going to deliver for ordinary New Zealanders.