Gosche Mark: Appropriation (2006/07 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Gosche Mark: Appropriation (2006/07 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:633;Page:4589] 
Hon MARK GOSCHE (Labour—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 I will comment briefly on the previous speech which was made by a member of Parliament who has yet to stand up in this House and tell us what he was doing when he was taken to court and what he was doing for the family that he was supposed to be representing. I have not heard Dr Nick Smith explain why the judge did not agree with him. We have yet to hear it. So we will take his speech with a grain of salt because it has no standing in terms of morality when it comes from a member like that. He is the only person I can recall in my time in Parliament who has actually been found guilty in the courts of a very serious offence—and he is standing up here giving us a moral lecture about standards! 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Standing up for constituents. 
Hon MARK GOSCHE 
: He was standing up for something that he claims was right but that point was not agreed to by the judge. The judges in this country thank goodness are independent of politics—and long may that last. 
We have heard from members opposite who have stood up and represented National in this debate on the Appropriation (2006/07 Estimates) Bill. Some have a spokesperson’s role as Dr Nick Smith has on something—one would not know from listening to the member tonight what it is but from a brief discussion with my benchmate I think it is something to do with conservation and energy or something like that. But what did we hear about that matter? In a debate where the Opposition is required to come in and put the Government to test we heard nothing but a moral lecture from a man who got done in the courts for contempt. So that member’s speech is worthless because it came from somebody who has a record in the courts that no other member of this House will ever come near. 
I want to talk a little about the estimates and the Appropriation Bill because it will make the Opposition sick. It will make them angry to hear what this Government has done. The Opposition hates the fact that every single cent of the moneys that are collected by road-user chargers petrol tax and other taxes on motorists is going into solving the transport problems that the previous National Government ignored for 9 years. Worse than ignoring them National sent the country backwards into a downward economic spiral. Is it a moral thing for a Government to do to send the provinces of New Zealand on a downward spiral because it has failed to do its job? That National Government put people into the unemployment queues. It made them suffer under poverty. 
Anne Tolley 
: That’s a bit rich coming from Labour. 
Hon MARK GOSCHE 
: Anne Tolley should know about that. She is supposed to represent the East Coast which is a place that this Government put enormous amounts of money into for fixing up roading infrastructure and a place with housing that was shameful. 
We heard in question time the audacity of members of the National Party questioning this Government about housing. I went around rural New Zealand when National was in power and saw families living in worse conditions than anybody could imagine in this century all because of the National Party’s neglect of a basic thing like housing. People were living in sheds—if they were lucky—under canvas and in cold wet damp and health-threatening situations. Now we do not hear anything from the National Party about those days and what they did about it which was nothing. 
I heard the speech from the spokesperson on health Tony Ryall who talks like a 45 record stuck on 33 whenever he gets up in the House because he thinks people are thick and cannot understand him unless he speaks at half speed. Such arrogance I have never heard. Has he recognised the money that has gone into health which makes sure that people in my community—a community of low-income people in the main—can afford to go to the doctor and get their prescriptions filled? 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: Let’s hear you support Taito Mark. 
Hon MARK GOSCHE 
: Those are very basic things—moral things that Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith has no concept of. He will stand up and bleat but he will not acknowledge this Budget and what it has done for primary health care. 
In Counties Manukau—which you Mr Assistant Speaker will be very familiar with—we have fewer people presenting at the hospitals this year because they are not sick. Nor are their children because they are getting a doctor’s visit a prescription and proper primary health care. Do we hear about that from the National Party? No what we get is a lecture on morality from people who would not know morals if they fell over them. A worse Government we have never had as in 1990-99 when the last National Government watched New Zealander after New Zealander being pushed into poverty. National members sold the State houses and said: “We will have mass unemployment because it suits our economic theories.” 
We get a little tired on this side of the House of hearing moral arguments from members who if they had an electorate office and saw constituents would know better. I know that a great many of the constituents who come to me—about 70 percent of them—come for help on immigration matters. And—whoa!—many of them are actually here illegally. That might come as a surprise to National Party MPs who have never done proper electorate work. They are too busy swanning around the corporate sector enjoying the wine and food but do they actually have real people coming through their doors with real problems? And unlike the National Party I do not ring up border control and say: “Come and get them and take them out.” which is what the secretaries in the National Party’s offices are told to do. No we look at each case one by one and say: “You have a case and we’ll advocate for you.” or: “You haven’t got a case and we’ll help you to exit this country.” That is what members on this side of the House do on a weekly basis. 
But for some of the members over there it is a real rarity even to visit their electorates because they do not live in them. Oh no John Key has to get in that big car with the signs painted on the side—paid for by the taxpayer—and drive out to his electorate from time to time so that they will know he has come to visit from time to time. We heard Bill English say that only twice in a year had he ever had anybody come in for help. Well that is probably because he visits his electorate only twice a year. He lives here in Wellington so what would he know about electorate work and what constituents’ needs are? 
I know about constituents and their needs because I have a multicultural electorate with a great many people who need help with immigration and I gladly help them—whether or not they have done things wrong in the past. I have a multicultural electorate where a great many people eventually turn to their MP so we can take those cases to the immigration authorities and as a last resort to the Minister if need be. But National Party people do not know anything about that. 
The attitude of the National Party is espoused by its leader in his speech about immigration. They all follow him and they all agree with him. He is number one. He is going to be there forever. Nobody is ever going to challenge him they say. He says: “We should not welcome those who want to live here but who reject core aspects of the country’s culture.” What else does he say? He says: “The National Party wants a country where people men and women are treated the same and where religious freedom is practised.” What about the million-dollar assistance National received from the Exclusive Brethren? Did Dr Brash forget about that when he was interviewed on National Radio on Friday? 
No what that speech really means is as Dr Brash said: “We like them when they come here when they enrich our culture with people who have different traditions of music cuisine and dance.” So immigrants can come here and work in the Chinese restaurants or the Viet Namese restaurants and all the wonderful restaurants that Dr Brash wants them to come and work in and they can shake their booty and do a bit of dancing. He says that we like that bit and that we really enjoy the music—but he does not want to let them come here and believe in their own religions or let them think that they can bring their culture with them. Oh no! 
If the National Party had its way my father would have been told to keep his culture where it belonged in Samoa and not to think he could bring it here. That is why members of the National Party were sitting in the grandstands in 1981 cheering the Springboks versus the All Blacks—and we all remember the deputy leader Mr Brownlee doing that—while the other members of the House were outside saying: “We reject that part of New Zealand culture.” We would have been accused of treason by Dr Brash for doing that if we happened to be immigrants. 
Anne Tolley 
: That’s pathetic. 
Hon MARK GOSCHE 
: Oh Anne Tolley says that is pathetic. She should read her leader’s speech. It is pathetic; it is the most pathetic load of nonsense I have heard from a person who is supposed to have been educated in this country to high levels. Shame on National Party members who say: “Come here and work in the restaurants shake your bottom and do a bit of dancing but don’t bring your culture your language and your beliefs with you because you’re not welcome.” That is National; not us.