Robertson Grant: General Debate 
Robertson Grant: General Debate 
[Volume:670;Page:16826] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 It is interesting to follow on from Steven Joyce. I just note for the record that Phil Goff as trade Minister for New Zealand helped to create hundreds if not thousands of jobs by signing free-trade agreements and negotiating free-trade agreements like the one with China. That is far more than that hollow man over there will ever do. He can stand up in this House and crow about his focus groups and what he learns from them but the real work of being in Government of being a trade Minister like Phil Goff was of actually helping to create jobs is not what that Minister is doing. He is part of a Government that has overseen 158000 people being unemployed—158000. That is what he has overseen. Once again from Steven Joyce we have heard the theme of this Government: that someone else is to blame. 
There is always someone else to blame. Today the Prime Minister stood in the House and said beneficiaries were to blame. They were making a lifestyle choice; that is what the Prime Minister said today. The three women who came to the electorate clinic that I held in Wellington Central on Saturday who were all in their 40s or 50s all out of work all desperate to get a job and all trying to redevelop their skills to get a job are wondering what the Government is doing for them. They want to know what the Government is doing for them to help to create jobs for them. But no Mr Key stood in the House today and said they were to blame for being unemployed and they were making a lifestyle choice. I say it is not a lifestyle choice for those people and Mr Key would know that if he actually talked to people on the ground. 
But Mr Key himself has come up with something else today for which someone else is to blame. This is the purchase of the BMWs. The story has moved on three times today. Firstly it was Labour’s fault because it had locked the Government into a contract whereby it had to purchase a new set of BMWs. Of course that turned out not to be the case. In fact it was an option to renew the contract so it was not the case that Labour had locked the Government into a contract. The Prime Minister moved on and said it was the Greens’ fault when actually it was Bill English’s. But the Prime Minister moved on and said it was the Greens’ fault because they were interested in a fad called lowering carbon emissions. Apparently the fleet of BMWs was to have lower carbon emissions. Apparently lowering carbon emissions doing something about climate change is a fad so it is the Greens’ fault. 
But then the third story was that it was the fault of the Department of Internal Affairs. Apparently Mr Key is “furious” with the Department of Internal Affairs except that that is fudging the story a bit because the part of the department that is responsible for the purchasing of those cars is Ministerial Services. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: He should read the papers. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: Who is the Minister responsible for Ministerial Services? That would be the Prime Minister. So in actual fact if Mr Key is blaming the department he is blaming Ministerial Services and he is the Minister responsible for Ministerial Services. As Mr Mallard said Mr Key is clearly not reading his papers. If the Prime Minister wants to take some responsibility for this fiasco it is in his basket. He is the Minister responsible for Ministerial Services. He cannot blame the department he cannot blame Labour and he cannot blame the Green Party. 
That is the problem with this Government. Although it has no plan there is always someone else to blame. It is not good enough. The State sector is being fingered as the area to blame because apparently it is bloated and inefficient. Yet Standard and Poor’s has said today it does not regard the State sector in New Zealand as being bloated and inefficient. Kyran Curry its analyst said in the  
New Zealand Herald  
today: “Generally we look at the Government in New Zealand as being relatively small and compared to its peers it’s quite efficient.” That is right. Standard and Poor’s the rating agency that the Government puts so much investment in says that actually it does not do anything. The State sector is not bloated and inefficient. But once again from this Government there is always somebody else to blame. 
We saw that again today from Anne Tolley on early childhood education. Once again the increase in fees is the fault of the kindergartens and the early childhood centres or it is the fault of the parents. But it is not. It is the fault of this Government for taking money out of a vital sector. Once again the Government says someone else is to blame. Anne Tolley says she is not to blame for taking money out of the sector; it is the centres’ fault for putting up their fees. It is not. It is the fault of this Government which has absolutely no plan for this country to grow the economy and no plan for jobs. Once again Government members stand in the House and try to find someone else to blame. It is time for this Government to look in the mirror.