O'Connor Simon: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Connor Simon: General Debate[Sitting date: 07 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17586. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SIMON O’CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): We have been hearing a lot from the Opposition members today around Cabinet clubs and their great concern about what might somewhat transparently be happening in the Government over here. Well I have been fascinated as they have talked about money and influence and access to think about what is the world’s largest Cabinet club. Ladies and gentlemen the largest Cabinet club of money and influence and access is the unions—the unions that behold that crowd opposite every day. Do you know what makes it worse? Do you know what makes it even worse? The constitution and structure of the New Zealand Labour Party allow the unions—the unions of New Zealand—to decide who the Labour Party leader is and God forbid who could be a Labour Prime Minister. That is buying access.Do you know what makes it even worse? Even worse is that the unions are taking the money from the pockets of hard-working New Zealanders particularly in the Civil Service. I remember it well. They take money from hard-working Kiwis push it on totheir union hacks and then pass it on to the hacks who sit on the other side of this House. [Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! I am very reluctant to interrupt a member who is in a 5-minute speaking slot so I am going to allow him to start again. I am going to allow him to start again because I have two members who do not have the floor who continue to interject on each other. It is totally out of order. The member can start again.SIMON O’CONNOR: I will not continue on this line of vitriol per se but I think the reminder is there: if the party opposite wants to talk about money and it wants to talk about access and it wants to talk about influence then it must begin and end with a conversation about the Labour Party and the role of the unions. I go back to that other point that it is money taken from hard-working ordinary Kiwis channelled through the system. Once again you see it in the constitution of the Labour Party which gives effective majority control to the unions to decide the leadership. That is just shocking.I am looking forward to this Government’s sixth Budget. The fine electorate ofTāmaki is looking forward—Maggie Barry: Magnificent.SIMON O’CONNOR: —the magnificent electorate ofTāmaki thank you to the member.Maggie Barry: Almost as good as the North Shore beaches.SIMON O’CONNOR: Almost as good as the North Shore. And why are we looking forward to it? Because we are a positive party looking for a brighter future. We know that we sit on great news like 3 percent growth. Some economists are forecasting even higher. We know that over 1500 people a week are coming off welfare. Unlike the other side who are a lot of sort of theoreticians those of us who have worked on the front line—in fact within the likes of Work and Income—know that for those 1500 individuals going into work changes their lives. This Government is committed to that. To the Labour Party that is just a number and something to be heckled at but again for the real hard-working experienced people on this side of the House it makes a difference. There were 84000 more jobs added to the economy in the last 12 months. Unemployment is at 6 percent and it is forecast to go even lower. Contrast that with the OECD rate of 7.6 percent. We are on our way to surplus. This National Government promised it and we will deliver it.What about the other side though? What about the other side? They are completely distracted never focused on the issues that matter. All we heard was rambling rhetoric. I think there was a promise of unicorns fluffy bunnies and rainbows in there somewhere. In fact when Opposition members even come to try to do a policy it really is sort of being akin to atheomachist in an apothecary. Most people will not know what that means and that is a good analogy because no one understands what Labour’s policies mean.Maggie Barry: Or care less.SIMON O’CONNOR: Or care less. Well actually I quite like the word “apothecary”.Dr Cam Calder: What policies?SIMON O’CONNOR: What policies? It is a shocker. What we do know is that there would be higher taxes from Labour and the Greens and more taxes through their emission trading scheme. Have no illusion New Zealand things like the emission trading scheme capital gains taxes and changes to KiwiSaver are costs to you. They want to nationalise the electricity system. I heard the other day that I think the Greens in particular now are against milk products and logs. What are we left with in this country? They really also want to spend like troopers. Well we are a prudent Government. Weare a prudent Government. We have capped it effectively at up to $1 billion of new spending because we know that that is the prudent and right thing to do. The majority of Kiwis understand this and that is why the Labour Party and its union mates are polling under 30 percent—Maggie Barry: And down—going down.SIMON O’CONNOR: —and continuing to go down. That is why a certain Mr Jones jumped.But what about the wins? We are seeing someprefigurations—[Interruption] Or he was pushed as my honourable colleague notes. We are looking at some really serious positive wins for Kiwis at the moment like $6.3 million over 4 years for bilateral cochlear implants. As someone who has worked with them—Dr Cam Calder: How much sorry?SIMON O’CONNOR: $6.3 million. As someone who has worked in the health system what a difference that makes. I would like to suggest though we probably cannot find the money that we probably need some implants for the Opposition members so they can truly hear the wants of New Zealanders. We heard from Paula Bennett that there is $10.4 million in new operating funding to support sexual violence services. That is absolutely critical absolutely important. As someone who has worked in the community for years—and I think particularly of working as a chaplain at Mt Eden prison—and seen the abuse and the violence that happen to our most vulnerable it is critical to get in early to make a real difference.As I turn towards the end because I am conscious of time I want to turn toTāmaki. There are many many local wins that this Government has delivered to the people ofTāmaki—Dr Cam Calder: And continuing to deliver.SIMON O’CONNOR: —and it will continue to do so like $3 million to the St Thomas School for new buildings and ultra-fast broadband to our schools. We have theTāmaki Transformation Programme an agreement between the Government and the council working with the Auckland chamber of commerce around a Career Start programme. The Career Start programme is a cooperation of theTāmaki Transformation Programme the Government and the council to help young people into jobs. There is new housing in Glen Innes and Panmure and the electrification of rail.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.