Bridges Simon: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Bridges Simon: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 19 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5379. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Consumer Affairs) 
: 
 Over the last several days I have been disappointed in the Labour Party even by my own exceptionally low standards for that party—even by my own low standards. I will tell you they had David Shearer stutter his way through  
Q+A 
 on Sunday. Do you know what the real tragedy in that was? In a country where we should have a viable democracy we would hope to have a Leader of the Opposition who could at least front up and give us an alternative viewpoint on the issues on the big issues that New Zealanders want to know about and want a straight answer from the Opposition on. They are not getting it from David Shearer. 
There is water. Not everyone may agree with our solution on water and what we say and what the position is but at least we have got a position. David Shearer equivocated his way through several minutes of interview on that issue and the people of New Zealand expect and demand an answer from the Opposition. We saw the same on the issue of jobs and so on—no answers to the issues that this country has. 
In Parliament over the last couple of days there has been a growing issue about decorum in the way things go in this Parliament. We have seen a party on the other side where the only things that excite its members are the salacious the trivial the petty and the rude. They come to this House like performing seals wanting to perform for Kim Dotcom who seems to be in town. They come here and that is the best they can do. Those are the issues that excite Trevor Mallard Chris Hipkins and Kris Faafoi rather than the real issues that this country has. There are real issues—we accept that—and this party has answers to those real issues. On the real issues even the solutions that they claim to have are an embarrassment. 
Dr David Clark 
: What are they? 
Hon SIMON BRIDGES 
: David Clark asks: “What are they?”. Well I will give David Clark his dues. At least he has got a member’s bill—at least he has got a member’s bill. But let us look at that member’s bill—$15 minimum wage. Well look at our record. We have incrementally put the minimum wage up but to put the minimum wage up to $15 at this time would mean up to 5500 jobs down the toilet Dr Clark. I have talked to cafe owners in my electorate of Tauranga in Greerton. They have told me that they will be laying people off if the minimum wage goes up to $15. So he thinks that he has a solution but it is a sham and a shameful solution to that problem. 
And then we come to New Zealand First where we saw today at question time what I thought was a competition between a couple of gentlemen for the deputy leadership of that party. My money is on Prosser—my money is on Prosser actually. He did not get a question. He is the silent thoughtful one in that party. Again to give them their dues the Rt Hon Winston Peters got a member’s bill in today on a very real issue: the exchange rate. But will it work? Will it work? Quantitative easing—he refers to America and what they are doing over there where they are putting $50 billion of new money into the economy I think every month. Is that going to work? It is a bit like drugs or in Grant Robertson’s case a sugar rush. You have got to keep on feeding the habit otherwise there is the comedown. It is at best only a temporary solution. 
Yet even if we said that it does work—even if we said that it does work—could this country of 4.5 million compete with a big country putting in $50 billion a month? Could we compete? Could we have any effect on the exchange rate? No we could not. It is snake oil economics from the Rt Hon Winston Peters and I ask him to expand on and answer those points that I have raised. 
But on this side there is a Government focused on the real issues on balancing the finances in 2014-15 on doing that over time and on absolutely working on a more productive and competitive economy. And that is why today I put out a discussion document on vehicle licensing reform. Actually—they laugh they laugh—hundreds of millions of dollars potentially could be saved for ordinary Kiwis. Let me tell you that that is what ordinary Kiwis care about not Kim Dotcom coming to town and the performing seals on that side of the House who want to wallow in the mud and the salacious issues. This is a Government focused on the real issues and that is why we will still be the Government in another few years.