Foss Craig: General Debate 
Foss Craig: General Debate 
[Volume:630;Page:2296] 
CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
: 
 This current Labour Government is arrogant tired and out of touch. This current Labour Government is starting to resemble the socialist Governments of old but perhaps with a bit more lipstick. As a senior Labour MP said to me just the other day: “This is starting to feel like 1997 all over again but this time we’re on the other side.” Well I say: “My friend history has a tendency to repeat itself. The trend is your friend.” That senior Labour MP knows what is going on. 
John Key 
: The trend is your friend. 
CRAIG FOSS 
: Yes the trend is his friend. After the next election which will be an early election the commentators will look back not particularly fondly on 7½ years or maybe 8 years of Labour-led Government. The legacy the current Labour Government will leave is a massive extension of the welfare State a massive extension of dependency a massive explosion in the size and influence of central government in our economy and a massive extension of social welfare into the homes of our families—welfare for families. 
The massive expansion of the State under this Labour-led Government has done nothing and will do nothing to increase our productivity. It has done nothing and will do nothing to increase our OECD rankings. In fact after the next couple of years a ranking of No. 20 in the OECD will become but a distant and fond memory as former Eastern bloc countries and former Third World countries pass us push us aside and push us down to the 30s in the OECD rankings. That is not good at all. That is not a good legacy. 
From the 1999-2000 to the 2005-06 fiscal years nominal GDP has grown by about 43 percent in spite I might add of the actions of the current Labour-led Government. Crown revenue has grown by 56 percent. That is the rope that suffocates the growth of New Zealand. That is the rope that suffocates the growth of our country. Ongoing unaccountable wasteful programmes make the headlines every other day as the Government transfers and redistributes hard-earned taxpayer funds into them. That is absolutely appalling. The latest GDP quarterly figures which came out the other day showed that GDP in the December 2005 quarter fell by 0.1 percent. 
John Key 
: What? 
CRAIG FOSS 
: It fell by 0.1 percent. If we have one more of those negative numbers we are in a recession. As Westpac recently pointed out New Zealand is in the cack—I think that was the word it used. 
But interestingly—and this contributes to that number—Government administration in the 2005 year grew by 10.3 percent. The Minister of Finance tried to fob that off by saying it was something to do with all the census workers who had been hired. Well if we look at the same statistics we see that 5 years ago there was not a great blip in Government administration. That is what is squeezing out the private sector and suffocating our growth. That shows again how tired and out of touch this current socialist administration is. 
Labour is not working. Labour has blown one of the best chances we have had in many many years. The Working for Families package comes in on April Fool’s Day. Sixty percent of New Zealand did not want that project; about 60 percent actually wanted tax cuts as indicated by the votes for the parties. Only 40 percent of voters roughly voted for Labour. The Working for Families package is not working to further families’ ambitions. Working for Families is not working for Maori families; it does not even go near to their average take-home pay. Working for Families is not working for hard-working New Zealanders who as we discovered today can earn only $480 gross per week before they have to contribute to families that earn close to and even over $100000 a year. Devastatingly the Minister in charge of that package said that was a fair outcome. 
Again I say the Labour Government is out of touch tired and about to fail. This issue is not just political. I am not here just to make a political speech. This issue is personal because the lack of ambition of the current Government affects my future and my family’s future. I take that personally. The Government is trashing the future that my children will inherit in this country by creating an environment where it is no longer OK to dream of becoming better—where it is not OK to dream to be ambitious or to try to better oneself and enjoy the rewards of it. People are being made into April fools but they will not be fooled again.