Goff Phil: General Debates 
Goff Phil: General Debates 
[Volume:617;Page:12642] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade) 
: 
 In just half an hour’s time under the cover of the hikoi the National Party will release the long-awaited Creech report on the nuclear ships ban. It is no coincidence that it is being released today. That is the policy the National Party least wanted to release and we will not learn much from what it states. I have not seen the report but I suspect it will state something like: “We’ll repeal the legislation but we’ll keep the ban.” Yeah right! Absolutely! 
That has as much credibility as the National Party’s track record when it was last in Opposition in 1990 and said it would repeal the surtax. What did it do? It kept the surtax it lifted the age of retirement and it reduced the payment. Then there was Lockwood Smith who said he would repeal student fees. What did he do? He increased student fees. He promised to resign if he did not repeal them but no he did not do that. Of course he did not do that. 
Let us look at Dr Brash’s credibility on this issue. On Sunday Dr Brash stated that he had made no personal decision on where he believed National should go with the policy. Yeah right! I know that statement is not true because I know that Don Brash who will not tell New Zealand what his policy is will tell an American delegation. What did he say to the American delegation? He said: “If National were Government we’d repeal the ban by lunchtime.” That is what he said. I defy one member of the National Party to say that that is not true. I challenge Don Brash to stand up and deny that statement. If we look at what Don Brash said in the paper today we will see that when he was asked why he had two different stories and what he had said to the American congressional delegation he said he could not recall what he said and that he considered the conversation private. I remember Jenny Shipley not seeming able to recall a conversation. He said the conversation was private. 
A private agenda is a secret agenda and we should have no doubt that the secret agenda on this issue is that the National Party if ever given the reins of Government will against two-thirds of opinion in New Zealand repeal the nuclear-free New Zealand policy. What it has confessed to is just as bad. Don Brash cornered on the  
Holmes 
 programme admitted he would have sent troops to Iraq as part of the invasion. Eighty percent of New Zealanders are against that but Don Brash and Lockwood Smith are for it. Why are they for it against all common sense and ethics? They are for it because both those National members have said there is an economic benefit for New Zealand in doing that. How about that? They would put the lives of young New Zealand service personnel at risk in the hope—not the reality or the expectation—that they would get some economic benefit. That has not been done since the early 1960s when Keith Holyoake admitted he sent troops to Vietnam for a better dairy deal out of the United States. That is the politics of bankruptcy and New Zealand will not have a bar of it. 
If Dr Brash has misled the public over the nuclear ban is he misleading the public over other policies? He says for example that he will not lower the tax rate on high-income earners. That is what he says now. He has spent an entire career as Governor of the Reserve Bank promising to do just that. What do members believe—Don Brash the mealy-mouthed politician Leader of the Opposition trying to curry favour or what he said over 9 years as the Governor of the Reserve Bank? He also said that he would not touch superannuation for people over 50. But what he is saying to every 35 to 50-year-old is that those people will spend the rest of their tax career paying tax for a benefit they will never get. But I do believe his admission that he will repeal the 4 weeks’ holiday legislation passed by this Government.