Cosgrove Clayton: Appropriation (2007/08 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Cosgrove Clayton: Appropriation (2007/08 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:641;Page:11084] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Associate Minister of Finance) 
: 
 As Associate Minister of Finance and a member of the Government I am very proud to stand in the concluding stages of this debate to speak about the Appropriation (2007/08 Estimates) Bill. The member who preceded me made a very interesting couple of points. She said that the Government keeps challenging the Opposition to put out its policy. It is interesting to note that a couple of polls one of which I think was on television last night said that 67 percent of the people wanted John Key to put out his policy now. Ms Collins asked in her speech why the Government does not put out its policy. Well I have news for Ms Collins: a Budget is part of a policy platform and we have written eight Budgets. Our policies are out there. We are in the process of implementing our policies—policies like KiwiSaver like superannuation like removing the cap on charitable donations like halving prescriptions down to $3 and like halving doctors’ fees. All those policies are out there in every Budget. Working for Families as my colleague says means that 350000-plus families are now getting on average around $110 a week. That is our policy and we have implemented it. Those families are winning. So our policies are all out there. 
We write a Budget—I say through you Mr Assistant Speaker to Ms Collins—every year and our policy is around of course 3.6 percent unemployment compared with 6.5 percent unemployment when we took office. Our policy for the edification of Ms Collins is 362000 new jobs created since 1999. The number of new jobs created since 1999 when we took office is 362000. Maori unemployment is down from 19.5 percent when we took over—inherited from that crew opposite—to 5 percent which I am advised is the lowest unemployment count for Maori since the time the figures were first surveyed. That is our policy. 
We have just heard a good old-fashioned rant from the other side. I watch  
Facelift 
 which is not a bad little production although I am more a McPhail and Gadsby type of bloke. The comedians back then were so good they did not need masks; they expressed it through their own character and own expertise. I do not know whether Judith Collins was actually auditioning to get a mask on  
Facelift 
. We know that Tim Groser has taken a starring role this week. 
Darren Hughes 
: He would love that. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: He was on the programme; puffing away—like a good steam train! What we heard was the traditional Opposition rant. An Opposition rants when it is hollowed out it has no ideas and it has no policy. Judith Collins made a couple of very interesting points though. She said she had a leader in John Key and he was an aspirational leader. She may have wanted to say “inspirational” leader but I saw her think about it before she used that word aspirational. She knew that “inspirational” would simply not wash out in the real world. She talked of an aspirational leader—one who “aspires” to be a leader and by definition that means no “true-born ingrained natural leadership qualities”. That indeed is the difference between the Opposition’s aspirational leader and our natural leader. I make the point that John Key is so aspirational that the truth wobbles around like a jelly on a hotplate. It just wobbles from one extreme to the other. 
Ms Collins made a very interesting point in her speech which I invite all those in the House and all those in the communities to reflect upon. She said something akin to: “We’re not interested in what John Key said 20 years ago. We’ve moved on.” I say to Ms Collins that the communities do not think of the truth in terms of a jelly on a hotplate—spewing in every different direction. They like consistency. The National Party hates it loathes it when the Government reels out the inconsistent statements that Mr Key has made whether they be on the Iraq war whether they be on therapeutics— 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Talking about John Key again! 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: —and that member is obviously on the wrong therapeutics but he need not worry because we will be banning benzylpiperazine; he will be able to get off it—and all the other things that John Key has been inconsistent about. 
Let us look at Working for Families. John Key’s old story was in the  
Otago Daily Times 
 of 5 April where he said: “I actually want to go and have a really good look at Working for Families and the whole structure of welfare in New Zealand.” We know what that is code for. Yet in May 2007 on  
Campbell Live  
he said: “I would like to only change the top end of where it’s cutting—in very high-income levels—and replace that with tax cuts.” So in May he says one thing and in April he says another. We know what the coded message is because that is what National did last time. We know that the coded message means that for the 160000 families out of the 350000 Working for Families on that programme that are getting their own money back in tax credits the Leader of the Opposition’s cuts will rip out $50 to $80 per week. That is a fact. Dr Mapp agrees with me. He knows the inconsistency. 
Then we had John Key talking on national superannuation. In July this year he said: “There will be no change to New Zealand’s super or the New Zealand super fund under the National Government.” What was the old story in November 2003? At that time he said: “I don’t think there is any doubt”—I invite every Grey Power member to listen to this—“that the single biggest way to reduce that liability”—that is superannuation—“is to raise the age of eligibility.” People might say that he said that in 2003 and he is allowed to change his mind; he is allowed to flip-flop. Well we recall what Bill English said earlier this year in the  
New Zealand Herald 
. Firstly he said that superannuation was too generous; secondly he raised the spectre of lifting the age; and thirdly he raised the spectre of means testing the pension—once again. That is a fact. 
Hon Members 
: Oh! 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: If they do not believe me then they should believe the independent media. They should have a look and see what the media said. We know that when a microphone is stuck in front of John Key anything can happen. Audrey Young and her colleagues proved that over the therapeutics bill. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: Mike Moore would be ashamed of you. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: They do not like it. I say to Ms Collins when she asks what our policy is that our policy is record low unemployment. It means 350000 families getting their own taxes back in tax credits or $110-odd on average a week; it means $3 prescriptions halving prescription charges; it means Government debt has gone down; and it means the reinstatement of apprenticeships. I forget which person on the other side waxed eloquent about apprenticeships. In 1995 the National Government abolished the Apprenticeship Act— 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: 1992. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: My colleague says it was 1992. Today over 10000 young people are in trade training and that figure will be 14000-plus next year. Yet members opposite puff out their chests like little bantam hens proud of the fact— 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: That member is a battery hen. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Mr Mapp says he is a battery hen. I could say something but it would not be parliamentary. I think he needs to get energised because it has gone flat—the battery I mean. Those members sit there and gloat every time we mention trade training. They seem proud that in 1992 National killed off the apprenticeship scheme. That is what they gloat about. 
In conclusion we have a policy and a Budget and the implementation of said Budget yet we look across the Chamber and we see the hollow men and women one of whom is about to get up to speak. They are hollowed out. They are bereft of ideas. They think that if they wait till the last couple of weeks of the election campaign they can pull off what they tried to pull off last time which was the biggest almost hoodwink in this nation’s history. 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: Good speech!