Ardern Jacinda: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Jacinda: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 20 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8715. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) 
: 
 We all know that a general debate is an opportunity for both sides of the House to talk about the important issues of the day. We just had 5 minutes—5 minutes—of Anne Tolley attacking the Labour leader around a bank account that was used for his pay while he was working with refugee children for the United Nations. All I have to say is that in a general debate when there are issues of the magnitude that we are seeing currently if that is what that Government is obsessed with then we are all in trouble. It is typical of that Government which is so focused on its own cronyism and so focused on being hands-off and ignoring that there are any problems out there in New Zealand that it would focus in that way on that particular issue. 
On this side of the House we are much more interested in asking questions around what is happening out there for everyday New Zealanders who are struggling to get by who are struggling with the costs of living. I know that members on that side of the House get the same question that we get asked as politicians. We all get asked constantly: “Why are you in politics?”. I would ask the Government that same question: why are you in politics? As a Government what are you here to achieve? I would welcome any member—any member—from that side of the House answering that because the evidence gives cause for concern. 
With unemployment at 6.9 percent 175000 Kiwis looking for work and 85000 young people not in employment education or training clearly this Government is not here for job seekers. Clearly it is not here for those who are currently trying to better themselves and their families by finding work. We are now more unequal than we have ever been as a country. On this side of the House we are concerned about that. We are not here to sit idly by while the gap between rich and poor grows and we all suffer the consequences of that. Well meanwhile the Government again throws its hands in the air and says that it does not really matter. That Government is not here for everyday families and particularly vulnerable children who are in the homes of those who are suffering under the inability to find work get ahead or even work a job with a minimum wage and who cannot survive. That Government is not here for those families. Today we are about to again debate the welfare reforms. As much as the Minister for Social Development with all of her rhetoric and political spin tries to claim that she is here for the vulnerable in society I am yet to hear her give me one example of how her welfare reforms improve the lot of anyone—anyone—on social security because frankly they do not. 
So why is that Government here? Well again I do not need to ask the rhetorical question when I have got the evidence. It is here to sell assets. And to whom? Apparently to mum and dad investors. Well if you mean mum and dad investors in Australia—some of whom might actually be New Zealanders given that we have got 50000 of them fleeing the country every year—if that is whom the Government is trying to sell assets to then perhaps it might be here for Australian mum and dad investors. Perhaps the Government is here to do a deal on pokies with Skycity because we have heard endless discussion not the least by the Auditor-General about what a dodgy deal the Government handled with regard to the New Zealand International Convention Centre. Perhaps it is here to spend more on consultants because anyone who is involved in financial reviews right now knows the huge amount of money that is being spent by our public sector on consultants. The Government is determined to pretend that it is cutting back on the civil service whilst throwing money at consultants at the same time. Just today we heard that the Families Commission spent over $400000 on one individual for not much more than 12 months. That is the amount we tend to spend on the White Ribbon campaign on anti-violence and that was spent on one contractor at the Families Commission. 
What happens when we do have a situation where things are going badly and some Government intervention would not go astray? Solid Energy might be an example. We see the Government throw its hands in the air and equally deny that it had anything to do with it in the first place which we know from Official Information Act request details that we have got is not actually the case. I ask again why it is here and whom it is here for because if we look at all the need in New Zealand—if we look at all the families who need its help the job seekers who need its help the young people who are seeking a better future—it is certainly not here for them. New Zealand should be asking that National Government whom it is here for.