Parker David: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Parker David: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 14 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6588. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 On “Planet Labour” I live in a country where we have got the highest unemployment in 20 years. It is the highest rate in 13 years since Bill English was last Minister of Finance. I live in a country where despite the National Party promise to stop people going to Australia 180000 people have gone which is more than the population of Hamilton of Napier and Hastings combined or of Dunedin and Invercargill combined. I live in a country where the Government promised 170000 new jobs and the number of jobs is going in the wrong direction. I live in a country where youth unemployment is high where Maori and Pacific youth unemployment is over 20 percent and where the base level of unemployment amongst Maori and Pacific is 15 percent. I live in a country where we have the second-worst current account deficit in the world after Greece and next year it will be the worst in the world. And I live in a country where exports are down. 
On the other side of the land we have got the National Party saying it is all going well. Well what do you have to call those members? What is that? Well I think after Paula Bennett’s episode today you would have to say that that is fantasyland. We heard Paula Bennett today rewriting the next episode the next reissue of Disneyland. We have already had “Grumpy Growth English” saying grumpy—what the heck does “grumpy growth” mean? It is fantasyland. Then we had Paula Bennett saying that unemployment is bumpy. 
Hon Members 
: Bouncy. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Bouncy. Sorry bouncy. I cannot close my eyes when I say that. We heard her saying that the unemployment figures are bouncy when the quarterly employment survey has had filled jobs going down. The household labour force survey has been going in the wrong direction for three quarters in a row and unemployment is terrible after 180000 people have gone to Australia. 
So we have got “Grumpy” and we have “Bouncy”. Well I thought: who is “Dopey”? Then I thought that Mr Speaker will not let me say that anyone is dopey but I have to say that it was a dopey idea to improve educational outcomes by increasing class sizes. Unfortunately there are two people with responsibility for that: Bill English and Hekia Parata. So I will not call anyone “Dopey”. 
Then of course what is Mr Key? Well he is either “Surprised” or “Forgetful”; I am not sure which. He was surprised that unemployment was going up— 
Grant Robertson 
: “Sleepy”. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Oh “Sleepy”? No I think it is “Surprised” or “Forgetful”. Business and Economic Research Ltd said unemployment was going up. ANZ National Bank said it was going to go up over 7 percent over time. “Forgetful”—well we have got Dotcom. Remember the brain fade over that. He cannot even remember where he stood on the Springbok Tour—all those important years—or on the drinking age or on anything else. 
Iain Lees-Galloway 
: Who’s “Snow White”? 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: I was asked by someone “Who’s ‘Snow White’?”. Who is “Snow White”? I had to think for a while but— 
Hon Member 
: Judith. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Exactly! It is Judith Collins who is trying to reinvent herself. She was “Crusher Collins”; now she is soft. She is lining up for the future competing against Steven Joyce for when John Key gives up tired of his job. He does not like being surprised or being characterised as forgetful and he is looking pretty disenchanted with the job. 
We have got all these problems in the country and the Government will not do anything about the serious issues. It will not remove the tax bias in the economy. ASB just today said that the favourite investment class of New Zealand is again rental housing in Auckland. We need a capital gains tax to get money into the productive sector. We need universal KiwiSaver. We need a Government that is willing to help our exporters and the people who are employed in those industries by doing what the IMF and others are saying is necessary. If you are a small trading nation you have to pay attention to your exchange rate as well as to inflation. But National? No it says it is on the right track. Who else thinks that? 
On the other side of the House it is fantasyland it is Disneyland and it is time that those members acknowledged that this economy is not working for ordinary New Zealanders. They are leaving in their droves—1000 in a month to Australia. There are declining rates of homeownership because people cannot afford their own house in part because they are competing against residential landlords. It is time to change track. 
Debate interrupted.