Cullen Michael: General Debates 
Cullen Michael: General Debates 
[Volume:616;Page:11923] 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Deputy Prime Minister) 
: 
 Last night on television we saw the soft-sell extremist Dr Brash in action and not just on issues like the Treaty of Waitangi which he now regards as a historical document of no contemporary relevance at all. In one short interview he managed to indicate how extremely uncomfortable he is with the position of most New Zealanders on at least four issues. “I am extremely uncomfortable” is one of his favourite phrases and when we hear it be alerted that there is bad news coming for most Kiwis. Throughout the interview he blinked like a kind of narcoleptic owl in the hope that the significance of what he was saying would get lost as a consequence. Firstly he said that he was not at all sure Kiwibank was making a major impact and if that was the case then yes we should sell it. 
So what is the policy? The policy absolutely is to sell Kiwibank. That is the National Party’s policy. It has not learnt a thing in Opposition. It has not eaten anything of any use during its 4½ years in Opposition. In 2005 National will again run on the policies that got it chucked out in 1999. It is not surprising. Dr Brash said that New Zealand Post should be flogged off. That is what he said when he was Governor of the Reserve Bank. Who benefits from flogging off Kiwibank? The Aussie banks. Who loses from flogging off Kiwibank? Ordinary New Zealanders—those who are with the bank and those whose fees have come down as a consequence of the bank’s operations. The election next year will be about a lot of issues not just about the one that Dr Brash wants to talk about. One issue will be the sale of State assets. 
Secondly Dr Brash told us what he thought about Iraq. He said: “I feel very uncomfortable with where we are currently.” I do not think he meant our engineers in Basra. I am not sure who the “we” is when he refers to “we” in relation to Iraq because the context was whether New Zealand would have gone to war against Iraq. When pushed he answered that yes he would have gone to war with Iraq. Why? He did not know why except that somehow or other that would have improved relations with the United States. In other words we would send our young men and women off to war in the hope—no more than that—that by 2010 or 2012 or 2015 we might get three more lamb chops on American tables. It is what is called “one war for all” as far as Dr Brash is concerned. 
Then we learnt about dumping the nuclear-free status. What did Dr Brash say about that? He said: I frankly am uncomfortable with where we are currently.” Yet again he was uncomfortable. He wants the nuclear-free ban repealed. National has a report coming from Wyatt Creech. We know what it will say. We know what National wants to do. We learnt from Dr Brash that in order to make himself comfortable—apparently the purpose of politics—the rest of us in New Zealand have to be made uncomfortable. That is what he said. 
On superannuation Dr Brash said to be assured that the age of retirement would not be raised for people aged over 50. In other words for people aged under 50 it would be raised. In that debate he did not touch at all upon the issue of the level of the pension under a National Government whatever the age of retirement. Remember what the National Government did? National froze the pension for 2 years and then in 1999 cut the relativity. That is what it did. An awful lot of people will be uncomfortable if National gets the chance to take on the pension in the way it did during the 1990s. 
I put a challenge to Dr Brash. He is the new leader of the National Party. I wrote to Mr English and asked whether he would sign up to 65 percent for a married couple at the age of 65. Mr Dunne said yes Mr Donald said yes Mr Anderton said yes and we said yes. Mr Hide said no because ACT does not believe anybody should get a pension at all. Mr English said: “We won’t tell you but we won’t sign up.” I ask Dr Brash whether he will sign up to that. It is very easy to do. He might feel uncomfortable doing it but he can write me a letter. It is not hard. He can write me a letter saying yes the National Party will sign up to supporting 65 percent at age 65. Will he do it or will he not? No he will not.