King Annette: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
King Annette: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14109] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 Welcome back to what will be an action-packed year! Many of us have returned full of energy and ideas. We heard them today from the Prime Minister and we heard them just before from Phil Goff. We have the ideas we have the energy and we are taking New Zealand forward. On the other side of the House I have to say a few members look as if they have dragged themselves here and are wondering just what they are doing here and why they are not on holiday—and that was just Maurice Williamson. We have had 43 days of this year. Some of our media commentators have already declared that the election is under way and that National is the winner. National has declared that there is nothing to stop it getting on the Treasury benches. National members are already talking about the cars the houses the portfolios and the baubles of power. 
Then we have the ACT party. It is desperately seeking a cause to act as its spine. Gordon Copeland is just seeking another party. In the meantime the Labour-led Government is getting on with the job of governing. Bill English is green with envy because he knows that this has been a good Government. We have done plenty in 8 years but there is plenty more to do. We have a full agenda for 2008 as members heard today. If anybody believes as National would portray that this Government is tired and has no ideas then they know that to be untrue as shown by the energy and by the policy agenda that has been set out here today. We have policies and programmes. 
I have to say that when I look opposite—and I listened to John Key today—I find that National does not have ideas. It borrows them from everybody else particularly from this side of the House. I was very very amused when I saw this Tremain cartoon in the  
Otago Daily Times  
just last week. It shows Mr Key in front of a stall with a summer flip-flop special. Mr Key is saying: “We Nats have done a total turnaround on the interest-free student loan issue. I mean to gamble with their vote would run a shiver up your spine … if you had one!”. 
That actually just about sums it up. It just about sums up the National Party’s approach. What did we hear from Mr Key today? We did not hear the visionary speech he said there ought to have been. He said that the Prime Minister had a chance to give a visionary speech and she did not. I believe she did and so do most people who listened to it. But I listened for 8 minutes to Mr Key’s speech waiting for one visionary word to come out of the man’s mouth. What did I hear? I heard slogans slugging and slagging. That is what we heard from the National Party today. 
He would be leader. Do New Zealanders want that sort of leadership in this country? No they do not. They want a leader who is able to articulate where this country is going and the gains that have been made through stable Government. I do not believe that I have heard more blatherskite jibber-jabber and cant than I heard in that speech from Mr Key today. 
My colleague has set out some of the changes in approach that we have heard from Mr Key. They are worth repeating because New Zealanders need to know that if they get the National Party they do not get a change at all. The change in fact would be the change of adopting our policies as their policies. 
We need only take the student loan issue. National members were going to fight the interest-free student loans with every breath in their bodies to their dying day. Right up until 2 weeks ago they were going to fight this very issue and in an election year something that was bad is now good! 
Then of course as Phil Goff has said there was the whole issue of climate change. Nobody will forget Mr Key’s speech. He said climate change was a hoax and that he did not believe in it. He got cheers from the doubters all around New Zealand but suddenly when the rest of the world said there is a problem and we ought to be doing something about it he went from saying it was a hoax to saying he was a believer. But hang on a minute! A report came out that gave him a bit of doubt so he has gone back to being in between. 
Then we had the Kyoto Protocol. What did he say about that? The National Party said it is a failure as a document and it ranted and raved before the 2005 election. What is National’s position now? Well now it supports it. National members have changed their minds. What about KiwiSaver? Over 400000 New Zealanders have signed up to KiwiSaver. National members said it was a flawed policy. Well National members are telling 400000 New Zealanders that they do not know what they are doing and that they are flawed people because they have joined up. But of course there has been a bit of change in the National members’ approach to KiwiSaver. They now believe that it is not too bad and I predict that very soon it will be their policy. They will go into the election embracing and loving KiwiSaver as they have done with many of our other policies. 
Of course we could mention the nuclear-free policy. They fought every election I can remember by opposing our nuclear-free New Zealand policy. Within 5 minutes of Mr Key getting the job no longer was that a bottom-line principle; they now embraced a nuclear-free New Zealand. 
What I am showing is that we have a National Party that is full of flipper-floppers. They will do anything and say anything to become the Government. I need to tell members that one of their own backbenchers said at the weekend that Mr Key will do anything to be the Prime Minister. I believe that. So when the National Party says it is time for a change I say: “A change to what?”. They have nothing to offer. They have nothing to give this country. 
I think what we heard from the Prime Minister today is an agenda for this year that really puts some stakes in the ground. I want to mention in particular investment in our NGO sector those many hundreds and hundreds of good people who deliver essential services to New Zealanders. In particular I want to talk about victims’ rights. Victims in New Zealand I think deserve better. It was not until we got a Labour Government that we got victims’ rights legislation in 2002. We are building on that legislation and in terms of investment in services for the victims of crimes in New Zealand. One of the things the Prime Minister announced today was that we would be setting up a victims’ rights charter so that people know what their rights are. It will be set out clearly for them and for those who provide services to them. 
One of the things that has been said many times is that victims deserve to be able to get access to information—good information—and we have set out that we will have an 0800 number so that people can pick up the phone and get advice on the end of that phone when and where they need it. 
We have also said that victims need the support of the organisation that provides it to them and we have provided ongoing sustainable funding to the organisation that provides support to victims. This is the first of many of our agenda items for victims in New Zealand. 
One of the big issues that came out of the victims’ rights inquiry at the select committee was the issue of compensation. This is a complex issue and it is one that is worthy of investigation. We have sent that finding to the Law Commission to give us advice on it. We have taken that select committee inquiry seriously and we will address other parts of that inquiry in the next few weeks. 
There were many important parts to the Prime Minister’s speech today not the least of which is the investment into our essential social services. I know that that will be welcomed up and down New Zealand. We do believe that those who go out and work on behalf of New Zealanders are worthy of that support. They would not have got it from the National Party. National members have never valued the not-for-profit sector. They only ever talk about the private sector but coming into an election year they have been running around like little rats meeting with everybody and promising everything they can. Why? Not because they believe in them but because they hope they will get a vote out of them! Well as that sector knows there has been ongoing consistent support; and a package that has been announced today by my colleague Ruth Dyson really does show that commitment to the many people who work in the sector.