Hayes John: Address in Reply 
Hayes John: Address in Reply 
[Volume:652;Page:1203] 
JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa) 
: 
 I rise to oppose the motion before the House which was proposed by the Leader of the Opposition the Hon Phil Goff. Along with Helen Clark and Michael Cullen he committed political suicide last year and they are now living to regret their achievement. Helen is about to desert the ship before the end of the year and she wants to go off to “bureaucracy central” at the United Nations. We wish her well in that task. Michael Cullen can be expected to leave fairly soon after that which will leave Mr Goff—the media addict glued to the television screens searching for his latest appearance—starting to feel a bit isolated. I heard two very good speeches in the House this afternoon. They were erudite perceptive and from people who are well able to replace Mr Goff without much difficulty at all. I am talking about Mr Jones and Mr Cunliffe. Clearly they have Phil Goff in their sights. My prediction is that Phil Goff will not be the leader of the Labour Opposition in 3 years’ time for the next election. 
We have to ask ourselves why the Labour Government headed by Helen Clark was rolled. It was rolled because despite many assertions by Helen Clark that we would be within the top 10 places of the OECD within her 9-year reign we did not move at all. We did not move at all because many of the organisations that she presided over directly or indirectly—and I think here of the Canterbury Regional Council headed by her good friend Sir Kerry Burke—have not behaved with integrity. For example the regional council in Canterbury owned a company that last year defaulted on $3.6 million owed to companies including one owned by my constituents. The Canterbury Regional Council has decided that it is not wearing a part of the loss. It is not alone because under the stewardship of the Labour Government AgriQuality invested $1 million in the company last year and within 2 months sold those shares for $1. 
On behalf of my constituents I say publicly here tonight to Sir Kerry Burke: “Be fair be honourable and meet your obligations because unlike dealing with the private sector where you can extract personal guarantees from people you cannot do this when you are dealing with Government agencies and with local bodies.” I think that part of the reason the Labour Government committed political suicide was the way in which it ran its businesses and the community saw the lack of integrity displayed by those people. 
In contrast John Key and his Ministers and this National Government have a vision to steer this country through the very difficult times created by the Labour Government which ignored the benefits of 9 years of strong export prices and squandered them. In contrast the driving goal of this Government will be to grow the New Zealand economy and as Roger Douglas said in the House this afternoon grow our productivity. The only way to deliver greater prosperity security and opportunities to all New Zealanders will be to grow our productivity. 
We cannot stop the recession but we can blunt its sharp edges. Only a strong economy will guarantee financial security to the people in my electorate. Only prosperity and security for all New Zealanders will guarantee financial security. We should not be too negative. In my electorate yes there is a slow increase in unemployment but at least 95 percent of those who want to work are still in work. If we think about individual circumstances everybody has had one tax cut and New Zealanders are about to get another one next April. In contrast Labour members were fair-weather economic managers. They had no ideas about how to get this country moving forward. They tied us all up in red tape and they constrained all sorts of economic activity initiative and productivity increases. In contrast the National Government has a jobs and growth plan. It is about keeping the economy running as strongly as possible easing the sharpest impacts of the recession and preparing our economy for future growth. 
Labour lost the election because it had no serious plan to secure rising incomes. It coasted on the back of strong export prices and it utterly failed to lay any foundation for reducing the gap between living standards on this side of the Tasman and across in Australia. Clark failed to mention—failed to understand—the importance of increasing productivity. The infrastructural programme that was released by the Government today will give our economy a $500 million boost. About $100 million worth of those fast-track projects will start before 30 June this year including I am pleased to inform my electorate sorting out Muldoon’s Corner on the Rimutaka hill. 
Education will also benefit from $216 million of spending. But before I talk about education I would like to come back and talk about Muldoon’s Corner. When I was elected to this Parliament as the member for Wairarapa back in 2005 the first meeting I attended was a meeting of the Hill Road Committee. It involved Georgina Beyer who was then a list member of Parliament and the local mayors and the Ministry of Transport. At that meeting we were told by Transit New Zealand actually by Mr Taylor the regional manager: “We can’t give you a 70 kilometre per hour road over the hill but if you accept one at 55 we can do that. We can get it under way this year”—I am talking 2005—“and we can do it out of our existing budget.” There was no need to get any extra money. Three and a half years later nothing has happened on Muldoon’s Corner. 
This Government will make a difference; it will begin very shortly. The package of business assistance last week to small and medium sized enterprises of about $480 million will be of significant value to many of the small businesses in my electorate. I have been talking to people up and down the electorate and they say that these are really good practical measures that can help their businesses. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: One end of Carterton to the other. 
JOHN HAYES 
: I say to Mr Cullen that what is more important—and it is something you failed to do during your 9 years in power—was dealing to the Resource Management Act. Yes you were the Minister of Finance who presided over arrangements— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Order! 
JOHN HAYES 
: I am sorry Dr Cullen was the Minister— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member has mentioned the word “you” many times. He cannot use the word “you”; that brings the Speaker into the debate. 
JOHN HAYES 
: I was referring to a female sheep Mr Deputy Speaker. Dr Cullen was the Minister who presided over arrangements under the Resource Management Act that required one of my constituents to pay $900 for a resource consent to build a chook house for five chooks. That is the ridiculous nature of that Act which was not reformed by the Labour Government. That is why the community removed it. We also need to undertake a comprehensive review to improve our front-line health expenditure. Far too many people in my electorate are not getting the health treatment that they need. I strongly commend the work being done by Tony Ryall in focusing— 
Hon Pete Hodgson 
: Who built a new hospital in the Wairarapa? 
JOHN HAYES 
: Yes that is dead right but there are not enough operations there or doctors or nurses to deliver decent services to my community. I am very supportive of the work being done by Tony Ryall.