Mallard Trevor: Budget Debate 
Mallard Trevor: Budget Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:16549] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister for the Environment) 
: 
 I am surprised that that member Anne Tolley who I think is National’s education spokesperson has not visited a school recently. She clearly has not done so because if she had then she would have seen enormous change—change in the buildings change in the staffing ratios change in the quality of staff and changes in the quality of resources. If she had she looked really carefully especially at the literacy and numeracy results then she would have seen that there has been considerable improvement especially where teachers have already had the new professional development that has been available over the last couple of years. In fact in respect of the children who are doing the programmes in those classes my understanding is that the average progress is approximately 2 years in reading for 1 year in their lives. That is enormous progress especially for brown children who are the most advantaged by those programmes. 
In my Budget speech I do not want to spend too much time on Anne Tolley; I will just comment that she appears to have caught the habits of her leader in terms of her inability to listen to the person who follows her which is something that is a tradition in this House. She has shot through already. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Marian Hobbs) 
: You are sailing close to the wind. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: But I would say that I know who Anne Tolley is and I think after this week everyone in the House now knows who Kate Wilkinson is. Quite a few members were not sure. Some of us have a little bit of a problem in that a number of the women on the National Party benches look very similar. Certainly in looking at their hair colour I can say it looks like they share their shampoos or hair dyes and they do look somewhat similar. Kate Wilkinson is not one of that group but today we know who she is because earlier in the week Kate Wilkinson was honest enough to announce National’s policy. 
Nathan Guy 
: Not like you. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Oh she was not honest according to the man from Otaki—the man who wants to be the MP for Otaki and who was beaten by a schoolboy in the last election. 
Kate Wilkinson was honest. She said that the National Party did not stand for compulsion. John Key slapped her around and told her off—literally and figuratively—and made her feel very very small and embarrassed for telling the truth. It is just not on for party leaders do that. But what John Key did not say was whether National if it were ever elected—and I must say that with approaches like that it is becoming more and more a distant possibility; it is looking farther and farther away—would keep KiwiSaver employer contributions compulsory at the level they are currently in the legislation going from 1 percent to 4 percent. He said “compulsory as of now”—that is at 1 percent which is on average worth $9 a week to employees. 
But under the John Key approach in 3 years’ time he would rip $27 a week on average—$27 a week—out of the KiwiSaver accounts of New Zealand workers. I say to John Key that it is a disgrace to rip $27 a week out of the KiwiSaver account of the average earning Kiwi who is saving in KiwiSaver in order to give his rich mates a further tax increase. John Key is also not committed for example to stay with the $1000 kick-start. 
I just want John Key to be honest with the House and to get up and take a call in the debate. I would seek leave for John Key to take an extra call in this debate if he would tell us about National’s KiwiSaver policy and answer some questions. Would he keep the $1000 kick-start in place? Would he take that out of people’s accounts retrospectively? And if he did would he take out the interest or the other income earned on that $1000 or would he just take the $1000? Would he keep in place the payment of the Government contribution of $1040 into the account? I hear silence from John Key; it is deafening. 
John Key will not tell us whether he will keep the Government contribution either to the employer or directly into the account in place. Will he keep the full support for first-home buyers in place? And what is this middle-class sweetener he is talking about? 
You know it is not often that I agree with the  
New Zealand Herald 
—the  
New Zealand Herald 
 has not been that supportive of the Government in recent years. But it stated in the concluding paragraph of an editorial today that is very critical of John Key: “National’s confusion over KiwiSaver should be a warning. Indecision breeds unease. It also hands the initiative to the Government. National can avoid this trap only by releasing policy coherently and in quick order.” 
I invite John Key to do that and at the same time I will invite him to release policy in another area as well. I am asking him just to be absolutely straight with this House—in the speech that I am quite happy for him to take after this speech—and tell the House why as Leader of the Opposition he is having discussions with financiers in Australia in order to sell to them the assets of New Zealand’s State-owned enterprises. He is having discussions about how he can fiddle his balance sheet by selling the assets of the State-owned enterprises that have been built up over generations in New Zealand. They were a contribution in some cases from our grandparents—by way of tax to set up the electricity department for example—but John Key is now offering to sell those and to lease them back. 
Jill Pettis 
: In the first term. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Well he said that he would not sell the State-owned enterprises but he made no commitment at all about the major assets of those State-owned enterprises. And I just think that he is being too tricky by half— 
Dr Ashraf Choudhary 
: Slippery. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: —and slippery. I think that John Campbell got it just about right when he said that John Key was being “slippery as a snake in wet gla—grass”—and on wet glass as well probably but “wet grass” was the quote. John Key is very very slippery and he is just now beginning to get a reputation for being a smart-arse in these areas. It is just not appropriate for a Leader of the Opposition to bend the truth to the extent that John Key is doing in order to avoid answering a question. 
I must say that I do not think that the media is doing that well on this KiwiSaver issue. It did OK for 24 hours and then it got bored. But there is a list of questions that any decent media people would pursue. Would John Key keep the $1000 in place? Would he keep the employer contributions going to 4 percent? Would he keep the Government tax credit for employers? Would he keep full support for first-home buyers? 
John Key receives the same pay as a Minister and I think that he should be treated in the same way by the media. No Minister within New Zealand could just say to the media: “Oh I do not want to answer those questions any more. I am too scared. I do not have answers. I am embarrassed. I am running away.” No Minister can do that in New Zealand so John Key should not be allowed to do it either.