Jones Shane: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Jones Shane: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:637;Page:7904] 
SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 Kia ora anotatou. The 1st of April is going to be a great day reflective of the brilliant work that our Government is doing. We are going to remind our key constituencies as a consequence of high-quality economic stewardship that the most vulnerable elements in society who totally pledge their support and their commitment to a social democratic approach are to be rewarded. At the time that they are being rewarded they are witnessing Mr Key seeking to ape and seeking to ride in the wake of our successes. That man wanders around Aotearoa attending every single opportunity or event and pinching aping emulating or borrowing but never saying an original thing. Then he comes back and checks either with his caucus or with Mr English as to whether what he has said will actually be tolerable or can be embraced by the true-blue brigade which Mr English hopes will eventually enable him to return to the area that he ruined when he tried for the big prize well beyond his years and experience. 
Unfortunately it is not only Mr English or Mr Key who are making blunders and mistakes. My whanaunga here from the Maori Party made a tragic miscalculation over the last 24 hours when they grossly misread the views of the Maori community in terms of tolerating acquiescing to or putting up with levels of family violence. What did I read in the newspaper at a time when leadership and bold stands are required? I read that Tariana Turia was not only wavering but preparing to embrace the wretched amendment currently being peddled by the member for Whanganui who when he cannot read the data about traffic statistics and police business is serving up an amendment that will only make it more difficult for us to stand against family and domestic violence. That was a very bleak day in terms of the number of Maori Party supporters—diminishing by the day I have no doubt when they watch their leaders at war with each other. Members may ask what that has to do with broad economic considerations. I say that for every family that witnesses the perpetration or the casualties of violence there is an enormous economic cost to our society. And who is left to pick up the pieces? It is the poor long-suffering taxpayer or community groups. I say to our colleagues from the Maori Party that they should not play short-cut politics while their whanau are getting an uppercut because of excessive family violence. 
However I will go back to the sterling work undertaken by the Finance and Expenditure Committee. As Mr Woolerton has referred to we had the interesting spectacle of Dr Bollard being challenged by Mr Bill English as to whether the levers he has in terms of monetary policy were being misused and were doing more harm than good. What did Dr Bollard say back to Mr English? He said: “As you know Mr Bill English when you sat in the meeting I outlined and elaborated on what the options are.” The coded message being given was that Mr English should not come to meetings with Dr Bollard seize upon very sensitive potentially confidential information and then when the heat comes on move out of the meeting and not admit that Dr Bollard and National’s leader equally acknowledge that there are some flaws in terms of relying exclusively on monetary policy to deal with problems such as an enlarging currency rate and the expanding cost of housing. So it was interesting to watch the morose highly wrought Mr English come back from the deep south and challenge Dr Bollard who with the style and poise of a consummate cricket player just flicked him aside—as Mr English has been flicked aside by the electorate in earlier times. 
R Doug Woolerton 
: That’s right. 
SHANE JONES 
: Actually I must agree with the kaumatua—no I will not say the kaumatua; the pakeke Mr Woolerton—one of the senior members of our committee who recently pointed out that the savings policy represents a key plank for economic transformation. As a consequence of having the KiwiSaver scheme as an adjunct to the Cullen fund our economic policy represents savings on behalf of those who are either unable or unwilling to save or who hope to ride long and hard into the distance without savings. Kia ora tatou.