King Annette: General Debate 
King Annette: General Debate 
[Volume:662;Page:10756] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
: 
 We have just heard from Judith Collins—a Minister who has had a lot from taxpayers. She has had gallons and gallons of free petrol. She is now known as the biggest gas guzzler in the whole Parliament. I have to say that the gloss is going off this superficial Government very fast indeed. I was very interested to read Colin Espiner’s column yesterday when he said: “In the life cycle of every administration there’s a stage when it ‘tips’ …” and he asks about that because he thinks that perhaps things are about to change for the worse for this Government. I have to say to Colin if he is listening that he is dead right. People in New Zealand and serious commentators are waking up to the fact that they have a Government of spin spin spin. They have a Government of bluster and blatherskite. It is a Government of photo opportunities whether its members are posing with babies or posing in a flak jacket in Bamian. Policies are pulled out of the hat to meet a media and photo opportunity. 
Where have the enduring principles of the proud old National Party gone? They have been replaced by opportunism and poll-driven slogans. That is what we get from the Government of today: “ambitious for New Zealand” has become “ambiguous for New Zealand”. We were going to have a step change with a cycleway that has not produced a single job. We were going to catch up with Australia but Australia’s unemployment is going down and our unemployment going up. And guess what is happening: the New Zealanders who were all going to come home under John Key’s Government are all heading back across the Tasman. What we get from National members are big bang policy announcements so that they can keep up the old poll ratings which they take every week. I believe that National members are the original poll-driven fruitcakes. Everything they do is based on a poll. Serious commentators are now asking: what does National stand for; where is the Government’s moral compass; what drives the Prime Minister; what is the plan; what is the step change; and where is the leadership? 
Let us take just unemployment as an issue. Unemployment when people’s jobs are taken from them and they are thrown on the scrap heap is one of the most pernicious things we can have in society. Any serious Government would see what it could do to help those who are unemployed particularly young people who are just starting out in life and want a job. All they have from this Government are publicity shots; unemployment has been nothing more than a plaything for this Government. It has not taken unemployment seriously. As Phil Goff said it held a media-managed Job Summit. Everyone was to come to the summit and have a look at Mr Key as he announced major policies that would bring about a step change for New Zealand and jobs for everybody. I have to admit that it got him on television but what have we ended up with? We had an unemployment rate that was the lowest in the OECD below Australia’s but it is now one of the highest at 7.3 percent—30 percent higher than Australia’s. Australia has created 215000 jobs in 6 months. 
What have we done? Sixty thousand Kiwis have lost their jobs. Of our young people 72000 of them are now unemployed. For 6 months Mr Key and his Cabinet did nothing but on 1 August last year along came the National Party conference. A late Cabinet paper of 29 July was rushed through so John Key could make an announcement at the National Party conference. No wonder Treasury said the policy was poorly thought out it was not going to achieve the goals and basically it was a waste of money. Treasury has been proved correct. I ask National members opposite to have a look at the results of their policies because they have not produced them for young New Zealanders. It is a crying shame to see what that Government is doing to so many young people in this country.