Soper Lesley: General Debate 
Soper Lesley: General Debate 
[Volume:642;Page:11794] 
LESLEY SOPER (Labour) 
: 
 It is like being pelted by popcorn from the National Party benches when we hear a speech like that from one of the failed old front-bench members of the National Party. Those National members spend so much time bouncing from insubstantial cloud to insubstantial cloud trying to think of ways to justify the latest flip-flop. Let us look at the latest flip-flops. Well National has adopted Labour’s defence policy and it has adopted our foreign policy. It would have sent troops to Iraq—no it would not send troops to Iraq after all. It would raise the age of eligibility for superannuation—no it would not after all. It would get rid of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs—no it would give the ministry more teeth. 
National members spend so much time on trying to think of another excuse for having not even one little new policy idea of their own let alone any new big policy idea of their own. They spend so much time on reviving the hollow policies of the National Party past—like Work for the Dole under Mrs Collins tax cuts that would rob the family incomes of the 160000 families receiving the Working for Families package failed privatisation policies for accident compensation and the health system failed bulk funding for the education system and National’s desire to gut the Resource Management Act. Every time members opposite get to their feet and try to play the man and not the ball—just as Dr Lockwood Smith has done—they show they have no credibility whatsoever and nothing substantial to offer and they might as well continue to go on bouncing from cloud to cloud. 
On the other hand the Labour-led Government is getting on with the business. We are looking for the new issues. We are about delivery and have been since we became the Government in 1999. We are about improving the lives of all New Zealanders and we are about keeping our word. That means the Working for Families package for 160000 families. That means over 360000 more people in jobs than when we became the Government in 1999—something the National Party does not like to acknowledge. That means an unemployment rate of 3.6 percent—the equal-lowest since records started. That means 1000 youth-unemployed as a result of our policies compared with 18000 unemployed 18 and 19-year-olds when National was in Government. That is delivery and that is what the National Party does not like to acknowledge. 
It does not want to acknowledge that we have been a successful long-term Government with a brilliant leader and a brilliant front-bench that delivers. That delivery on policies means things like thousands of Modern Apprentices under the Modern Apprenticeships scheme—the answer to a National Government that destroyed the apprenticeship system. That means industry training schemes that deliver. That means extra funding for free doctors’ visits for under-sixes—something the former National Government failed to deliver to any point in the health system. That means the building of new hospitals under this Government—there is one in my electorate of Invercargill which I am very proud of having been a part of. It was delivered on budget and on time. 
These are things the National Party knows nothing about because it is not interested in delivery. It is interested in nothing but trying to play the man not the ball. It is interested in cheap shots. It is interested in insubstantial jumping from cloud to cloud and getting nowhere. The electorate of this country has begun to recognise there is nothing substantial in this policy. Every day people tell me that “our” Government—and New Zealanders regard this Government as “our” Government; the Government they can relate to which has delivered to them—will win next year and win well. This insubstantial popcorn throwing from the Opposition benches is exactly that—insubstantial little ideas.