Tisch Lindsay: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Tisch Lindsay: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14150] 
LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 At least the previous speaker has some enthusiasm but that is about all he has. Of course in a few months he will be gone. Over the barbeques of the New Year and the Christmas period what were people saying? They were saying that we have a tired worn-out out-of-touch Government a Government that has lost touch with the realities of what is happening in New Zealand. I am sure that those people support John Key’s motion this evening that this House has no confidence in a Helen Clark - led Government because it has failed to make significant improvement in the areas of real importance to all New Zealanders because it lacks ambition because it is tired and bereft of ideas because it has lost touch with the people who put it into power and because under its lead our country has become a story of lost opportunities. That is why we are seeing so many people who have decided to vote with their feet and move offshore. 
As time has gone on this minority Labour Government has concentrated more and more on its own survival because it knows its days are limited. What did the House end up voting for just before Christmas? 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: We didn’t. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: No National did not vote for it. The Electoral Finance Act was a survival tactic. It was designed for no more than to put the Government into a position where it can manipulate what will happen at the next election. We voted against the bill. The Government brought in the bill because it is concentrating on its own survival and nothing else. 
The Government has concentrated less and less on the issues that really matter to New Zealanders. Labour has squandered economic opportunities. It has failed in its inheritance by failing to build those strong foundations that we should have had after 8 years when the commodity markets around the world have been good and when we should have been able to capitalise on that. Those foundations are lost. 
Let us look at the Roy Morgan New Zealand Consumer Confidence Rating poll which states: “New Zealand Consumer Confidence drops to a 4-month low.” That is what the consumers are saying. Let us look at the monthly  
Economic Review 
. This comes from Parliamentary Library research: “Annual economic output growth in New Zealand has been forecast to decrease in 2008 due to the slowdown in the housing market higher mortgage and interest rates and higher energy costs.” Those are some of the issues that New Zealanders are concerned about. This Government does not have any answers but National does. 
Here are some very salient questions that I want to put to this Government because this is what the Kiwis out there and my constituents are asking. Here are some of those questions that Kiwis really want to have some answers for. Why after 8 long years of a Labour Government are we paying the second-highest interest rates in the developed world? In 1999 when this Government came in interest rates on mortgages were 4.25 percent. What are they today? They are 8.25 percent. That is what they are. In fact overdrafts are well over 10 percent at the moment. If one happened to have watched  
Campbell Live  
tonight one would have seen that the credit card interest rate ranges are starting off at 19 percent and going up to well over 22 percent. These are the things that are affecting average New Zealanders. Interest rates are something that they have no control over and this Government under its legacy has forced up those interest rates which makes it very difficult—in fact uncontrollable in some cases—for average New Zealanders to be able to survive. 
Here is the second question. Why under Labour is the gap between our wages and wages in Australia and other parts of the world getting bigger and bigger? We know that in Australia they are better off by a third. The OECD revenue statistics recently quoted a very interesting comparative study between New Zealand and Australian economic performance. The total percentage of revenue collected in Australia at the provisional level by state and Federal Government was 31 percent in 2005. The comparison in New Zealand was 37 percent from those sources which is a significantly higher tax take. 
We have fallen behind Australia in productivity. Across the board of the professions and trades—you name it—people are deciding that they are better off moving to Australia. Of the 77000 long-term departures 80 percent of those were under 40 years of age. Let me say that again. Of the 77000 people who left New Zealand last year 80 percent of them were under 40 years of age. They are the people who should be staying here. They are our future. But where have they gone? They have decided to go offshore. Eight hundred of those people each week have decided to make Australia their home. I have two children who have decided to work in London. They are 28 and 26. [ 
Interruption 
] I tell members that these kids are the future of New Zealand. These kids are the future of New Zealand and they have decided that the pasture is better over there. We are losing our brightest and best. 
Why does the Government run these huge surpluses? Over the last 8 years the surpluses have accumulated to $44 billion. In fact in the last 3 years it has been $26 billion. We have the surpluses but we have lost the opportunities. Of course the compliance regimes that have come into place have stifled investment and initiative and have made it very very difficult for New Zealanders to make a go of it especially in business. We have lacked growth and performance. Kiwis are running flat out just to stand still. That is why we are seeing so many deciding to go offshore. Labour wants to tax our talent. That is what it comes down to. We should be growing the economy and making the cake bigger so that everyone gets the benefit. 
Here is another question. Why under Labour do we get a tax cut only in an election year when we really needed it years ago? Is it not very convenient that we are now going to have tax cuts yet when National promoted it at the last election it was unaffordable? It was seen as being irresponsible yet the surpluses in 2005 were greater than they are now. 
We debated the Building Act back in 2004 and I want just to quote from the Prime Minister’s statement today when she said about the building business: “We will be tackling issues in the building consent process that are adding unreasonably to the costs of building a home beginning with simplifying the design and building consent processes for starter homes.” I was involved in the select committee that looked at that issue and I said at the time—in August—that this was a very prescriptive regulatory regime and that it would be an overkill and an overburden of bureaucracy. That is what I said at that time. In fact the costs estimated then were going to be 2.9 percent. Here they are in the explanatory note of the bill. In fact those costs have now ballooned out well over 15 percent. 
We have identified a number of issues but there are other questions that we really want to ask and this Government does not have the answers for them. Why are one in five Kiwi kids leaving school with grossly inadequate literacy and numeracy skills? Why when Labour claims to aspire to carbon neutrality are greenhouse gas emissions continuing to rise at an alarming rate? Why has the health system not improved when billions of extra dollars have been poured into it—$6 billion back in the year 2000 and $12 billion in the last Budget? Why is violent crime against New Zealanders continuing to soar? And why is Labour unable to do anything about it? There is nothing more important to any Government in New Zealand than protecting the rights and lives of citizens and their property. This Government has abrogated that responsibility. It does not understand the problem so how can it possibly have answers for the solution? 
In National our focus is on making sure that we use the talents we have and that we are actually able to use the economy to be able to invest in infrastructure through ongoing tax cuts and by monitoring the quality of spending. John Key was able to crystallise and articulate those issues during his speech. That is why National Party members support him—as do all New Zealanders which we will find out in 9 months’ time when this Government is out.