Heatley Phil: General Debate 
Heatley Phil: General Debate 
[Volume:642;Page:12017] 
PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) 
: 
 In all the fighting backroom deals and quiet talks to the media about the Labour Party reshuffle I have not seen Lynne Pillay’s name come up. I want to know whether the Prime Minister—Helen Clark—is going to roll out Lynne Pillay as a secret weapon during the reshuffle of the Labour Government’s Cabinet Ministers. It is the last gasp of the Labour Government. I also have not heard Darien Fenton’s name come up. I am wondering whether the Prime Minister will roll out Lynne Pillay and Darien Fenton as an item for the reshuffle of Labour Government Ministers as a last desperate gasp. I know that Steve Chadwick has rolled out her own name— 
Judith Collins 
: That’s been opposed by the Labour Party. 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: —but it was opposed by the Labour Party. I know that Steve Chadwick has rolled out her own name for the reshuffle of the Labour caucus as a last gasp before the election but I have not heard Lynne Pillay’s or Darien Fenton’s names come up. That is a huge disappointment to me because I believe that they may be an improvement on the very old and very tired top-twenty Labour MPs. For the sake of the House—I know most of the members in the debating chamber do not know who half of the top-twenty Labour members of Parliament are—I tell members that Lynne Pillay and Darien Fenton should be up there because if Steve Chadwick is up there then absolutely they should be up there. 
Apart from the Labour members having a reshuffle as the last desperate gasp for them before the next election they are also rolling out their policy on climate change because they think that will save them as well. They are to roll out their policy on affordable housing because they believe that doing that will save them as well. But as members have heard from Nick Smith of the 21 proposals that the Labour Government has put forward on climate change it has back-pedalled on 19—19! Those proposals were opposed by the Labour Government. It proposed 21 climate change initiatives and back-pedalled on 19. That is an incredible statistic. 
What I found fascinating was the issue of housing affordability and where the Labour Government stands on that. Chris Carter was in the House yesterday waxing lyrical about affordable housing in New Zealand and how much the Labour Government had done for affordable housing in New Zealand. I asked him just one simple question. If he has done so well in the 8 years that he has been Minister of Housing in this Labour Government then why has he overseen the worst housing affordability crisis in history? I asked the Minister why housing affordability is worse today after 8 years of a Labour Government than it ever has been before in New Zealand and he had no answer. In fact do members know what he said? He said: “Phil Heatley please explain it to me.” He wanted me to explain to the House why he had done such a bad job in regard to housing affordability. I can tell members why. Firstly the Labour Government has overseen interest rates at record levels because of Government spending. Interest rates are out of control. I can tell members that interest rates are very important to those people who are picking up a mortgage or who are trying to meet mortgage payments every week. 
Secondly take-home pay is the worst it has been for a long long time. Why? Because this Labour Government taxes people to death and will not give people any tax relief.