Bennett David: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Bennett David: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 25 July 2012. Volume:682;Page:3912. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 Today we were very privileged in this House to have the presence of the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe a man who has made a huge commitment to his country and is a leader of his region. He has I guess had to eat a few bitter pills in his time to actually deliver what he wants to see for his country going forward. But that is a true leader: somebody who knows what their country wants who is willing to do what is needed for their country and who has the presence and ability to deliver that over time. We wish him the best in those endeavours. Just like the New Zealand National Party is a party that has the best interests of New Zealand at heart that is making the right choices for New Zealand and that is willing and able to go through the tough times to make those choices a reality and to make this country good and great. We are lucky to have the leadership of this country in the hands of National at this time. 
The Labour Party has no plan. It attacks personalities. That last speech from the Hon Maryan Street was very disappointing in the way that it tried to attack a personality rather than to go and to look at the real future of New Zealand and to put a plan out there. It is very divisive politics that you see from the Opposition. It tries to prey on the fears of individuals it tries to prey on those who are weak and it tries to make something out of nothing so that it can actually go out there and be seen as the saviour of all when it is not the saviour at all. It is not the saviour. It does not believe in New Zealanders or in this country. It believes only in itself and in the grand conspiracy theories that you see from parties like the New Zealand First Party in this House this afternoon whereas on the National Government side we know what we need to do. We need to have a balanced economy; an economy that has the fundamentals right; an economy that invests in those very strong principles of education infrastructure and development— 
Denis O’Rourke 
: An economy that widens the gap between rich and poor. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: —an economy that looks after people in need; and an economy that delivers for all. And when we hear members across there trying to yell out things from the Opposition benches they do not look at what is actually required for New Zealand. We hear this in regard to the mixed-ownership model. The Opposition and Grant Robertson started off today saying it is a transfer of wealth. That is what he is saying. Well it is not a transfer of wealth. The people who will potentially buy those assets through the shareholdings are actually sending money to the Government for those shares. The Government will benefit from that investment; that investment then will be used to deliver more public services for all New Zealanders. If anything the transfer of wealth is from those who are willing to invest to the Government to deliver for all New Zealanders. That is what is really going to happen rather than a transfer of wealth as the Labour Party seeks to assert in this House. 
I thought we had a very good speech today from Chris Finlayson though. It was an excellent speech and it followed his excellent debate at the National Party conference. He spoke about the change in how the leadership of the Labour Party is determined and said that it has inevitably meant that Mr Shearer has got a prolonged stage of leadership of the Labour Party which is good news for National and it is good news for New Zealand because Mr Shearer will not achieve his goal of being Prime Minister. That will mean that National has more opportunity at the next election with him as the Labour Party leader. 
When you look at the Green Party though it is very disappointing what it is doing in this House and in the public eye. The Green Party should be a party that talks about the real issues. The Green Party is a party that should look at the truth and deliver that in this House. The Green Party does not do that. The Green Party is a party at odds with its coalition favourites the Labour Party. They naturally will be at odds because the Labour Party does not want to lose votes to the Greens and the Greens want to take votes off the Labour Party. That is a marriage that cannot last. There will be some divisive fighting between those two parties in the next 2 years as they fight over the same territory. The Labour Party has one advantage over the Green Party and it is that it tells the truth more often than the Green Party—not that much more but it does sometimes. That is one thing that the Green Party needs to invest in if it seriously wants votes.