King Annette: General Debate 
King Annette: General Debate 
[Volume:668;Page:15169] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
: 
 An amusing little speech there from the Leader of the House a man of substance who always makes a major contribution on the issues of the day. An old saying comes to mind when we look at the flurry of activity of the National Party around the Mana by-election. That old saying that comes to mind is “lies damned lies and statistics” and we have had a liberal dose of all three over the past month. The bemused people of Mana have watched the passing parade of Ministers including the Prime Minister swanning through their electorate. Well that was a place those Ministers would not have been seen dead in a few weeks ago. They thought of places like Porirua and Titahi Bay very much in the same way that John Banks their man in Auckland thought of South Auckland. But the by-election has ignited a sense of panic in the National ranks because those members know that they must have a strong endorsement of their policies on 20 November. It will not be good enough to get somewhere near their last result; they will need a ringing endorsement of their policies in the by-election. They will have to really perform on 20 November. 
You know it was not so important at the time of the Mt Albert by-election; in fact perfunctory attention was paid to the outcome of the Mt Albert by-election. After all National put “The Brains Trust” in charge of the election campaign—Jonathan Coleman—the person who knows as much about campaigning as he does about giving somebody else’s speech in Parliament and not knowing that it is not National’s policy. National did not really worry about the Mt Albert by-election. John Key made a couple of visits and had his photograph taken and then he abandoned the National candidate for Mt Albert. He did not even bother to turn up on election night to be there with the defeated candidate. For me that was the moment when I got the measure of the man—the measure of this Prime Minister. He did not pass a fundamental test of leadership. A good leader is there in the good times and the bad and a good leader has loyalty. John Key was not there at Mt Albert. 
Two years on and there is a by-election in Mana. Well we no longer have a new Government as those members like to call themselves. They have been in power for 2 years and it is time they took responsibility for the decisions that they are making. We have had two Budgets since the election—two Budgets. All those decisions are Bill English’s decisions and he does not take any responsibility for them. We can look at him in the House day after day blaming everybody else except himself and taking no responsibility. 
In Mana we have also seen major changes being made to the lives of New Zealanders. Many old people young people and low-income and middle-income people in the Mana electorate have been detrimentally affected by the Government. It has passed many pieces of legislation. It had a Job Summit that did not produce any jobs. There have been countless reviews task force inquiries rising unemployment rates a rising cost of living and no plan for the future. There is no brighter future just slogans. All we have nowadays is the politics of “smile and walk away”. How will National convince the people of Mana to give it a strong endorsement? It must get a better vote than in 2008 and that will be very difficult. 
We can take one issue: health. The old people of Mana have just been told that on 1 December their home help will be cut unless they have the community services card. That means if older people receive over $399 a week they will not be able to get home help because they are over the limit for the community services card. That means they will pay for their home help. When we take off the cost of living for an old person he or she has about $124 a week to live on. We would need to take $30 from that to pay for that person’s home care. That is what National is doing to the old people of Mana and it believes that those people will turn out to vote for it. I say that National members are dreaming. They are in cloud-cuckoo-land.