Henare Tau: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Henare Tau: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
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Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 The previous speaker Stuart Nash is the brains trust of Labour. He is the new leadership of Labour. We are less than 6 months away from a general election and Labour puts him up. We are less than 6 months away from the most important election that Labour members will ever fight in their lives and they put him up.  
He talked about the plan. I will read out to that member what the plan has been and will be going into and going past 26 November: “For the past three years the National-led Government has provided the responsible economic management that New Zealand was in such need of after nine years of Labour. When we took the reins of office the financial crisis had reached its peak and the New Zealand economy which had gone into recession before anyone else had shrunk three percent in a year topping off five years of historically low growth. Exports had flattened out completely government spending was out of control and the Treasury books showed never-ending budget deficits and Government debt spiralling out to 60 percent of GDP and beyond.”  
I can go on and on about what we were faced with when we took over but I want to read what the media and the people of this great land have been talking about. 
Phil Twyford 
: Talk about the rates. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Let us talk about the rates. That is right: let us talk about the west Auckland rates that Mr Twyford’s mates Bob Harvey and Penny Hulse have ratcheted up over the last 15 years. They made it impossible for businesses to work in west Auckland. In fact they raised rates so high that they were subsidising everybody else. But I digress.  
Here is what the  
Gisborne Herald 
 editorial said on 20 May about the Budget: “The majority will appreciate the belt-tightening in a response to tough economic times and the scale of the Christchurch earthquakes—and the fact a government is not trying to bribe us with our own money in election year.” That refers to the complete bribe from the last Government on student loans. Just weeks out from the election it came up with that doozy of a bribe. “National has delivered a reasonable Budget for the times” said the  
Gisborne Herald 
.  
The  
Waikato Times  
editorial of 25 May 2011 stated: “Labour Party leader Phil Goff is on the wrong track when he says he hopes to create up to $22 billion a year in new business by restoring tax credits to reward R&D.” When Phil Goff was asked about the detail what did he say? He said to go and ask somebody else to go and ask the policy guys because they knew more about it than he did.  
The  
Nelson Mail 
 opinion article on 24 May said: “the Department of Labour estimates the $2 an hour hike to the lowest adult pay rate would carry the significant cost of 6000 jobs. At a time when the economy is in desperate need of greater productivity the apparent downside in a lift of this magnitude—no matter how just it might be—are obvious.” Labour members love to pin their election promises on raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. They took a bus around the country to talk about GST. I asked the Leader of the Opposition whether he would cut back GST. He did not have an answer. He said we would have to wait and see. 
Michael Woodhouse 
: What did the bus say? “Axe the Tax”. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Labour was trying to dupe the rest of the nation into believing that Labour would axe the tax. But now we do not know whether it will.  
It is pretty plain from all of the Treasury documents about the Budget that we are going to enter into a period of good times for this country. As I have said on many occasions in this House in the last couple of weeks— 
Phil Twyford 
: Hope and pray. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: It is not about hoping and praying; it is actually about being back in black in 2014.  
I just want to say something to Mr Twyford. It was pouring with rain on a wee Sunday afternoon and most west Aucklanders were taking their rubbish out. But Mr Twyford was trying to figure out into which letterbox in our street he should put the only Labour paraphernalia that he had. I went out there said hello to Mr Twyford and checked my letterbox. There was nothing in it—there was nothing in it. I thought I would go next door to check that letterbox. This is not illegal because it is my mother-in-law’s letterbox. There was no Labour paraphernalia in that letterbox either. So as it poured down with rain I went to check the other neighbour’s letterbox; it just happens to be my brother-in-law’s. There was nothing in the letterbox. I saw that out of 50-odd letterboxes Mr Twyford put only one pamphlet in one letterbox and even then he had trouble finding the number. Again I digress because it was so much fun watching Mr Twyford in his little raincoat running around hopefully trying to get some more votes. Not in my street he will not—not in my street he will not. They are a class act out in west Auckland.  
I say that by 2014 we will be back in black. Not only will we have already won the Rugby World Cup but we will be back in black—so much so that over that period 170000 jobs will be created. Who can turn their heads and pooh-pooh the idea of 170000 extra jobs in our country at a time when we really need our economy to go ahead? Quite frankly—and I do not want to sound arrogant—the planets are all aligning. The stars are there— 
Hon Maryan Street 
: Back to Destiny Church for you.  
Hon TAU HENARE 
: I must admit that I enjoyed my time at Destiny Church and I am just waiting for the blessing to kick in hopefully before 26 November. But I tell members that we do not rely on the blessings of anybody. We rely on good hard honest work by good hard honest Kiwis who want to see our country go ahead. Given what we have had to put up with over the last 2½ years in terms of natural disasters and the worldwide economic downturn I think we have done pretty damned good—pretty damned good. We are looking at some good times just round the corner. That is why we have had to make some hard calls which the Opposition will never ever get. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker Roy for listening so diligently.