Cunliffe David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Cunliffe David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
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DAVID CUNLIFFE (NZ Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 As I rise to speak in the first debate of the year I acknowledge the ideals of the speaker two removed who has resumed her seat Ms Bradford. Her concerns for the poor and oppressed are also our concerns and Labour offers the hand of cooperation so that together we might work to achieve those ends. I say though to the Greens’ shadow Treasurer Mr Ewen-Street who offered the insight that economic growth makes the economy get bigger that growth is not an end in itself but simply a means to the ends that Ms Bradford herself described. Simply put: “If you cannot earn it you cannot spend it.” Help us to earn it for all New Zealanders rather than just a few.  
Mr Speaker what a day today has already been! It was the first day back at school for the Opposition members and already their “former leader” has declared that Labour will be at least a 3-term Government. I believe that Sigmund Freud would have had a field day with that slip. Today National denied leave for a bill that would muzzle mad dogs from eating our children alive. “Who is advising them on political strategy?” I ask myself. It is certainly not Mr English’s former adviser Sue Foley. Today Bill English proved himself yet again to be so in tune with public opinion that he summoned his courage to support the great leap backwards to the failed policies of the 1990s. We asked ourselves whether he was appeasing Maurice Williamson or whether he was smoothing the way for Don Brash who timed his call to send the unemployed back to post offices in the very month we have the lowest unemployment rate in 20 years. Who does advise these people? I know not—but what a start to the National Party’s self-immolation.  
It was an unusual day a day when “Et tu Gerry” did not utter a single word to undermine his leader.  
 What a day indeed when Winston Peters decided to present himself as a politician of principle. He is a man who enjoys Opposition so much that he was Labour’s gift to the National Party—a kind of internally targeted Scud missile. As Parliament’s once-mad perhaps now rather gummy old dog said earlier today: what did Mr Peters ever stand for anyway? He is full of sound and fury signifying sadly nothing. To Mr Peters I say that Labour has defended the interests of all New Zealanders and especially those of our traditional constituencies—the working people and the underprivileged. We have raised the minimum wage we have repealed the harsh Employment Contracts Act and we have renationalised accident compensation to protect those who need it. We have strengthened occupational safety and health laws and we have protected holidays from the National Party’s grinch who was going to steal Christmas. If Mr Peters does not think that those actions represent traditional Labour values then he should do us a favour and go and tell the Employers and Manufacturers Association. 
The Government’s economic strategy is clearly working with a growth framework that targets high value sectors like biotech and information and communication technology and not just for the growth they in themselves produce but for the leverage they give all sectors of the economy including our ability to substitute environmental capital for technical capital and thereby make growth sustainable. [ 
Interruption 
] It is a strategy that works with all key sectors and I say to Mr English especially with the key primary exporting sectors like dairy with the Fonterra bill; like forestry with the Central North Island settlement; and like fisheries with the Sanford’s and Sealord’s work. It is a strategy that is both “top-down” to remove structural impediments and “bottom-up” to encourage entrepreneurship at the workplace level. It is a strategy that means there are more real jobs for real people.  
I am sick and tired of hearing the Opposition say that what is happening to the economy is just good luck. What? Have there been 3 straight years of unprecedented good luck despite the fact that there have been 3 straight years of strong growth and despite the fact that the rest of the world economy is going to hell in a handbasket? If that is good luck Dr Cullen is the luckiest finance Minister alive. It is not good luck; it is called balance and policy alignment. It is called balancing growth industry employment and finance policies so that the whole package is sustainable and works together.  
I have saved my concluding remarks for one of the media’s sharper commentators Mr Colin James. In today’s  
New Zealand Herald  
he asked what it is that Labour supporters want of their party. I tell Mr James that I came to Parliament to try to help grow this economy without repeating the heartless and antisocial mistakes of the 1990s. I came to Parliament to support fair and far-sighted social policy that gives equality of opportunity for all regardless of race colour creed orientation or gender. I came to Parliament to serve under an incredible gifted Prime Minister who has given New Zealanders reason to be proud again to build a sense of nationhood and to dream of a future for our children that is even better than the present we enjoy today in the “God’s own” that we are privileged to live in. I am proud to say that this Government is making change happen—not in a big bang not by revolution but by steady progress day by day with an evolution towards a better future for our kids and a more inclusive tolerant society where every New Zealander matters. Let us not stop now; let us carry on along that path.