Cunliffe David: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: General Debate[Sitting date: 28 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18401. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Leader of the Opposition): Well we might have a number of potential coalition partners but none of them is in the dock and none is going to jail. None of them is a Minister who has got such a gaping conflict of interests that they cannot even show up at and stay in the House. “Emerging from the fog” the Minister of Finance said. That sounds like a description of the Budget he brought down 2 weeks ago. Polluting our democracy we have Oravida John Banks Cabinet clubs cash for access—business as usual from a squalid Government. Six long years is enough of this lot.This year New Zealanders have a choice. They have got a choice between politics as usual with this National Government or a better way that puts people first. They have got a choice between the growing gap between two New Zealands from that side of the House or a new Government that will put New Zealanders first put people first with secure jobs good homes and healthy families. In National’s New Zealand wage rises are barely keeping up with inflation—is that not right? In National’s New Zealand half of New Zealanders did not get a pay rise at all last year. Unemployment is still 6percent and Treasury says we will be lucky to ever get it down to the level it was before John Key became Prime Minister.Labour is going to put people first. Labour pledges to get unemployment down to 4 percent and we have got the policies that will deliver that. In National’s New Zealand the bulk of economic growth is going to the top few percent and that is why National’s cronyism supports the few against the many. GDP has gone up 8.5 percent but wages have gone up only 5 percent since National has taken office. National spent 5 long years doing nothing about the housing mess.Hon David Parker: What does Bill English say about this?Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: Bill English’s “emerging from the fog” Budget seemed to miss the housing chapter.Grant Robertson: It wasn’t printed.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: It is like it was not printed. It is like he is still looking for it now. He is asking the Minister next to him where the housing policy is in the Budget. Auckland house prices while he has been looking have risen 40 percent—40 percent—and Christchurch prices have risen over 30 percent. There is a housing crisis. Kiwis cannot get affordable homes.Labour has got positive solutions:KiwiBuild’s 100000 new homes over 10 years; monetary policy that will keep interest rates mortgages and rents affordable; a capital gains tax that does not give special favours to speculators; and new rules that mean that people who never want to live in New Zealand will not be able to trade the homes of those who do. We will take away the 20 percent deposit rule for first-home buyers. That is squeezing a generation of young Kiwis out of the market meaning that they cannot pursue the Kiwi dream that their parents believe is their birthright.Labour will bring in a healthy homes guarantee so that every child growing up in a rental property will have a warm dry home. We will address the Canterbury housing crisis building 10000 new homes over 10 years and we will support a strong social housing sector.Under National’s New Zealand a quarter of a million kids are growing up in poverty. The best thing National could do in the Budget was bring in a family policy that left out the children of the poorest by forgetting to cover people on benefits. It is a growing gap. It is a widening gap. It is two New Zealands. Bill English might be emerging from a fog; New Zealanders are going to be emerging from 6 long years of a National Government.