English Bill: General Debate 
English Bill: General Debate 
[Volume:669;Page:15925] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. Mr Speaker you regularly offend members of the House and I know that you regard it as an important part of your job. 
It is happy days in the Labour Party. Trevor Mallard lost his pills Phil Goff lost his marbles the caucus is losing its temper David Caygill lost his respectable place in Labour Party history by being mixed up with David Cunliffe and Kris Faafoi almost lost the unloseable seat. This is the Labour Party that set out with the “Axe the Tax” campaign and in the Mana by-election it buried the axe in its own back. What was meant to be a referendum on the Government ended up with the people of middle New Zealand—and there is no seat more middle New Zealand than Mana—sending the Opposition a message. But Phil Goff did not get it. He did not get it because he decided that rather than listen to the people of Mana he would google the Labour Party in Britain. He came up with— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am sorry to interrupt the Deputy Prime Minister but I have just been made aware that he used a phrase at the beginning of his speech that made reference to a member having not taken his pills. That phrase has been ruled out at the request of National members for reasons reasonably close to home in that respect. If National members are to object to that phrase being used by Labour members about one of their members then I do not think it is in order for them to use that phrase about one of our members. We take objection to the use of that phrase in order for there to be consistency with regard to the sensitivities on that point. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Is the member asking that he withdraw— 
Hon Members 
: Withdraw and apologise. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: It is an unnecessarily gratuitous comment; I fully accept that. I ask the member to withdraw the comment. I do not think members should be using that comment. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I withdraw. Well Labour will need some other explanation for Trevor’s extraordinary behaviour which I suggest is that he did not attend his anger management course the other day. 
How did Labour manage to almost lose the Mana by-election? I think the first reason is that no one is listening to Labour and the reason that no one is listening to it is that 2 years on from the 2008 election Labour still thinks the voters were wrong. It is highly unlikely that the voters of middle New Zealand even in a recession would listen to Labour telling them: “Mate we were right. You were wrong.” That is why the voters are not listening. 
The second reason is that if voters were to listen then what they would hear would not make any sense. I will just use a couple of examples. [ 
Interruption 
] Well that is why they are saving themselves the trouble because it would not make any sense. I will give a couple of examples. David Caygill—sorry David Cunliffe—has said that he is against asset sales. He said that Labour’s policy now is that the Government will go into partnership with private shareholders and Government companies as long as it does not dilute taxpayers’ ownership. 
Hon Judith Collins 
: How does that work? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The private owner is allowed to buy shares in the asset but the Government still owns it 100 percent. 
Hon Member 
: Socialism. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: That is modern social democracy I think. That is actually impossible. Labour members need to decide—well actually they have decided. They are in favour of partial privatisation. They are. Privatisation dilutes taxpayers’ ownership. If the Labour spokesman on finance does not understand that then it is no wonder that Phil Goff wishes he had David Caygill in that spot—it is no wonder. 
That is just a little example but here is a better example. Labour has said in the last couple of weeks that it will pay down debt faster than the National-led Government. 
Hon Member 
: How are they going to do that? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: A very good question. The answer is that it will spend more. 
Hon Members 
: Ah! 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: That is how Labour will do it. How do we know that? Well because it will get rid of GST on food. Apparently doing that will not cost anything. It will be of benefit to people who buy fruit and vegetables but apparently it will not cost anything. 
The other reason we know that Labour will spend more is that it opposes every single saving or reallocation this Government proposes—every single one of them. No one in New Zealand believes that Labour could run a Government without spending more and borrowing more. No one in New Zealand believes that. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: $500 million for sleepovers they have promised. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Labour has promised $500 million for sleepovers plus GST—that is $800 million—plus the $2.5 billion it will borrow to put into the Government savings account. That is $3.3 billion. Labour says that by adding more debt it will bring down debt faster. Bring back David Caygill!