Hipkins Chris: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hipkins Chris: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 11 May 2011. Volume:672;Page:18571. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
: 
 We know that the National Government is in trouble when the best it can put up in its defence is Maurice Williamson and Paul Hutchison—if that is all they can come up with! It is like a fifth-form debating D-team because there is no defence for the absolute hash they have made of things in the last week. We have John Key and Bill English marching around telling New Zealanders that they have to learn to live without the “nice-to-haves” and that they will have to tighten their belts but oh no not them—they are going to give themselves brand-new BMWs. The ones they have now are only 3 years old but that is all right. They will give themselves brand-new ones with nice heated seats so that when Bill English is down in the deep south paying his annual visit to his constituency he can ride around in a BMW with a heated seat.  
What else do those members do? They go and refurbish their ministerial houses—new carpet! Some families cannot afford to put food on the table but oh no John Key needs new carpet—new carpet for him! While he is at it he will fly from the V8 Supercars to his golf club in a military plane. Those are the National Government’s priorities. While New Zealanders cannot afford to make ends meet and are having the fees for their kids’ early childhood education go up all their health costs go up their cost of living go up and their power bills go up those Government Ministers are quite happy to splash out on the small stuff for themselves. It is the small stuff for themselves that they are interested in and they have absolutely no qualms about that.  
What did Hekia Parata say about that? She said she wants the Government out of New Zealanders’ lives. In other words the message from this Government to New Zealanders is that they are on their own. If the going is too tough then this Government says that New Zealanders are on their own. This Government does not want to know about it. It does not care about it. It does not care about what is going on in the households of ordinary New Zealanders because its Ministers are riding around in their leather-seated BMWs with heated seats. They are re-carpeting their houses. They are flying around in military helicopters.  
Of course then we have John Key with his eight or so security guards every day making sure he never has to come into contact with an ordinary New Zealander. John Key does not want any ordinary people anywhere near him. He is so paranoid about coming across an ordinary person that he even has to take security guards with him when he is going on holiday. He has to surround himself with bodyguards when he is going to his private compound in Hawaii on holiday. But it is not only that—he makes the taxpayers whom he does not want to know pay for his security. He makes them pay the $30000 for his security guards to fly with him to his holiday home in Hawaii.  
This Government has its priorities all wrong. It calls it balanced—it calls it balanced. Government members are cutting the support for real ordinary working Kiwis and boosting the money that they are spending on themselves and they call that a balanced approach. It seems very balanced in the back of their BMWs with their wonderful wheel alignment I am sure. But it is not so great for New Zealanders who are struggling with the everyday cost of living.  
This Government does not know how to manage conflicts of interest either. John Key did not think it was a problem to sign off on a massive BMW upgrade for the Government within days—within days—of attending a National Party fundraiser hosted by a BMW dealer. John Key did not think that was a problem at all. He thought it was fine for a BMW dealer to give 50 grand to the New Zealand National Party at the same time as he was approving a big upgrade of the BMW fleet which was only 3 years old. Some of those cars have done only 30000 kilometres. That means they will be pretty attractive when the Government comes to hock them off. Who are they going to hock them off to? Who are the dealers who will be selling the BMWs? I would like John Key to front up and explain that—that is what I would like John Key to front up and explain. But he will not. He will not because he does not think he has any responsibility for it despite the fact that it is his signature on the statement of intent that signs off on all of the work. But oh no despite his aggressive line-by-line review of Ministerial Services’ expenditure he did not bother to read the line that said he would get a new car for himself with fancy leather seats and all the other bells and whistles that go with it. These fancy BMWs have fancy mobile offices with phones so that Bill English can sit in the back of his car down in the deep south and catch up on the news on the internet while he is cruising along with his heated seats. This is a Government that has its priorities all wrong.