Davis Kelvin: General Debate 
Davis Kelvin: General Debate 
[Volume:665;Page:12996] 
KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 He timatanga korero maku e hiahia ana ahau ki te tapiri i oku mihi oku kupu poroporoaki ki tera o nga hoia kua hinga i te mura o te ahi ara Rutene Timothy O’Donnell. Ka mihi hoki ki tona whanau me wana hoa e noho ana me tenei kapua pouri kei runga i a ratou. I begin by adding my condolences to the family friends and colleagues of Lieutenant Tim O’Donnell who as we know was the first soldier to lose his life in Afghanistan. 
I come to the substance of my speech which is that New Zealanders are looking for a plan. New Zealanders want to know what plan this Government has in place to make life better for us all to improve our economy and to close the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia that has spiralled out to over $50 a week—not only that wage gap but also the disparity of income between men and women in New Zealand. 
I get the feeling from the way that Minister Wong avoided a question today that her plan to close the gap between the incomes of men and women in New Zealand is to allow the unemployment rate to continue to spiral so that more men lose their jobs so that our wages decrease and therefore the gap will be closed in that rather negative way. 
New Zealanders want to know what plan this Government has that will make it easier for mums and dads to buy food to buy clothes to pay the rent to pay the bills and to provide just the essentials and the necessities for their families. We have not yet seen a plan from this Government and we are not holding our breath in the hope that we will see one soon. 
I have to say though that there is a plan for education: the much-vaunted national standards. The only trouble is that this National Government does not actually believe that the national standards plan will be very effective. How do we know that? What is the evidence of that? Let me tell members that if I was the Minister of Education and I explained my flagship policy for education that policy would make sure that achievement rose that kids when they graduated from school had better prospects better opportunities and higher qualifications and that they would go on to lead productive lives and contribute to their communities. 
Unfortunately 2 weeks ago we heard the Deputy Prime Minister tell the country that over the next 5 to 10 years the biggest organisation that the Government will have will be the Department of Corrections. The Deputy Prime Minister saying that the Department of Corrections will be the biggest organisation over the next 5 to 10 years tells me that National has absolutely no faith in the effectiveness of its flagship education policy. That is the plan that a Government has when it actually does not have a plan. 
We can see that the fact Labour members are telling Government members that they do not have a plan and that the country believes us is getting under their skin because we can see it in their eyes and we can hear it in their speeches. I sat in this House last night and listened to the 10-minute speeches which started off with 30 seconds of the members opposite telling us that they had a plan and then the remaining 9½ minutes going on to criticise and condemn the previous Labour Government but failing to tell us exactly what their plan was. They stuck to the petty they stuck to the irrelevant and we still have not heard the plan—unless of course that plan is to heap misery upon misery upon hard-working New Zealanders. 
I would like to read an email I received from Mrs Rita Howard who said: “Out of concern for my daughter who lives in Auckland. She I feel has been unfairly treated as part of this new regime by National. She’s been employed and then re-employed by a firm. I won’t say the firm’s name but on Monday she arrived there to be told she no longer had a job. How fair or unfair is this that this new Act has been created for young people who are trying to get ahead in life? She was informed when she arrived at work she had no job.” We are told that there are 70000 young people under 24 years of age who are unemployed. This mother Rita Howard went on to say: “I am extremely irritated by this as she my daughter has no firm leg to stand on in terms of arguing the point of unfair dismissal.” This Government believes that the plan forward is to make it easier for employers to sack their employees. Its plan to close the wage gap is to take away work so that employees do not have a wage. We are waiting to hear the National Government’s plan.