O'Connor Damien: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
O'Connor Damien: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14157] 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Minister of Tourism) 
: 
 Mr Roy is nothing but a loyal follower and for that I acknowledge him. But unfortunately his leader is someone who has let him down time and time again. 
We heard in this House this evening a very passionate speech from the Hon Lianne Dalziel about Aranui in her electorate of Christchurch East. I could give the same passionate speech about my own electorate of West Coast - Tasman. In 1999 when Labour came into the House as the Government my electorate had been battered by Tory Governments for 9 years. Members of that electorate had seen the sell-off of their homes through Housing New Zealand the threatened sale of Solid Energy and the threatened sale of Landcorp and the electorate had one of the highest rates of unemployment that we had seen for a long long time. When Labour came into office we had policy we had promises and commitments and we kept them. This year New Zealanders do have a choice and I am afraid I do not share the same confidence of my colleague Mr Barker that each and every New Zealander appreciates what we have done and realises that it will not continue under a Tory Government. That is one thing for sure. 
I will sort out a couple of questions. The first is why New Zealanders go to Australia. Well I went in 1978. New Zealanders have always been going to Australia and coming back. There are more New Zealanders coming back into this country now than we have seen for many many years and they bring back capital they bring back knowledge and they bring back families and good on them. They are going to Australia because Australia is the biggest mine in the world we have commodity prices that we have never seen and Australia can afford to pay huge wages. 
One thing the Tories might want to answer is that if they think that by breaking the unions through an Employment Contracts Act the world would be a better place why is everyone in Australia where the workforce has a far higher rate of unionisation better off than us? Think on that one I say to Mr Roy. At Easter this year at Blackball we will be celebrating 100 years of the labour movement of fighting for the rights of each and every New Zealander who 100 years ago did not have any rights under Tories. When a judge said: “It’s all right for the workers to have a quarter of an hour for their lunch but I have to have an hour for mine.” it sparked a strike that started the labour movement and the Labour Party—which has given this country the best Government we have seen. 
It is important that we keep telling this country what we have done. An assumption is creeping in unfortunately that all these things just happen regardless of who is in Government; that somehow we just get delivered sensible policies and somehow we just get cheaper doctors’ visits. No they do not just happen; they require affirmative action and good policies from a Government. That is what we have done. It is now 50 percent cheaper for over a million New Zealanders to go to the doctor than it was in 1999. Do members know what Mr Key has said about that policy? He has said we should let the market decide on doctors’ fees. He has said that in the end it is called a market and: “If they decide to charge a lot more then probably someone will decide to go down the road.” Cheaper doctors’ visits will go under a Tory Government. Let there be no doubt about that. The people in this good country who think those things will continue are unfortunately mistaken. 
We have invested in schools. In the 2007 Budget we invested in 14 brand new schools and 180 new classrooms as well as 10 new school gyms. We now have more than 5200 extra teachers over and above the increase caused by normal roll growth. People in this country think that will just continue if they vote in a Tory Government and they get their tax cuts. Well let me quote John Key again because he believes that the private sector will run core infrastructure in this country and deliver to each and every New Zealander. How wrong as we have seen through the 1990s. He says: “I think it’s entirely possible the private sector could build own and maintain a property which is operated by the public sector.” He is philosophically flawed. He is the only one in this country along with all his trader mates who thinks one can get something for nothing because he made his fortune just buying and selling countries’ dollars—trading dollars to make a fortune. Most New Zealanders understand that we have to create and produce wealth through the primary sector through the creative sector and through the manufacturing sector. Just trading on the currency of some poor country be it a First Second or Third World country is not a way to create wealth and drive a country. But that is the kind of philosophy that would drive a Tory Government and that is the kind of philosophy that would do away with the development the progress and all the security that we have from a publicly funded education system. 
We have an outstanding policy called Working for Families. Michael Cullen has taken hits time and time again for not delivering tax cuts to the wealthy. They all want their tax cuts. They want their $100 a week back. I do not know what they will spend it on. Maybe they will spend it on a bit more petrol for their boats a new Mercedes or something like that. We have said that we have to take tax and that we will target the tax breaks to those who most need them. That is called Working for Families. We now have 360000 families in total in this country who are benefiting from Working for Families tax credits. Most of them do not go around crowing about it because the Tories in this country have gone around implying that if one gets some tax back then it is a benefit and one should not get it and that we should not have taken it in the first place. We say that we need to take tax. We need to take tax from the wealthy and we need to give it back to those who are disadvantaged to those who have less access to private education to those who have not had the advantage of being brought up with silver spoons in their mouths and to those who have not had the advantage of going overseas and trading in currency. We have said that we need through Working for Families to give back fair tax credits—up to $200 in some cases—to families who need them. It is one of the things we have done that I am most proud of. Those things would go under a Tory Government. I quote from John Key again: “National doesn’t support the current Government’s ‘Working for Families’ package.” 
John Key would destroy many of the benefits we have put in place through 8 years. Members opposite cannot even count. We have been in Government for 8 years and we have at least 9 good months to put in place some spectacular policies for the future. Today the Prime Minister outlined two key areas. She outlined the non-governmental organisation area. The people involved in that area are the lifeblood of our communities. We have now committed to fully funding those organisations that provide such services. We have also said we will tackle head-on the issue of affordable housing. 
Debate interrupted.