Sio William: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: General Debate[Sitting date: 28 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18403. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): That was a lot of rubbish from a member of Parliament Paula Bennett who was supported by society to get to the heights of privilege where she now sits. Unfortunately once she got there she pulled up the ladder. It did not matter whatsoever. She did not think about the rest of society which is indeed in need at this particular time. I would say to the residents of Upper Harbour that they will have a choice this coming election: more of the same from that Minister or a new member of Parliament for Upper Harbour in the name of HermanRetzlaff.The other day when I asked the Prime Minister some very serious questions about the state of affairs in our country in terms of jobs in terms of income and in terms of homeownership he acted like a clown. He did not treat that seriously. I presented to the Prime Minister some worrying figures that the census result had shown us in terms of the high unemployment of Pasifika the low incomes that are earned by Pasifika families and the low homeownership rates that are experienced by Pacific people in New Zealand. I did say that it is the hope of Pasifika people that when we succeed the rest of New Zealand succeeds and that many of our families are failing at the moment—failing not necessarily from a lack of hard effort but from a lack of support in policy from this particular Government. I am going to go through that just to outline why I think it is so. This Government now is creating a New Zealand of two societies—a society for those at the top end of town who know which Minister to rub shoulders with and a society for the rest of us who are just struggling to make ends meet.Incidentally where those fine people are now sitting in the gallery a group of students from Southern Cross Campus were sitting. I met them later on at the airport and I asked them what they thought. One of the young ladies said that she wanted to throw something at the Prime Minister because of the way he was fudging the answers acting like a clown and not treating seriously what we were asking him about. I said: “Don’t do that. The thing that you can do for our communities is to make sure you do not vote for him. That will hurt him the most come this election.”Another young woman said to me that he is the same Prime Minister who promised their school back in 2008 that the Government would invest $6 million in a trade school. The Government used the likes of sports icons “Inga the Winger” and Michael Jones to promote that. That young woman said to me that today that school is still waiting for that $6 million trade school. It is an empty promise like the Building a Brighter Future empty promises that National made.National said that New Zealanders would have a brighter future—all New Zealanders. What we did not understand and what the community is now recognising is that it was referring only to people with whom it is in cahoots. It was referring only to the top end of town—people who have the privilege of rubbing shoulders with the right Minister and who are able to provide cash for its upcoming election war chest. Look at what is happening. As my colleague Grant Robertson said earlier chief executive officers have received increases in their salary 26 times greater than anyone else’s.What about the rest of New Zealand? Well 46 percent of working New Zealanders did not receive an increase last year. As for Pasifika we had a median weekly income in 2008 of $455. That has declined in the figures that have been provided by the census to $388. For Aucklanders it is worse.Hon Phil Goff: It’s gone backwards.