Wong Pansy: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Wong Pansy: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:637;Page:7425] 
PANSY WONG (National) 
: 
 I would like to clarify for the public who are listening to this debate that this is not a general debate. This is not the usual Wednesday general debate. These 14 hours are set aside for very serious debate. It is for us to argue defend and challenge the Prime Minister’s statement. The last speaker was the Hon Steve Maharey the Minister of Education. He spent only 10 seconds on the Prime Minister’s statement; he barely mentioned the Prime Minister. He is a seasoned politician and I think he knows that her days are numbered. He does not want to be associated with the slogan-filled Prime Minister’s statement. 
I make another observation. The Hon Steve Maharey the leadership aspirant talked about leading a young team but I am afraid that apart from you Mr Assistant Speaker—because you are sitting in the middle—when I look across the aisle I see a sea of grey hair and bald heads. It is really difficult for me to project about and have empathy for the Hon Steve Maharey’s young upcoming energetic Labour team. I think he is dreaming. I agree with Prime Minister Helen Clark that Labour needs to remove a lot of dead wood. 
But I want to put the record straight about what happened last Christmas. The Hon Steve Maharey mentioned how my diligent and effective colleague Simon Power had a break. He did not. He appeared daily in the newspapers in relation to the Department of Corrections and the horrific despicable Graeme Burton tragedy that happened to an innocent family. Simon Power was there every day. The question is where was the Minister of Corrections Damien O’Connor. When did he ever front up? I have good news for the Hon Steve Maharey. He is indeed looking at a young aspirational team—National is the Government in waiting. Our Minister of Corrections will front up to the public unlike Damien O’Connor who pointed the finger at all the other departments. 
We are here today to debate the supposedly very important Prime Minister’s statement. We all know that the Prime Minister likes to quote the findings etc. of international bodies. Let us take a look at the International Monetary Fund’s gross domestic product per capita ranking which measures the economic status of a nation and also at the World Economic Forum’s environmental index. It is interesting to see that there is a lot of overlap of countries that appear in the top 10 of both lists—for example Norway Iceland Canada Switzerland and Austria. The message is that countries that score well in their environmental status also do very well in their economic performance. We must have good environmental policy. Good environmental status goes hand in hand with economic development. So now we know there is bad news for Labour because the countries that do well economically also do well in their environmental status. 
It is no news to the public that this tax-and-spend Labour Government has not advanced New Zealand towards its first slogan—the top half of the OECD—and it is only a matter of time before the new slogan of sustainability will also disappear. For the Prime Minister to take this opportunity to announce a policy of purchasing brand new eco-friendly limousines for Cabinet Ministers is not a bold move. That expenditure is made by compliment of the taxpayer. The question that remains is how long this latest slogan about sustainability will last. The Prime Minister referred to “sustainability” 33 times in her statement. For us to guess how long this latest slogan will last might take us back for a moment. 
I will take the public back to last year’s Prime Minister’s statement. What did she say last year? She said: “New Zealand in 2006 is in many ways a work in progress.” That is bad news. We have been one long work in progress for the last 7 years and nothing has been resolved. According to the Prime Minister the country is on a journey away from the old economy to a new one—to improved health education levels and living standards for all people etc. But some would argue that the public has been taken for a ride or to the cleaners for its hard-earned income. We see that the ever-increasing tax revenue has not delivered much if we look at surgery waiting lists and the growing underclass identified by our National leader John Key. He sets the agenda for this year. 
Today the Unicef report ranks New Zealand in the bottom half of developed countries on two-thirds of the measures of children’s well-being. [ 
Interruption 
] Well the Hon Mark Burton has become very annoyed when I say that John Key sets the agenda. Of course he does. Why else would the Hon Steve Maharey spend 8 minutes and 30 seconds talking about John Key and 10 seconds talking about the Prime Minister? This is the debate on the Prime Minister’s statement and I have had my observations confirmed. I noticed that the whole Labour bench went to sleep during her delivery which probably explains why the Hon Steve Maharey did not have much to talk about. 
Let us come back to the debate. Steve Maharey looked at this outrageous report on the status of New Zealand children. He said that it was wrong and that the data was out of date. But National members have news for the Minister because National’s hard-working MP Judith Collins can tell him a few things. The data is not out of date. She can identify that the number of substantiated child-abuse cases has doubled from 6000 in the year 2000 to 13000 in 2006. The number of notifications of child abuse cases has risen from 28000 in 1999 to 70000. The Hon Ruth Dyson says that that is good news because more people are reporting abuse; I say that it is hugely bad news for New Zealand. 
I have an email that I want to share with the House and the public. This email is from a photographer who says he has been working on a project for a year now. He is taking photographs of extreme poverty in New Zealand. The location is not overseas; it is New Zealand in South Auckland. It will give me no joy when I eventually table those photos in this House. The fact that the Labour Prime Minister and her Cabinet are in denial gives me no choice but to bring those photos when he has finished and table them in this House. The photographer says that he cannot turn a blind eye and pretend there is no poverty and no underclass. He says he is so glad that John Key the leader of the National Party has raised this issue because New Zealand has to confront and resolve this problem. 
As John Key says we have to do it together; National will not duck its responsibility. Next year we will do it as a Government but right now in Opposition John Key has already taken up that challenge. He knows that the problem is urgent. He is not going to wait for 12 months. John Key as leader is going to confront those tough questions and he aims to save that underclass.