Parker David: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParker David: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19054. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID PARKER (Deputy Leader—Labour):You know that the Government has run out of ideas when the Minister in the chair the Minister of Defence just takes to insulting members of the Opposition from the Greens and the Labour Party rather than addressing the issues. It is also somewhat ironic to hear the Minister in the chair criticising potential coalition parties when his own coalition is in disarray with the ACT member having resigned for election-related fraud and United Future’s Peter Dunne having had to resign because he leaked a Government document and now they are trying to shoehorn Colin Craig in—a man who believes in chemtrails who does not believe in evolution and who is not sure whether a man landed on the moon.One of the reasons why our alternative budget went down pretty well was that journalists believed it. They believed it on the basis of the numbers that were presented and our record when last in Government. The Dominion Post said: “The party’s approach is moderate and centrist and so there is no reason why it should frighten off middle-of-the-road voters. … Perhaps however policy will … become a serious part of this election campaign. At that point the voters might see that Labour offers a wide range of genuine policy alternatives to National. And then perhaps there will be a serious debate about what really matters for New Zealand and its future. At that point clichés and outdated slogans might give way to actual debate.”That is what we are trying to do through our alternative budget: get through to a debate where we can talk about the widening gaps in New Zealand. It is not just the Labour Party saying that; the head of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research its chief economist said that the gaps are widening between rich and poor suburbs in Auckland between the regions and the large cities. We have got the lowest rate of homeownership in 50 years. We have had a trebling of luxury car sales. We have got increasing income gaps between wealthy suburbs and poor suburbs which have shown up in the census figures and we have got more children than ever living in poverty. Against that background we should be having a debate at this election as to whether the policies of the current Government are making those gaps larger or reducing them. And the reality is that we know that they are making them larger. That is why Labour’s economic plan which we can now talk about because we have got past this tax and spend nonsense from National—that accusation has been laid out for the public to see that it is just a hoax.We can talk about what we need to grow the depth of capital markets. We need to have everyone in a universal KiwiSaver scheme like they have in Australia. Of course today is the seventh birthday of KiwiSaver. If you go back 7 years who voted against it? The National Party. Who voted against the Cullen fund which National members now say is one—the National Party. National called it a dog. It gets these big questions wrong all the time. Who voted against the surpluses that we ran when in Government to reduce Government debt? National members wanted tax cuts weighted to the wealthy as they always do.Having built pools of capital in the same way that they do in Australia through universal work-based savings you then need to get it going into the right part of the economy. Under National too much of it goes into land speculation and that is one of the reasons why we have the highest-ever houses prices on average in Auckland. A capital gains tax helps push that money that is currently chasing a tax advantage—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Rubbish. Hasn’t worked in Australia.Hon DAVID PARKER: Look Dr Smith you are so so wrong. That is why the IMF the OECD the Reserve Bank Treasury and other countries disagree with you.You also need to have some more money spent on innovation. So we say that we should recycle some of that money through a research and development tax credit. Bring forward more investment in productivity and improve equipment in the likes of the forest processing industry so that we do not export as many raw logs but instead cut up timber and make finished products. Those are the sorts of policies that the Labour Party is promoting for this election. Indeed following our forestry upgrade launch one of the forest processors has said: “Oh give us this policy package and we’ll invest another $100 million in an expansion a very significant expansion in our factory.” That would of course bring more export earnings and higher-paid jobs.The gaps are widening under the current Government. There is no doubt about that. Seventy-five percent of New Zealanders think that that is true and those New Zealanders do not like it. They want a fair society. They know that these sorts of widening gaps do not make any one better off; they make us all poorer because the economy does not go as well. National is conservative. All it does is trim expenditure. It never makes any significant changes to economic settings. That is why when the cycle turns it is up to Labour and our allies to make the changes our country needs.