Tizard Judith: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Tizard Judith: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14219] 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD (Minister of Consumer Affairs) 
: 
 That was a rather sad attempt from the member from one of the South Auckland electorates to make a case for the rather juvenile motion the Leader of the Opposition has moved. I too will start my contribution to this debate by congratulating Brian Donnelly on his major contribution to this House. He came in in 1996 and unlike the National Party he has always understood the role of minor parties both in creating and helping to create coalitions and in getting the work of this place done. 
Brian has been a distinguished chair of the Education and Science Committee. His advocacy for his home in Whangarei in the north has been exemplary. He has also to my certain knowledge done a great deal across this House and across New Zealand in the areas of arts culture and heritage. I wish him extremely well as he goes to represent this country in the Cook Islands. 
 Indeed I also join with a number of my colleagues in saying how much I will miss Katherine Rich. Katherine has continued the tradition that grew in the 1970s and 1980s of women across this Parliament getting together on issues that matter to New Zealand women. I have to say that I am not entirely surprised that Katherine Rich is leaving Parliament. When I looked up John Key’s view on women in this place the only comment I could find was in the  
Press 
 on 9 June 2007 when he said: “We don’t have enough women in our caucus so we’ve had to start cross-dressing.” 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: Which ones are cross-dressed? 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: Well I shall leave it to the imagination of members to wonder which of the male National MPs are cross-dressers. I have to say that Katherine has stood up for the principle that there are issues that transcend party politics for women in this country. I say well done to her. She has been a decent and collegial member of Parliament in this House and I believe she has served women in New Zealand well. I for one will miss her. 
I am very proud to stand to support the Prime Minister’s statement. It was a great speech from a Prime Minister who I believe will go down in New Zealand history as being the greatest Prime Minister we have had for many many years. Given the strong Labour tradition in Auckland Central many of my older constituents compare her very favourably to Peter Fraser whose establishment of the United Nations and whose advocacy for education health and an independent stance for New Zealand worldwide and for a brave and constructive programme of economic development for New Zealand products and ideas showed him to be an exemplary Prime Minister. I believe that Helen Clark has transcended even his record. 
The Prime Minister told a great story yesterday of a Government that is at work and that has real achievements real policies real programmes and real plans for the future. This Government does not believe it has any moratorium on ideas. We work on policies with coalition partners from the Progressive party to New Zealand First to United Future and indeed to the Greens. If the National Party ever brought out any policy ideas we would even be prepared to talk to its members but of course all we have had is sneering carping whingeing whining and moaning. 
I want to know why National is not putting up any policies. Well we know why. Either National does not know what it stands for or it has a hidden agenda. In one way or another we in New Zealand are paying. Do New Zealanders remember Jim Bolger advocating for the “decent society” in 1990? In 1990 he said he would lead a Government whereby education would not be a charge against the economy but an investment and what did National do? It created winner and loser schools that failed 50 percent of New Zealand’s children with no come-back. It put in fees at universities and then what did it do? It charged older people going back to university put in massive fees that excluded most of my then constituents from going to university and destroyed apprenticeships. 
I am proud of the record of this Government in education health welfare job creation housing and all of the other areas that affect my constituents on a daily basis. I am really proud as the member of Parliament for Auckland Central to say that housing has always been a major issue for us. Indeed there are so many new houses in the central business district that I am losing a major suburb in Auckland Central—Point Chevalier—which is going back to the Mt Albert electorate. Housing is a huge issue but so is public space. Obviously it is an issue the Government is working on with local authorities because we believe that we need good communities good environments and good societies and we are prepared to support local government and the third sector—the voluntary sector—in creating those good communities and good environments. 
I am particularly proud about what we have done in transport in Auckland. I say to the House that I have prepared a chart looking at Government investment in Auckland land transport where we go from well under $200 million in 1995-96 to 10 years later very nearly a billion dollars going directly into Auckland. I can go through those projects because no projects whatever were being done in the central city— 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: This doesn’t look like Maurice’s chart; this looks real. 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: It is real. It is actually about real money that is being spent in Auckland. In 1999 there was one project. It was called the Albany to Puhoi realignment and it opened up the North Shore motorway as far as Orewa. So what did that do? 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: It ended in a panic didn’t it? 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: It indeed ended in a panic but in a very expensive panic that was used by some of the friends of the National Government. What happened was that where they were building a house with one bedroom they put in two car-parks. Where they had two bedrooms they put in three car-parks and so on. This Government said it would work across Auckland as New Zealand’s major international city to build the infrastructure that the National Government had entirely failed to do anything about. The National Government had capped public transport spending and refused to build any of the infrastructure we needed. 
So what has the Labour Government done since 1999? We have finished the Grafton Gully project so we have access from both the western motorway and the southern-northern motorway to the ports. We have finished the Puhinui interchange which is a major part of State Highway 20. We have finished the upper Harbour Bridge at Greenhithe and the Greenhithe link. We have finally 30 years later finished the central motorway junction so that for the first time coming from the North Shore people can go to the west instead of having to come through the suburban streets of Ponsonby and Herne Bay or through the central business district to get to the motorway. We have finished the Esmonde Road interchange. We have put tunnels in the Albany to Puhoi realignment B2 motorway up to Puhoi so that it does not destroy the environment. That extension will be finished next year. 
We have finished—hallelujah—the North Shore busway which we were told could not happen. They said it could not work. We have seen that busway being delivered on time and on budget and what we will now see is the people of the North Shore for the first time having a decent public transport link system. We are getting on well with the extension of State Highway 20 at Mount Roskill. We have started work on the Manukau extension and indeed on the doubling of the Mangere Bridge. We have finished the Waiouru Peninsula links. We have done so much work across Auckland that we can now say that we are well on the way to keeping pace with Auckland’s development. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: Actually the complaint we get now is that there are too many roadworks. 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: Indeed! The main complaint I get in my office is that we have too many roadworks going on. I say on behalf of my constituents that we have transformed Auckland and will continue to do so as a community an environment and an economy. We are putting in the basic infrastructure for the growth that New Zealand needs. 
Plunket tells me that Grey Lynn is now the area in New Zealand with the highest birth rate. I ask all of those moaning minnies across the Chamber what Plunket said about the announcement yesterday. It said: “This is a great result for families and children in New Zealand … This investment will make it easier for agencies to join forces to deliver better support and services to families and children.” So Plunket said it is a great result as did Relationship Services Barnardos Jigsaw Inc. Victim Support and across the board all of those wonderful non-governmental agencies that are so important to New Zealand’s well-being. 
I find that every week in my electorate office—[ 
Interruption 
] Those members are obviously not electorate MPs. Men and women are coming into my electorate office often with small children and saying: “This is a Working for Families baby. We had this child because we could afford to have a child.” Members opposite do not care about New Zealand. The 20 hours’ free childcare for children over the age of 3 means that New Zealanders can get the work-life balance they need. That is what this Government is doing—providing work-life balance a good economy and a good community—and we will go on doing it.