Horomia Parekura: Address in Reply 
Horomia Parekura: Address in Reply 
[Volume:652;Page:1069] 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA (Labour—Ikaroa-Rawhiti) 
: 
 That was very interesting. The first speaker this afternoon Gerry Brownlee said a whole lot of platitudes about how great things are going to happen for this nation. There has been a lot of blame when looking back on the previous Government. Let us remind ourselves what Dr Cullen left the current Government. He left a stable economy and an advancing regional economy that was consistent with profit over 7 successive years and those who milk cows have done very very well. A lot of the big businesses in this country continually maintained profits and sizable margins. 
Hon John Carter 
: Dear old Parekura! 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: I tell John Carter—“Hone” Carter—that there were sizable margins especially north of Auckland. It was one of the highest-performing regions and was driven by the previous Government’s stimulus package which was more than what that member could do in his time. 
It is amazing when we listen to half of the stuff that comes out of those members’ mouths over there. Mr Brownlee said that the Government is heading to a great place and that it is talking about infrastructure. Some of that infrastructure was so bad when the previous National Government left office—after it sold a whole lot of the State houses; do members remember that?—that infrastructure has taken a long time to recover. We have to ask where this Government is leading us. Will it create jobs and businesses? When we listen to the Minister of Labour who sits at the back there we can already tell that she has been sucked in by the framework of long-tooth bureaucrats who talk about the labour market. All of a sudden she pops up and says that 75000 people have to be made unemployed because of this just in case the minimum wage is lifted up. 
Let us look at some of the facts about this great package that the Prime Minister announced today. There were some simple things. If a person is earning $750000 a year—and a lot of those members’ mates are—that person will gain $260 a week under National’s plan but all that the families on the average wage of $45000 a year will gain is an extra two bucks a week. The $20 figure being touted by the Prime Minister is a real con. It is outrageous. On $45000 a year families barely break even. And what was the edict of the Labour Government that was driven by Dr Cullen? It was about Working for Families. It was about early childcare support. It was about all those issues that were relevant and how a Government can balance progress in the economy with ensuring that those in need get help rather than those with heaps of money and pockets full of greed. That is what has happened. 
National members were so serious about things. One of the first things that happened when they became the Government was they knocked the 4 percent minimum KiwiSaver contribution to 2 percent. What is that all about? It tells us that they are scrambling. I suspect that there are a whole lot of late-night photocopying sessions going on. They are talking about these programmes but when we test them on the detail they do not know what the programmes mean. They are photocopying what this Opposition left for them when it was in Government. They have had a cakewalk since they came into Government. It was recognised by the OECD; we were third out of countries that have a recognised stabilised economy. I fear for the fate of this country with those members handling the books as they do not even understand the basic assumptions relating to the CPI. It is more that just hourly rates of pay—and here we go again. If we go back to the last time the National Party came into Government what did it do in its first year? It talked up the recession. I am not denying that there was a global recession but the Government talked it up big time. And who did its members attack? The workers of this country. 
What do Maori get out of this package? What do the average workers of New Zealand get out of it? Government members talk about the ordinary people. I am trying to define what they mean by “ordinary people”. Is it those people who funded their last election run? Is it other people? It is the working-class people Labour cares about? As a Christmas present the Government dished out a hire and fire bill that deprives workers of their rights. It is one of the most sanctimonious evil bits of legislation that this country has seen for a long long time. A person can work for 3 months with no rights whatsoever. Where else in this Government’s legislation can we recall that happening? That bill was about undermining people’s rights. 
Today the Minister for Social Development and Employment said that Labour did nothing. When we previously came into Government the unemployment rate for Maori was at 21 to 22 percent and we got it down to 6 percent. The general unemployment rate was 18 percent and we took it down to 4 percent. That is real action. We ensured that income-related rents survived. What are those members saying? It is important that we support businesses but the other thing those members did along with stripping down KiwiSaver was to remove the research and development fund. There has been a heck of a lot of pontification about keeping the export market up and keeping businesses global—all of those aspects. But the Government’s members are just picking and choosing what matters more for their friends. The Minister of Education amazed me because I was at the function where she said that she had been Prime Minister for a week and that it was very difficult. I was the Prime Minister for 6 days one year and I ran the Government from the beach in Tolaga Bay. That was how quiet it was so I am not too sure what she was up to. 
We have tax legislation that was rammed through Parliament which proves that National does not care about tens of thousands of Kiwi battlers. I remember someone from that side of the House reciting about a block of cheese. Do members remember that? The members said “Ha ha! A block of cheese!”. The hourly rate is so miserable that people cannot even afford one of those slices in the packs. This is disgraceful; it really is. You know it is just unfair and it is really interesting to see what Hone Harawira said in the House tonight. The Prime Minister John Key said that he did not really consult with the Maori Party on the minimum wage. I commend Hone Harawira because he was musing about why his party is connected with a party that has a totally different position from where his people want to be. He was talking about maintaining the issue of $15. It will be very interesting to see where that will get to. Let us talk about the minimum wage. When National left Government last time and we came in the minimum wage was $7. National increased it by 86c in the 9 years it was in Government. This is what we have to watch with this Government—what is it really going to deliver to the working people? In 9 years National took the minimum wage up by 86c. When we came into Government it was $7. We took it up every year for 9 years to $12. We also took the youth minimum wage up to $9— 
Chris Tremain 
: Every year? 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: —I say to Mr Tremain and a lot of those people in Hawke’s Bay would have benefited from what we did. 
Chris Tremain 
: 50c in 84 days isn’t too bad. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: No the truth is that it is $2 not $20. That is what those members have to hang their heads on. Despite all the rhetoric this is back to the 1990s. You know leopards cannot change their spots and if we look at this front bench we see that it is the same front bench that did all of that stuff. Those members are reciting and enticing the public to suggest that they have the answers. Mr Tremain knows that they do not have the answers. Even though the Maori Party is there in partnership—86 days Mr Brownlee says—the honeymoon is heading for a crash. The bridal suite is closed the posy has been thrown over the shoulder and they are starting to make up reasons for why they are doing supposedly great things for New Zealand. 
I believe that the next 3 years will be some of the worst years for this country not just because of the global recession but because of the return of these people who wounded the working class in this country. They are at it again. The member Tony Ryall was talking about the improvement in health. What did he leave us with? This is the same person who was talking about people lying on beds in the corridors. He closed down a whole lot of the hospitals. The other thing that seems to be happening is the blaming of two lots of people: the Public Service and the governance—“If they don’t agree with us we’ll sack them.” That is one thing this Labour Party can say it would never get involved with. Like one of our great leaders here has said— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: I regret to advise the member that his time has expired.