Hughes Darren: General Debate 
Hughes Darren: General Debate 
[Volume:648;Page:17337] 
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Deputy Leader of the House) 
: 
E te Rangatira o te Whare ka nui te mihi ki a koe i tenei ahiahi i roto i Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori. 
[ 
To the Assistant Speaker of the House it is an honour indeed to greet you this afternoon during Maori Language Week 
.] 
I would like to acknowledge that it is Maori Language Week and I thank my colleague the Hon Mita Ririnui on behalf of all the members of “Ngati Makawe Whero” for his invitation to complete this speech in Maori  but I am afraid my talents do not extend quite that far. 
I would like to express though my proud pleasure and to say that I have really enjoyed over the last 6 years the privilege of representing Otaki in our Parliament. Labour has governed at every stage with a plan for the future of our country and also for the electorate that I have the privilege of representing. I know that my community is in a better position than it was before Labour came to office; it is a better place to live there are more opportunities for our young people and our families there is more security for our older people and we have better transport on the way. We have been a good Government and we deserve the chance to put our case to the country in this election based not only on our record but on what our plan for the future will be. I am looking forward to that. I am relishing the chance to do that because I know we have had the courage to make the judgments that are required in our country. 
Politics is not just about sitting around and knocking the hell out of members on the other side of the House and turning up 5 years later to say “Look we agreed to that a long time ago.” it is about saying on the day “Here’s what we will do for you right now.” There is no doubt in my mind that when it has come to the critical times for judgment in our country in the last 9 years Labour has been on the right side of those judgment calls that have had to be made and our political opponents who seek to replace us have been wrong at the time wrong to oppose and then finally turned up half-hearted down the track to say “Me too please include me in that.” 
It does not matter what policy one looks at but I have a few here I would like to show members. KiwiSaver is a visionary policy; Labour voted for it National voted against it. Working for Families made sure that three out of four of our families are assisted and many families in my constituency pay no income tax at all with the Working for Families package and National voted against that. Cheaper doctors’ visits: the cost of going to the doctor today is half of what it would be if we were not sitting on the Treasury benches; Labour was in favour National was against. We have just marked one year of our policy for 3 and 4-year-olds to get 20 free hours in our kindergartens and pre-schools; it was voted for by Labour and voted against by National. One of the great things we have done is taken the minimum wage in our country from $7 to $12 over our 9 years in office putting $200 a week into the hands of the poorest workers in our economy; Labour was in favour National was against it. 
When judgment counts and one has to make decisions on the day about policy it is Labour that has been on the right side for working families in our country and National has been on the wrong side. The ultimate judgment test that our Government has had to make—the ultimate most important decision we had to make—was whether to be involved in the war in Iraq. The National Party was wrong on whether we should be involved. The National Party got the judgment wrong it was absolutely incorrect and Labour took the right position. That is the way we should be remembering how we have taken our approach to politics. 
We know that all around the world right now judgment is required. Leadership and experience is required with the difficult issues we face. There are fuel challenges food challenges and credit-crunch challenges with high interest rates all around the world. Bill English talked about what a problem those challenges were for New Zealand offered no solution and pretended that New Zealand was in some sort of isolated bubble while these issues were affecting the rest of the world. These are global challenges but we will respond to them. We will develop policies to make sure that our communities and our people have the chance to step up to the plate in that respect. We have the experience and judgment to do it. 
National members say “Oh it’s just time for a change and that’s our only campaign slogan.” Their only basis for this election is “Well Labour’s had 9 years it’s about time we had a go.” Labour is asking National members: change to what? Because on those critical issues for families businesses and communities in New Zealand they were wrong when it counted in this Parliament and they will be wrong again. We have had the extraordinary thing this week where the National Party did actually release some policy over the adjournment. But its members do not want to talk about its policies. 
Yesterday in the House we had questions on accident compensation—a massive area of Government spending that affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders every year. The National members sat silent all throughout it. When the policy about 20 free hours for our 3 and 4-year-old children to get education was debated in Parliament yesterday the National members sat silent. They did not want to talk about it because they are taking the word “free” out of the free early childhood education policy. Why would one do that? The only reason one would do that would be because one wants to get rid of the concept of 20 free hours for our kids when they are getting their early childhood education. It is the same for accident compensation; privatise a scheme that people come from all around the world to look at! That is the kind of judgment National members are making but they do not want to talk about it—privatisation will be one of the issues. 
When National members are forced to talk about things—because we know the expensive consultants Crosby/Textor are saying “Do not let any of them talk about policy.”—John Key as leader just smiles is bland and takes pot-shots at Labour. When National members have to answer they are all over the place. When Chris Tremain talked about the accident compensation policy on the  
Back Benchers 
 programme last week he was a blithering mess. If the National Party wants to keep putting up people like that I welcome it.