Smith Nick: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Smith Nick: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14197] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 I support the motion of John Key that this House should have no confidence in this Clark-led Government because it has failed to make significant improvements in those issues that are of real importance to New Zealanders. It lacks ambition it is tired it is bereft of ideas and it has lost touch with the ordinary people who put it in power. The Prime Minister’s speech focused on three areas: housing social policy and sustainability. Let me go through each of those areas because in each we have had state of the nation reports that judge things by record not rhetoric. In January we had a demographer’s report on housing affordability. That report showed— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Who? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: A demographer. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Two Tories. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I ask Mr Mallard why it is that New Zealand has the second-ighest interest rates in the developed world under this Labour Government. I ask Mr Mallard why it is that when Labour came into Government the average New Zealander on the average wage and buying the average house spent 40 percent of their income on servicing a mortgage and today that figure is 90 percent. I ask Mr Mallard why it is that the census data under this Labour Government shows the biggest drop in homeownership under any Government since the first census asked that question in 1893. Let me repeat that again. This Government according to our own census data has the worst record on home affordability of any Government since the 1890s. We have across the way Lynne Pillay shaking her head. Does she not believe the census figures? 
Lynne Pillay 
: We’re fixing things! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Oh she says Labour is fixing things! I say to Lynne Pillay that Labour has had 8 years and its record after 8 years is the worst record on home affordability of any Government in over a century and I say its time is up. 
Let us go to the issue of social policy. This is the headline in the  
Press 
 where the Salvation Army produced a state of the nation report on the issue of social policy. It gives the Government a very poor record indeed. Let me tell members what the Salvation Army said about the Government. It said there has been a 24 percent increase in referrals to Child Youth and Family. It said there has been a 28 percent increase in serious crime. It said the prison population has gone up by 36 percent. After 8 years of a Labour Government this damning Salvation Army report shows that it has failed in the area of social policy. 
The area I really want to turn the record on this Government is in respect of sustainability. In last year’s Prime Minister’s speech Helen Clark chanted the word “sustainability” 39 times like some Hare Krishna. Well let us look at the record of sustainability since that speech so loaded with rhetoric by the Prime Minister. If we look at New Zealand’s Kyoto Protocol deficit we will see that in 2002 the Government told the people of New Zealand that Kyoto meant we would make hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Last year the Government admitted that our Kyoto liability would be $420 million. That is what it said last year—$420 million. What does it say now? Our Kyoto figures have blown out from $400 million to $967 million! I am just pleased the Prime Minister did not say “sustainability” 90 times or the figure might have trebled. In every area of emissions we have seen huge growth. If we look for instance at the core data collected by the United Nations we see that New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions grew by more in 2007 than in any year on record—any year on record! If we look at the issue of electricity we see that under this Government we have trebled the amount of electricity that is produced from coal. At the same time that the Government declined to grant consent for the Dobson power station on the West Coast our renewable energy station do members know what this carbon-free Government did? It built a new oil-fired power station that today is running at absolutely full bore. As Gerry Brownlee revealed today the Government’s own Electricity Commission is looking at importing 100 diesel generators in containers to keep the lights on while the Prime Minister chants carbon neutrality and sustainability. It does not stack. 
If we look at the really good practical issue on conservation and the environment that is forestry we see that every single year since records began New Zealand planted 30000 hectares of additional forests—from 1951 until 2004. Every single year since 2004 New Zealand has been losing forests; last year it was referred to by the media as a chainsaw massacre. So in the very year in which the Prime Minister chanted sustainability 39 times this country lost 7 million trees. We cut down 7 million more trees than we planted—the worst year ever. Then we had the state of the environment report. That report came out—and there has been controversy over a bit of doctoring that has gone on within the Ministry for the Environment—but even it shows more serious deterioration in water quality in the last period of this Government than ever in New Zealand history. Water quality is getting worse at a faster rate than at any time in New Zealand history. I say to members opposite: 8 years of record emissions record forestry losses record loss of biodiversity record deterioration in water quality and it wants to get re-elected on sustainability! Make our day. 
I will put some questions to members opposite around the issues that are of real importance to New Zealanders. Why after 8 years of a Labour Government are New Zealanders paying the second-highest interest rate in the world? I was appalled to hear Steve Chadwick the MP for Rotorua saying that she did not care. She did not care about people paying mortgages. Well that is a difference between people on this side of the House and the Labour side. National wants to know why it is that for 8 years under this Government it put taxes up stacked away $45 billion of surpluses and why it is only in election year that it is prepared to give a tax cut. I ask Jill Pettis why it is that after 8 years of a Labour Government we have one-quarter of our kids coming out of schools unable to do basic literacy and numeracy. Why is it that violent crime—as George Hawkins said—is the worst in 25 years? Why is it after 8 years of a Labour Government crime is at its worst level in 25 years? Why is it after pouring billions of dollars into the health system we are not getting any more operations and critically important for my Nelson constituents who get their heart surgery in Wellington why are the waiting lists three times longer than what they were in 1990? 
On all the important issues the issues that matter to ordinary New Zealanders this Government after 8 years has a track record of failure. It has a record of failure on social policy as so clearly identified in that state of the nation report from the Salvation Army and it has an appalling record on housing—the worst record of any Government in the history of New Zealand—where the cost of housing in real terms has more than doubled. The Government’s record on sustainability—on all the important things such as climate change water quality forestry and biodiversity—is one of failure. 
The truth is that for this Government its time is up. It is interested only in laws that will protect its own butt. It has forgotten about caring for the people of New Zealand and that is why this year people will be looking to John Key to write the next chapter in the New Zealand story because a John Key leadership will be focused on the issues that matter to ordinary New Zealanders rather than the self-preservation that is the sole focus of this sick tired Labour Government.