Coleman Jonathan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Coleman Jonathan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:670;Page:16691] 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Immigration) 
: 
 I must say it is great to be back here in the Chamber at the start of 2011 which of course is election year. Listening to this debate today I think the public will get a very clear idea about the battle-lines for the coming battle. 
No matter how often the Labour Opposition members repeat the myths and half-truths and make misrepresentations the fact is that the public know what is really going on. If people really want to know the difference between the two sides they should just have a look at the two leaders’ state of the nation speeches which they gave 2 weeks ago just before the start of the parliamentary year. I tell people who are listening at home or watching on TV that they should go to stuff.co.nz to download the Prime Minister’s speech and they will see a very clear analysis of the economy of what needs to be done in New Zealand and of what the answers are. Most important they will see the policies that will support a return to economic growth. 
Meanwhile on the other side of the House there is Phil Goff whose big election year promise is that he will make the first $5000 of earnings tax free. Everyone will get $10 in the hand and somehow that will turn the economy round. The member Mr Nash was talking about the election being about trust. Well he is right; it will be about trust. It is a shame for Mr Goff that on the day he came out with such a bogus load of rubbish masquerading as policy he also could not answer a straight question about whether he dyed his hair. It is a trivial matter. It is an absolutely trivial matter. There is no problem with dying one’s hair but why can Mr Goff not be upfront about it? I tell members that it is the small things that undermine the public’s trust and that issue certainly is one of those small things. 
Those guys over there have spent this 15-hour debate talking down New Zealand. Mr Cunliffe recently returned from his holiday in his Herne Bay mansion. He will be back now ministering and talking down to the people of New Lynn for yet another year. He lost the party vote there last time. I am sure that if he goes a bit further he may well lose the seat there this time around. Mr Cunliffe was talking down New Zealand in the most derogatory terms. He believes that removing GST from fruit and vegetables will cure obesity. He believes that by announcing all these uncosted promises he will suddenly somehow get the economy going. But Labour members do not have a plan. I can tell members that there is a God in heaven and I know there is because after Phil Goff’s time as leader he is going to deliver us David Cunliffe as the Leader of the Opposition. That is the day I know that the Labour MPs will not be looking forward to but on this side of the House things are just going to get better and better. 
A clear choice is laid out this year for the public of New Zealand. We have two alternatives. We have John Key a man with a sound professional record who can manage the economy. He has shown the efforts we are putting into clear policies in order to turn this economy round. Or we could vote for Labour New Zealand First or the Green Party. If we get that lot I can tell members what we will get. We will get soaring tax rates a top tax rate of 50 percent Winston Peters as Deputy Prime Minister and probably Minister of Finance and a completely unaffordable punishing emissions trading scheme. Do members know what else we will get? We will get a capital gains tax. 
Labour members are going around the country moaning and complaining to their base. They are out there talking to the 25 percent of people who always vote Labour and who will always agree with them that it will make progress. Members opposite know how politics works. There is the 30 percent of people who vote for Labour—always 25 percent to 30 percent—there is always 30 percent who vote for the centre-right there is probably 10 percent who vote for a variety of small parties and then there is the 30 percent in the middle who vote for the party that delivers on their aspirations. 
John Key has been out there now since the end of 2006 painting an aspirational picture for New Zealand. I tell members that the people I represent on the North Shore of Auckland the people in Northcote Glenfield Beach Haven and Birkdale agree with John Key’s message because they want a better future for themselves and a better future for their children. They are backing the people with the vision for New Zealand. 
Labour members can talk down the country as much as they like but at the end of the day the public do not vote for negativity. If members really want to know the formula for success and for the future they should look at what is happening around the world. I was listening to a commentator the other day on the radio and she said that we have been on a debt-fuelled binge that we are living beyond our means and that we have to focus on value for money for public services on decreasing the deficit on savings and on an export-driven economy. She said that that was the way to success. But she was not actually talking about New Zealand. Those comments were from a woman called Laura Tyson who is a professor at the University of California Berkley. She was talking about the situation in the US but word for word it is the formula that we are applying here in New Zealand. Anyone with any economic sense knows what has happened over the past few years in Western economies. There has been a debt-fuelled boom in consumption and there has been an explosion in the growth of Government spending. Finally the day of reckoning has come. It has come here in New Zealand and we are doing something about it. 
As my colleagues have said right through this debate we are in the same category as Portugal Ireland Greece and Spain. We are in the danger zone in terms of private debt as a proportion of GDP. That is why we need this plan now. We are focusing on value-for-money public services. We are making the structural changes to the economy. We are putting the focus on savings growth and raising exports. Treasury says that 3 percent growth is anticipated this year. The path ahead is clear. There is a plan. I have outlined our plan for the economy. If members read the Prime Minister’s speech they will see that it is very clearly listed there. 
The members opposite should say what Labour’s plan is. David Cunliffe speaking on behalf of the people of New Lynn via Herne Bay is saying that people should not worry because there will be a fully costed set of accounts before the next election. But so far in three parliamentary sitting days this year every time Labour members open their mouths there are more promises—$5 billion has been added to the total bill or $10 for everybody per week. That is going to cost $1.6 billion. 
Did members see Phil Goff on TV when the press gallery asked Mr Goff where the money would come from? Frankly Phil Goff did not know. Have members heard what Labour is promising for early childhood education? David Cunliffe must be in mortal fear—I could use another expression—because he knows he has to find the money for this stuff and he knows that at the end of the day the only way he can do it is by driving up taxes. The aspirational people in Birkenhead Northcote Beach Haven and Birkdale will not vote for higher taxes. They will not vote for more emissions trading scheme costs. Labour members know it—their heads are down and they have no reply. They know what will have to happen for Labour to be able to pay for its promises: it will be higher taxes it will be more people going to Australia and it will be bad news for New Zealand. 
So there we have it; the debate has been framed for the year. Members should read the Prime Minister’s state of the nation speech because it is very very clear. There is a clear plan there about making the Public Service more efficient about restructuring the economy and about export-led growth. It is a plan that makes sense to people out there in the electorate. They get what we are doing. They have confidence in John Key. The members opposite are a shambles and they are in disarray. We could go on about their shambolic disorganised front bench their disorientated leadership and their lack of options. Quite frankly the contest has been framed. The people will make up their minds and it will happen very quickly. Kia ora.