Clark David: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Clark David: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 27 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8254. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North) 
: 
 My colleague Annette King has talked about the terrible tragedy the horror show the comedy that is unravelling under this Government. It is no way—no way—to run a country. 
Far be it for me normally to comment on the outfits of other members in this House—it is not normally my style—but the  
Sunday Star-Times 
 has given me a little bit of licence lately with my newly found reputation for sartorial elegance. Some wag on Twitter I see has commented that Jo Goodhew the member who has just resumed her seat has today assumed the comedy wrestling belt of the vacant World Boxing Association political featherweight title. It is certainly a stunning outfit. 
But moving back to the topic at hand the fact that this Government is running the country in an appalling fashion. Today—just today—we have had the latest of Steven Joyce’s glossy brochures. It has come out. His year-long comms plan has finally ended. The Business Growth Agenda has produced nothing—nothing that we can see. We have 30000 fewer jobs in this country as a consequence of this Government being in office in the past year. The Business Growth Agenda is a set of glossy brochures devoid of any meaningful plan and in fact the only thing—the only thing—Steven Joyce has created in that year is a boost at the printing presses. He has been churning out these glossy brochures left right and centre. 
This Government has no plan and that is no way to run a country. There are 30000 fewer jobs than there were a year ago; 17000 manufacturing jobs have gone overseas in the past year or have gone completely. New Zealanders have been losing their jobs. Unemployment is pushing 7 percent. There are 163000 unemployed people. Unemployment has not been this bad since National was last in Government. 
We have people also helping that unemployment rate by moving to Australia. It would be worse if we did not have 1000 Kiwis a week leaving permanently for Australia and the sad thing is that 40 percent of those people are aged 18 to 30. That is our future. The brighter future they are choosing is offshore. We know that in total over 180000 New Zealanders have left for Australia since John Key took office and it is no wonder. 
The other statistic we have had this week is that the wage gap with Australia has grown by 50 percent under this Government. This Government promised to reduce the wage gap with Australia; instead it has grown by 50 percent. It was $120 a week when John Key took office; now it is $180 a week. That presents no hope to young New Zealanders who hope to get ahead. 
There are so many ways this Government is demonstrating that it is not fit to run this country. When we count back the ways over the year that it has been in office we can go right back to the broken promise on GST. We can see the teapot tapes which started to pull the wheels off which saw the popularity of the Government start to drop. We have seen the growing wage gap between rich and poor—worse than it has ever been in recorded history in this country. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: You got promoted for this? What about Andrew Little? 
Dr DAVID CLARK 
: This is a Government Mr Henare with the worst economic growth record of any Government in the last 50 years. It is a disgrace. This is no way to run the country. 
We have also seen ACC scandals abounding. We have seen a letter of support written by a Minister with a conflict of interest. We have seen privacy breaches sent out to Bronwyn Pullar—sensitive client data. 
We have seen a Skycity deal that has gone wrong for the Government and a report that sees the PM not vindicated but implicated. 
Then we see in the education sector Hekia Parata. She says: “Let’s increase the class sizes.” she backs down and then she is on to Novopay. And on it goes—a train wreck in the making. That is no way to run a country. 
Then if we think about the higher ethical standards this Prime Minister promised we do not see any evidence of them. We see Mr Banks with his brown envelopes still traipsing around with empty brown envelopes—or so he tells us or so he thinks. He cannot remember helicopter flights he cannot remember cheap accommodation and he certainly cannot remember any donations. Well the police said that Mr Banks filed a false declaration but that it was too late to prosecute him. 
Then we go on to the Government Communications Security Bureau. Mr Key suddenly has a touch of the “Banksies”—he cannot remember what happened either. It is spreading. It is spreading. And onwards we go. 
Today the Minister for Economic Development could not remember either. And then we have got privacy breaches. On it goes on it goes on it goes. It is no way to run a country.