Parker David: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Parker David: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 17 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5902. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 At a time when 160000 people have gone to Australia when youth unemployment is approaching 20 percent and when we have got the second-highest current account deficit in the world after Greece—and next year it is projected by the IMF to be the worst in the world—we have got the Government members saying that they are managing the economy well. Well I have got news for them: they are not and I know why. It is because they are beset with scandal after scandal. Their own problems are diverting them from the job of looking after New Zealanders through proper government. We have got non-primary manufacturing in decline and the Government denies there is a problem there. We have got job losses from the north to the south and the Government denies they are there. Mr Brownlee just quoted job statistics that include every job of an hour long. Those statistics are a complete misrepresentation of what is happening in New Zealand. 
What are the scandals? Well of course the most recent one is Kim Dotcom. At the start of the year it was the teapot tapes. Does anyone remember that? John Key and John Banks getting caught out at a public meeting being recorded complaining to the police using the police against the media in the election and then miraculously dropping that because it was going to be embarrassing for the Prime Minister and John Banks to stand up in court. Then we had the ACC. We had the Bronwyn Pullar affair followed by the resignation of the Minister for ACC and the forced resignation of the chair and the board. Then we had the Budget. In this year’s Budget the centrepiece was to improve student outcomes with larger class sizes. Does anyone remember that? There have been so many scandals since that that one almost fades into obscurity. What a clanger. Now we have got the Ministry of Social Development. In the middle of it we had John Banks who asked for donations received envelopes with donations in them made sure they were banked in Queenstown thanked the people who gave them and then signed a declaration that the donations were anonymous. We know what a farce that is and we have got the Prime Minister trying to pretend that that was in order. 
In terms of the economy what is happening? Well we had mining in national parks and now the centrepiece for this 3-year triennium is the sale of State-owned assets. We had “shares plus” off on Monday; now we have got some shares reserved for iwi on Wednesday. What a shambles. No wonder the economy is not doing what it should. In terms of Mr Dotcom and the Government Communications Security Bureau and Mr Key’s role well what did he say? He said he did not know anything about it until 17 September. These are all facts that are now proven. Then he said he was briefed on them on 29 February but could not remember but accepts that he was. Then Labour sources revealed via David Shearer that on the same day John Key spoke to the staff in the cafeteria. What did John Key do initially? He denied it and then under further questioning from Patrick Gower he said that he remembers that he did—recovered memory. 
We had sources claiming that he had spoken to people in the cafeteria. Again John Key initially denied it and now he says he cannot rule it out. Now he actually admits it happens. Then we said there was a camera there and they denied it. Now they admit they hunted for a camera and they found a camera on a tripod. Now they admit they have got print photos that were taken—single-shot photos. All of this was previously denied by John Key and somehow the National Party says that reflects poorly on David Shearer. What a nonsense! There is only one person that reflects poorly on and that is John Key. Duncan Garner asked whether there was a camera on a tripod and then finally the Prime Minister admits that there was. We have got the other allegations made by Winston Peters today that have not been properly answered. 
 Scandal after scandal all year long and in the meantime we have got Bill English not even understanding his own statistics that outside of primary manufacturing we do have a serious decline in the face of the world’s worst current account deficit. How will we plug that big hole in New Zealand’s account? There was a $10 billion loss in our current account last year. It is projected to get worse—second only to Greece this year and worst in the world next year. Job losses—160000 people off to Australia. The Deputy Prime Minister stood up and said “Oh it’s going to get better.” Well it will eventually after 160000 people have left. That is more than the total population of Dunedin and Invercargill combined and 40 percent of them are between the ages of 18 and 30. Of course eventually there will not be that many people left to leave. This Government is in a shambles and our economy is suffering.