Maharey Steve: General Debate 
Maharey Steve: General Debate 
[Volume:624;Page:19650] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I am pleased to rise to speak after Gerry Brownlee—for those who are listening to their radio at home he was the previous speaker. He is one of the four or five people who obviously are about to contest the leadership of the National Party given how badly Mr Don Brash has been doing. 
Members on this side of the House have just come back from their congress which occurs prior to each election campaign. It was a fantastic occasion. People turned up in large numbers enjoyed 2 days together worked through and prepared for another win by a Labour-led Government in the election later this year. 
I know that on the other side of the Chamber disappointed people like Maurice Williamson who has been on the back bench for so long that he does not know what it is like to be on the front bench any more reduced from the once-great man he was are just barracking from the back benches—the nine-penny seats. I know that he would love to be back there but he knows that he has another 3 years to go. 
I shall tell members why. One of the major divides between the Government and the National Party and its supporters is the issue of public services. We have seen over the years a divide from the National Party which has routinely cut public services whenever it has had the chance. I know that from my own experience of becoming the Minister in charge of child youth and family issues and finding that the National Party had paid for social workers only up until the time of a change of Government. The day I became the Minister people from Child Youth and Family Services said that I had a choice that day because the money had just run out of firing 61 social workers because the National Party had not provided any money for them. That is the nature of the National Party when it comes to public services. We on this side of the House have reversed those cuts increased public services and ensured that we are in a position whereby we are able to provide good quality public services for New Zealanders. 
John Key the other pretender to the throne who is waiting to move on the leadership issue has today let out from his Pandora’s box the return of the National Party’s same old “cut public services” agenda. John Key tells us that he will get the money for his tax cuts by cutting the numbers of public servants. He has not told us that the money for tax cuts will come from Child Youth and Family Services social workers; he has not told us it will come from teachers doctors or nurses. He tries to pretend that he will get the money from the core public service—the “bloated public service” he said. 
I will take one example of what he means. He said that he wants to take money from an organisation like the Tertiary Education Commission because it has spent about $200 million since it was set up. I tell Maurice Williamson and other National members what that actually means. That money pays for Modern Apprenticeships. The National Party has already said that it will cut Modern Apprenticeships—it does not like that programme. The money will come from the Gateway programme. The Gateway programme is hugely successful in all schools that are decile 6 and lower. We know that the National Party will cut it because it repealed the apprenticeship legislation in 1992. The Tertiary Education Commission provides for major programmes like training opportunities and youth training. It employs all the coordinators for the Modern Apprenticeships programme out of that money. In other words it employs people who are doing concrete jobs that we now know the National Party will cut from its programme. John Key is saying that the National Party will have to get that money by cutting it from organisations that deliver core programmes like Modern Apprenticeships. That is where the money will come from. 
I guess we have to applaud John Key for his honesty because we do not hear much from anybody else in the National Party about the kinds of cuts that would have to take place to get money for the tax cuts. John Key is doing exactly that for the reason raised earlier by my colleague—that John Key is in the other camp from the National Party candidate who is running in the Wellington Central electorate. He wants to make sure that he does not make his move into Cabinet in the way that is planned by Mr Blumsky. 
So we know what John Key’s plan is but overall what we now have going into this election year with a National Party that is desperately trying to find issues is a clear divide. The National Party will cut public services to pay for its tax cuts. The Labour-led Government will commit itself to quality public services for all New Zealanders so that they can get good education and good health. We know that the public want it because 52 percent have already said they want exactly that.