Ardern Shane: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Ardern Shane: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:615;Page:10978] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki - King Country) 
: 
 Mr Speaker given that this is my first contribution in the House this year can I start by wishing you a happy New Year and wishing all of my parliamentary colleagues likewise. 
I support the motion of Dr Don Brash the leader of the National Party—the next Prime Minister of New Zealand in 2005 and maybe a bit sooner. It could be a bit sooner if this Government finally caves in and goes to the polls which some are predicting. The leader of the National Party when he moved the motion of no confidence in this Government knew what he was doing and I support that motion. 
The good hardworking people from Taranaki - King Country—farmers business people—have a simple approach to life and a simple saying. It goes like this: if it looks like a cow walks like a cow and smells like a cow then it probably is a cow. That is how they operate. 
I sat in the House on Tuesday when the Prime Minister gave her first speech of the year. I looked at the Prime Minister and saw that she had no passion no vision and no leadership. Her speech when I read it had none either—I have gone back through it. I looked around the House at a whole lot of Labour members—who were kindly described by Mark Sainsbury last night as resting their eyes—and they had no leadership no vision and no passion. So what does that look like? It looks like a Government with a Prime Minister who has no leadership no passion and no direction and based on a simple theory from Taranaki - King Country if it looks like a cow smells like a cow and walks like a cow then it probably is a cow. This Government had no leadership no vision and no passion—or it looked like that—so that is probably so. I say that it has no leadership no passion and no sense of where the country should go. That is the reality. This Government looks tired unimpassioned and as though it lacks leadership. 
So let us have a look at what it has promised to do over the next couple of years. It has promised to introduce a range of new legislation. One can ask the question: how does that fit in with the Prime Minister’s stated objective of lifting New Zealand into the top half of the OECD? Now when we have a look at the Prime Minister’s speech on Tuesday we see that the first piece of legislation she mentioned is an aquaculture reform bill. I am sure that will be very helpful for business. There is the Building Bill. I happen to be on the select committee where that bill is being discussed and all I have seen so far is a whole lot of costs being loaded on to industry. There is the Care of Children Bill the Charities Bill the Electricity and Gas Industries Bill and the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill. All of those were mentioned in the Prime Minister’s speech. I ask members: which one of them will help the Prime Minister in her objective of lifting New Zealand into the top half of the OECD? When one goes through those bills and has a look at them all one sees is a heap of costs being dumped on to New Zealand business and on to the growth of this economy. 
We can have a look at what is happening in the social area with this Labour Government—the Government that traditionally has always supported social needs. In education 300 schools in rural New Zealand are under review. Most of them will be closed. The Minister himself has given up now on going through the review process; he is just making arbitrary closure decisions around the country willy-nilly whether they are good schools or bad schools. 
Let us have a look at what is happening on the farm—the engine room of the economy. There has been 20 percent inflation since this Government came into power. Look at the forecasts in terms of what incomes will do on farms. The forecast in today’s paper is that the dairy payout will potentially fall to $2 or $2.20—well below the economic level of survival for most farms in New Zealand. These are all good indicators. 
Then we look at one or two of the other issues. What will happen in rural health? One of the issues the Government trumpeted up and down the country in 1999 in its manifesto was that it would provide improved health services. There is no mention of needs-based services. There is no mention of those. What do we have in rural health instead? There is a gradual incremental decline—not an improvement but a decline. It is harder to find services in rural New Zealand. It is not easier; it is harder. I tell Jill Pettis to go and talk to people in Stratford about their maternity service. She should go across the boundary and have a talk— 
Jill Pettis 
: That is not us. 
SHANE ARDERN 
: Well Taranaki Base Hospital or Taranaki Healthcare funds it so if it is not the Government’s whose is it? 
Jill Pettis 
: The district health board’s. 
SHANE ARDERN 
: Well the Government funds that. If it is not Labour’s responsibility then whose is it? 
The higher dollar is putting pressure on exports; there is no question about that. Who is in charge? What did those members say in Opposition when the dollar started to rise? Who did they blame for that? We can pull out speeches and ask members what they said about that. 
We have had 20 new taxes thus far from this Government and they are talking about more. In response to the 11 September attacks we have the Border Security Bill before a select committee. It will put $8 million-worth of extra cost on exporters alone and 70 percent of what used to be done by the Customs Service will be dumped on exporters. 
Jill Pettis 
: Not yet. 
SHANE ARDERN 
: Not yet no but it is being proposed; the member is right—not yet. So how will that help to lift New Zealand into the top half of the OECD? 
The Minister for the Environment spoke before and she spoke with great passion about the Resource Management Act. That Act has needed amending for the last 7 or 8 years. She is quite right. There were a heap of proposed amendments under the last Government and under Simon Upton based on the Owen McShane report. What did she do with them? She put her red pen through the whole lot. She scrapped the lot and introduced further costs further delays and further humbug for anybody who wants to do something. 
Hon Member 
: Simon Upton talked about it! 
SHANE ARDERN 
: He talked about it but never got it done. I accept that. In 5 years the Government has not done a thing. In fact it has added a heap of extra costs. 
So what other types of legislative change can we expect from this Government? We will see a major change to the Employment Relations Bill and a huge amount of extra costs put on industry as a result of that proposed change. So where is this leadership and where is the grand statement now from the Prime Minister that we will lift this country to the top half of the OECD? It is history. 
Let us look at what has happened in the last few days with regard to discussion in this House particularly to do with race relations. We have a Government that is now clearly on the ropes. The Orewa speech made by Dr Don Brash has obviously struck a chord. 
I have listened with great interest to the Maori members of this House. Not one of them has disagreed with anything he said in that speech—not one. That is amazing. In fact I listened to Nanaia Mahuta a few minutes ago. She went through a list of issues and they virtually outlined exactly what he said in that speech. I listened with great interest. 
Now we have them banging on on the other side of the House about the National Party trying to cause racial tension. Remember it was the National Party that introduced the historic grievance process and in that process did more for Maori and got further down the track than anybody else. The  
Holmes  
show poll the other night demonstrated to members exactly what New Zealanders think of this issue and they know instinctively that Dr Brash is right. It is not racist; and it is not what they are trying to say on the Government side of the House. Dr Brash is actually saying what the majority of New Zealanders Maori and non-Maori believe. 
 Let us have a look at another area this Government is poking its fingers into. Around the country the Government is currently buying up grand blocks of land—23000 hectares in the case of Birchwood Station in the South Island—under the notion that somehow or other the State knows how to manage conservation better than anybody else. Let us have a look at the State’s record on that. We should look at what is happening in terms of preserving conservation through the hands of the Department of Conservation. That department is the worst neighbour in the country when it comes to weed-infested bits of land. It is the worst department in the country when it comes to weed and pest control. Members should go and have a look. They can find isolated pockets where the department is doing a good job but overwhelmingly the State does not know best. In fact in the Minister’s own comments with regard to Birchwood he said that it was a fine piece of conservation owned by the Williams family and for that reason he felt that the State should take it over. It will be interesting to see if it is in that condition in 10 years’ time. 
MARTIN GALLAGHER (Labour—Hamilton West) 
: 
 Speaking as a Waikato member of Parliament I take this opportunity to convey my sympathy particularly to Shade Ardern and his team and to the Wilkie family on the untimely passing of Maureen Wilkie who was a very good example of a wonderful electorate agent. These electorate agents in terms of their professionalism serve people all around the country irrespective of the person’s political affiliations. It has been a reminder of the important community role played by people in our offices all around the country. I convey my sympathies to Maureen’s family the many many people who knew her and those who worked with her. 
It is with sadness that I also note the passing of the previous deputy chief executive of Environment Waikato and current Environment Court commissioner Bob Priest. He was a very very good public servant and I have to admit that it was not until I attended his funeral that I truly realised what a very accomplished and brilliant man he was. He was exceptionally humble but a very very good person to deal with and he will be sorely missed in our community. 
I also acknowledge the passing of Roma Lilley of Hamilton who was a life member of the Labour Party and I do so in the context of the many people who serve in political parties around this country but who never seek to be elected to Parliament. I acknowledge that everyone in this Chamber is here because of the efforts of the Roma Lilleys of this world—the people who do not seek to come here themselves but give up so many hours of their life to fight for the causes they believe in. Roma was a great contributor to my political party. I also acknowledge her work for people with disabilities in Hamilton. She was incredibly cheerful at all times and quite inspirational. She will also be sorely missed from community radio where she used to run a very excellent programme. 
I am proud to be a member of this Labour-Progressive coalition Government. We have a very positive story to tell about how much has currently been achieved in New Zealand and about how much more can be achieved as New Zealanders work together—I emphasise together—to realise our country’s full potential. We have built the foundations for change and improvement and now we can see those results emerging. After many years of sluggish growth and social decay New Zealand has picked up momentum and is moving forward on many fronts. 
This year’s Budget I am proud to say will bring important changes for families in this country. The new Families Commission will be up and running. I note and observe the speech made by Judy Turner and acknowledge the work of United Future in helping us to establish the Families Commission. It is a very good example in an MMP environment of positive collaboration between two political parties. We will be making major improvements to the level of family income assistance and introduce new initiatives for early childhood education. 
The new mortgage insurance pilot scheme between the Housing New Zealand Corporation and Kiwibank is helping people on low incomes to buy their own homes. Consultation will soon begin on a new housing strategy to make sure that all New Zealanders are housed. Norman Kirk used to say that one of the fundamental elements of social justice in being a Kiwi was having the right to have a decent roof over one’s head. We now have 176000 more people in jobs since Labour formed the Government in 1999. New Zealanders increasingly see themselves as creative people with much to offer the world through the creative industries such as film and music. 
I want to reflect briefly on the Orewa speech made by Dr Brash. Actually I think the Rt Hon Robert Muldoon was the last senior politician to give a speech in Orewa. In my view there was something of a time warp about the speech given by Dr Brash and choosing to go to Orewa says a lot about his vision for this country. The cynic in me says that the content of the Orewa speech was nothing but a cynical attempt in many ways to divert the attention of the people away from what members opposite would do to the people and working families of this country if ever they had another chance to occupy the Treasury benches. 
The Orewa speech did not give working families the message that if the Opposition formed the next National-ACT Government it would immediately repeal the holidays legislation and do away with 4 weeks’ annual holiday for working families; that it would remain at 3 weeks. The Orewa speech did not talk about that. With regard to the Families Commission I say that given the cynicism the vile and invective directed at United Future presumably that positive initiative would also be done away with. I talked earlier about the mortgage insurance pilot scheme between the Housing New Zealand Corporation and Kiwibank. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to know that that would go down the tube because a National-ACT Government should it come to power would do two things—firstly it would get rid of the Housing New Zealand Corporation and privatise it and secondly it has promised to sell off Kiwibank no doubt to some foreign bank and do away with one of the only New Zealand – owned banks in this country. Those issues are the kinds of things that the Brash Orewa speech did not tell us about. 
John Key earlier in the debate today talked about some notion of fear in Labour MPs’ eyes. I tell Mr Key to look again and look into my eyes. They are the eyes of sadness. In my first term in Parliament as an Opposition Labour MP I accompanied the Rt Hon James Bolger Prime Minister of New Zealand and the Rt Hon Doug Graham to Turangawaewae Marae where they signed on behalf of the Crown the raupatu settlement that brought to a close a longstanding historic grievance between the Tainui people and the Crown and that enabled us in the Waikato to move forward. It is very clear that the party currently led by Dr Don Brash is a very very different party from the one led by James Bolger Prime Minister. 
Talking of cynicism the ultimate cynicism is the way in which the National Party is now treating its Maori constituency and the Maori members. In the 2002 election campaign we recall that Michelle Boag went out actively presumably with the support of Bill English to court Maori candidates. They placed people like Hekia Parata very high on the list. Even Bill English in his Southland speech to the regional National Party conference prior to becoming Leader of the Opposition talked about the changing demographics in this country and how the National Party would lose one seat per election based on the growth in young New Zealanders of Polynesian origin. How it all changes! Now on the basis of one speech the National Party has made a cold calculated determination that it does not need New Zealanders of Maori or Pacific Island origin any more and it has turned its back on that important section of our community. 
I think personally that National may have some short-term bump in the polls but in the long term the National Party that descended from proud Prime Ministers people like Sir Keith Holyoake—it was a party of so-called consensus in the 1960s and it was a Government of consensus—will rue the day it ventured down this particular track. 
I am very proud to be a member of a Government that will back all Kiwi families irrespective of their ethnic origin. We will aid Kiwis where they need it and in ways in which they need it irrespective of their circumstances. I am proud to be a Waikato member of a Parliament who is witnessing excellent economic growth and very low unemployment. I am proud to be part of the very very positive initiatives under the leadership of this Government. I am proud to be a member of a Government that wants to bring New Zealanders together not divide them in the most cynical way as we have seen from members opposite. 
In terms of division what a divided Opposition it is. A senior member of the National caucus Mr Brian Connell implied that the Rt Hon Winston Peters was some form of charlatan. That in my view is not coalition talk. I do hope New Zealand First notes the latest overtures being made by the National Party in that direction. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Just before I call the next member I have been advised by New Zealand First that it wishes to share its slot between two members. I shall ring the bell at 4 minutes with 1 minute remaining.