O'Connor Damien: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
O'Connor Damien: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:606;Page:3491] 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister of State) 
: 
 It is an honour to be the last speaker in the debate today after some very interesting debate. However I have to say also that sometimes one is ashamed to be in this House. When I heard ACT and the National Party trying to make cheap political gain at the expense of people who unfortunately have lost their lives I felt ashamed to be here and I apologise to the families of those people who have lost their lives.  
I shall just round up on the Prime Minister’s statement which was very clear. We laid out three key principles that this country is looking for. In relation to stable government I acknowledge the support and help from Progressive from United Future and from the Greens at times in enabling us to run a stable Government in this country. We have shown strong leadership not only through the Prime Minister and Cabinet but through the fact that we are prepared to make the hard decisions and shift the direction of this country that the National Government had set it on for some 9 years to put it back on a track of social conscience of public health and of innovation and growth in our economy. The third thing that we are going to endorse and focus on is smart active policies not the flat Earth brain-dead approach of the National and ACT parties which think that the market will deliver this country into the future.  
Every successful nation around this world has had smart active policies and that is what we have set about putting in place for the last 3 years and we will do so not just for the three terms of Government that the Leader of the Opposition Mr Bill English talked about but for four five and six terms of Government and we will be really humming then.  
We now have an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent. That is the best unemployment rate that this country has seen since 1988 and it is because we have smart active policies. We are prepared to make the calls when necessary. The unfortunate thing about that low level of unemployment is that we have exposed once again some skill shortages throughout this country. That is because the National-ACT Government and New Zealand First throughout that period did not acknowledge— 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. We have had previous rulings on that. The member referred to the National-ACT Government. That is factually wrong. There has never been a National - ACT Government. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No that is a point of debate. 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I acknowledge that. There never will be an ACT Government. The National Government supported by ACT thought that the market was going to deliver the skills in industry. Well it failed and now we are having to put back in place one of the things most appreciated by the electorate and that is a Modern Apprenticeships scheme. We have been proactive and by the end of this year we will have put 6000 people into skills training.  
In health we are going to invest the best part of $3 billion of extra money in health services up and down this country. We will not answer every single health ailment and challenge that this country can throw up but we will be a long way further ahead than we would have been under the National Government supported by ACT. For years and years—in fact probably for centuries—we have heard that prevention is better than cure. It is such a simple saying. We all understand the value in it but no one had ever done it in health until we came along.  
Hon Ken Shirley 
: Oh for goodness’sake. 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: One of the first things we did was put in place a primary health - care strategy. I say to the Hon Ken Shirley that he had the opportunity in cooperation with the National Party to put in place a primary health-care strategy. Did he do it? No he did not. Did the National Government do it? No it did not. Did we do it? Yes we did. We have put in place a primary health-care strategy that says that the first point of contact for any New Zealander is with a primary health-care provider and that is often the best way of preventing far more complex and expensive health outcomes down the track. Prevention is better than cure. We should get in with the general practitioners and the nurses. We should get out there and try to encourage and support those people. That is what we did in rural primary services.  
John Carter 
: What about Kaitaia? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: We are spending $400 million on primary health-care and in rural primary health-care we are spending $32 million to help Mr Carter get general practitioners and nurses in the far north. Yes we are doing that. We are giving them better rosters. We are paying money to them and acknowledging the extra pressures they have been put under. Did Mr Carter do that? No he did not.  
Not only in health but also in education of course we have made a huge commitment to shift from a philosophy of competition delivering education to every New Zealander. What a bizarre theory. For many years we have understood that cooperation between schools between officials and between parents has enabled most New Zealanders to make good gains in education. However the competitive model brought in by the previous Government saw division. It saw some schools getting better resources while some schools were starved of resources and we were heading backwards. The National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) is a somewhat controversial concept but we are going to implement it. Most thinking principals and thinking teachers—which most of them are thankfully—understand the value of the NCEA. It will be in place with support measures from the Ministry of Education. Schools and teachers will not be cast out on their own to look after themselves as happened under the previous Government. We will do central purchasing. We will have property management. We will do all of those things to take some of the pressure off teachers.  
Of course we have to pay for all of that. So where do we get the money from? Well the rural sector is in the healthiest state that we have seen for many many decades. The National Party is the so-called champion of the farmers but it failed and farmers delivered the National Government a clear message: “We don’t want you. We’ll support Labour.” If we have a look at the votes farmers voted for us and we have delivered. We have seen growth in the agriculture horticulture forestry and fishing sectors. All those primary sectors are booming and are grateful for the attention that this Government has paid to them.  
Mr Hide from the ACT party has claimed that the West Coast is down and out. I can tell the House that we are doing very well. This debate has exposed a couple of things in this country: first that we have a strong visionary Government; second that the National Party is a dinosaur—it is down and out. I imagine that attending a National Party caucus must be a bit like going back to an old school reunion—people hang around thinking they have something in common they talk about it for a couple of days then they realise that that was in the past and they have to move on with their lives. That is exactly what Gerry Brownlee and Don Brash are doing. What are Nick Smith and Maurice Williamson doing? Maurice Williamson is getting on with his life. The heart and soul of the National Party is long gone along with the spirit that one thinks might be recaptured when one goes back to an old school reunion. It just cannot happen and one has to move on.  
I also have to comment on the ACT party. It is trying to be the party of Opposition. It is the party of principle—so we hear. It is the party that was outraged by one of its members going to a fashion show in Sydney. Among other things of course she went to a fashion show in Sydney. The leader of ACT said: “I would never have given her leave. Absolutely not.” However he was quite prepared to give leave to Mr Rodney Hide to attend a conference of fraudsters and con artists in Fiji. What did the leader of ACT say then? He did not say a thing.  
ACT is the so-called party of principle but if we have a look at ACT Richard Prebble no longer has any credibility. Let us have a look at rail. Richard Prebble said that he had to save rail from the inadequacies of the workers. Do members know what we are facing now? We are having to salvage rail from the excesses of the bosses. Richard Prebble has not saved anything. This Government is strong and we will lead this country for a long time into the future.