Horan Brendan: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHoran Brendan: General Debate[Sitting date: 23 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14204. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BRENDAN HORAN (Independent): I rise to speak on the great city that is Tauranga. I wonder how with two sitting Ministers Tauranga’s national standing and reputation could be so diminished under their tenure. Look at the recent council elections where national media covered changes in Auckland Christchurch Wellington and Hamilton with front-page news but there was barely a murmur of Tauranga the country’s No. 1 export province.How can it be with two sitting Ministers one of whom is the Minister of Energy and Resources that Tauranga householders pay 15 percent above the national average for their electricity? How can it be that Tauranga ratepayers are saddled with a $60 million noose incurring additional daily interest in excess of $10000 per day for Route K—Route K being the road that should be a State highway as it connects directly to the port? Why has that not been handed over to the New Zealand Transport Agency? Are we going to wait until just before the election?How can it be that despite having the Minister of Health as a local member 11 and 12-year-olds are made to wait over 9 months for an appointment with an ear nose and throat specialist at Tauranga Hospital? Schools such as Mount Maunganui College not 15 minutes from Tauranga Hospital have to wait many hours and sometimes overnight for medical specimens and smears to be transported to Tauranga Hospital when the international standard is under 2 hours.How can it be that the rotting festering carcass of theRena is still on Astrolabe Reef still polluting our waters and even worse still sending a message to offshore companies with deep pockets that it is OK to come and pollute our pristine waters? This Government is continuing to demonstrate that it cannot even remove a boat off a rock and yet it is ready to risk the total devastation of our coastline by allowing deep-water drilling not only to depths of 3000 metres but—chuck in—in earthquake-prone areas as well. How can that be?How can it be that the Port of Tauranga is storing a highly toxic and dangerous chemical the oil dispersant Corexit? It is time that this Government put people first not profit.I will also speak on bullying because it appears to be rife in New Zealand. Bullying is a virus and has wheedled its way into our daily lives. Here are just a few real examples of bullying in Tauranga. A young woman came into my electorate office suicidal. After a year of trying to service a bank debt by paying $50 per week that debt had blown out from $27000 to $56000 solely due to the fees charged by the bank in giving it to their collection agency—corporate bullying.A young man on the benefit approached me after his power had been cut off. Even after setting a repayment regime with the power company through Work and Income New Zealand that power company was then refusing to reconnect him saying that in order to reconnect him it would treat him as a new customer and subject him to a credit check which he would fail—bureaucratic immoral bullying against the disadvantaged.I know of a law firm that sent people to the bedside of a terminally ill patient in Tauranga Hospital and changed her will just 2 hours before she was due to have a life-saving operation. She thought she was signing operation consent forms not signing a change to her will. So here we have lawyers complicit in the bullying of the elderly and the vulnerable.I am not going to name all of these firms because they deserve a chance to truly put things right. I hope they hear this and do the right thing. But this bullying and unfair treatment of our people must stop. Look at ACC with its standard line: “That’s not an injury. It’s degeneration.” That is systematic bullying of the injured and vulnerable. The average Kiwi believes in fairness and we should not tolerate unfair behaviour.Parliament has its own bully-boy one whose behaviour was publicly recorded only weeks ago when two young staff members—two highly competent researchers—were unjustifiably dismissed without notice. And instead of fighting for what is right that member’s caucus sadly is so browbeaten and bullied into submission that it uttered not a word not a murmur not a syllable not a sound. Instead it took a 21-year-old board member of that party to stand up and speak truth to power—truth to power—in defence of these promising young men who were wronged.I believe we need to stop bullies in their tracks. We are after all a nation that believes in giving people a fair go. New Zealand prides itself on being an egalitarian society and we should not accept bullying from any Government any business any political figure or any individual.