Newman Muriel: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Newman Muriel: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:606;Page:3300] 
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN (ACT NZ) 
: 
 The Prime Minister’s speech was big on rhetoric and spin but very short on substance. There was no vision no strategy and no programme to lift the fortunes of working New Zealand families. Today this “credit card” Prime Minister presented a jumble of ad hoc initiatives designed to buy off voters. Labour has identified over 1 million New Zealanders as potential supposed supporters and its goal is simply to seduce them into supporting its socialist agenda—removing asset testing to keep the superannuitants happy; changes in tertiary education to hook in the students; promises of greater support for beneficiaries; and a raft of initiatives to retain the Maori vote such as Maori television introducing race-based funding in health and strengthening the treaty. The Prime Minister announced new spending on the arts to keep her friends happy. Changes are signalled to keep Labour’s paid activists the unions happy as well. There were even sweeteners for the parties that Labour relies on for support—the radical Greens the lapdog United party the has-been Jim Anderton’s Progressive Coalition—with initiatives that are designed not to improve the country but to ensure that Labour stays in power because power is the only goal of the Labour Party as it takes New Zealand to the left.  
In her speech the Prime Minister takes credit for growing the economy but she forgets to mention that growth was export-led after the dollar fell when Labour took office back in 1999. It is now buoyed up by immigration and consumer spending not by good management. Since Labour has been in power the costs on small business have escalated. In spite of all the empty rhetoric about cutting red tape Labour has been responsible for introducing more than 20 new taxes charges and levies that along with the industrial relations law changes have increased the costs on small business by almost $30000 a year. Meanwhile workplace stoppages have risen from 9000 days lost in the year 2001 to 55000 days lost last year. What is that doing to increase the economy and help productivity? The Resource Management Act is being ignored by Labour—in fact Labour is making it worse—and meanwhile it is damaging thousands of businesses every day and costing the country billions and billions of dollars in lost opportunity. Jim Anderton’s corporate welfare machine dishes out hundreds of millions of dollars every year to mates of the Government cementing cronyism into New Zealand’s culture and damaging competition and our free market which are the real drivers of economic growth.  
The ACT party believes that the Government is absolutely nuts not to put a bonfire under regulations and red tape that hold back small business. Small business is the engine room of any economy and freeing up small business from those constraints enabling it to be more productive and more profitable should be the absolute priority of any responsible democratic Government. But I forgot: this is not a democratic Government really; this is a socialist Government. It wants greater control to nationalise industries regulate businesses and tax everyone to the hilt. 
 It is absolutely inexcusable—in fact it is despicable—that after 3 years of a Labour Government the wages of working families have fallen. In spite of the so-called great economic conditions New Zealand’s average net wage has fallen. Families are struggling. They are working harder and they are going backwards. In fact Labour has turned its back on working families. ACT says that is wrong. The Government should reward workers for their efforts not penalise them. That is why ACT stands for lower taxes. That is why as a party we see lower taxes as a key to economic growth. Lower personal and business taxes would give New Zealand businesses a competitive advantage and lift us onto a path to prosperity. It is the sort of stuff that Labour talks about but does not do.  
I listened to the Prime Minister’s statement and I noted her gloating about the unemployment rate. I challenge the Prime Minister to explain to the nation how she can claim employment success when the measure that she uses—the household labour force survey—identifies 5600 people who have been on the unemployment benefit for more than 2 years but information from her own Minister’s office shows not 5600 people on the dole for more than 2 years but 42000. How can she claim that the figure is 5600 when obviously that measure does not count 37000 real people who have been on a benefit for more than 2 years? In fact if we look at the whole welfare area we see that right now there are reports from moteliers that they cannot find cleaners. They cannot find people to come and clean for them at a time when 400000 people are receiving welfare support. Thirty years ago there were 28 working New Zealanders for every one person on a full-time benefit. Today that ratio has gone to four working New Zealanders to every one person on a full-time benefit. Not only is that figure unsustainable it is a sign of the abject failure of our welfare system and the failure of a Government that has gone soft on welfare. This Government has put in place laws to expand the welfare State. Government forecasts show that within 4 years almost 30000 more people will move onto welfare benefits. So rather than doing what other Western nations are doing which is to reduce dependency on the State this Government is doing the opposite. It is incentivising welfare dependency and it is growing its block of voters.  
What this Government is doing is absolutely immoral and that is why the ACT party has opposed relaxing requirements for the domestic purposes benefit—a move I have to say that was supported by United Future. ACT opposes that move because on its own it will mean that an additional 1000 families who at the moment are not on the domestic purposes benefit will move onto the domestic purposes benefit each and every year. There will be 1000 extra sole parent families a year. Most people do not know that New Zealand already leads the OECD in sole parent families. In New Zealand 29 percent of all families with children are sole parent families. That means that 230000 children live in families with only one parent at a time when all the evidence tells us that children who live in sole parent families fail to do as well in all areas of life as children who live in families where two parents are supporting them.  
Last week the OECD came out with a report that depicted a devastating picture of life for young New Zealanders whose rates of juvenile crime youth suicide and cannabis abuse are the highest in the developed world and whose rate of teenage births is the third highest. I say to this Government and the parties that support it that until New Zealand has a commitment to welfare reform those statistics will get worse and this Government will be there helping those statistics to get worse. That is simply not good enough. Members of the ACT party have been advocating welfare reform since we first entered the New Zealand Parliament. I have to say how pleased we are to see that the National Party is now supporting us. It is absolutely disgraceful that Labour has an agenda that is going to make the problem worse and as a result will damage more and more New Zealand children every single year. Those OECD statistics will get worse because family breakdown is at the heart of the problem. Labour can throw all the money it likes at the symptoms but until it addresses the issue of family breakdown the kids of New Zealand will continue to suffer. Labour members can shout and yell but they know that I am absolutely right.  
Welfare reform should be a national priority. When in years to come the parties in this Parliament look at the figures they will rue the day that they put in place policies that made the problem worse so that New Zealand will lead nations in the Western World in negative statistics for children. That is simply not good enough. Welfare reform is at the heart of helping vulnerable families in New Zealand to succeed and have the chance of a better life. Under this Government they are being condemned to failure.