Brownlee Gerry: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Brownlee Gerry: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises 
[Sitting date: 10 June 2003. Volume:609;Page:6116. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (NZ National—Ilam) 
: 
 It has always been a mystery to me why the previous speaker was not made a Minister in the current Government. I have watched his performance in select committees and watched him as a local member and I have always thought he was a man earmarked for the ministry—until I heard that speech tonight. Now I know that he is a member living totally in the past. I will come back to him and some of his silly comments in a few moments. 
But first I congratulate Mr Rodney Hide on the comments he made to the House this evening. How many people in New Zealand remember the very pious Speech from the Throne just a few years ago when the Rt Hon Helen Clark said: “We will set new standards of accountability in Government.”? Who could possibly have known that she was talking about Parekura Horomia and the way he has conducted the Maori affairs portfolio? What an absolute disgrace we have seen in the last couple of weeks as revelations have been made in Parliament by the Hon Murray McCully from National and Mr Rodney Hide from the ACT party. They are two people who have assiduously looked at a huge body of Government spending and found the worst kind of graft and the worst kind of corruption that this country has ever seen operating inside that portfolio. The Minister the Hon Parekura Horomia knowing that he has misled Parliament and that he has dishonestly answered questions from parliamentarians legitimately offered— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: No that is out of order. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I apologise for using the words “dishonestly answered” and simply say that he knows he has been most reckless with the truth in answering questions lodged by parliamentarians He is still refusing to correct the position he has tried to portray to Parliament. It is an absolute disgrace and an indictment on Helen Clark and her Government that ultimately will see their fall. 
I want to talk about State-owned enterprises tonight but I will return for a moment to some of the incredible comments made in Parliament tonight by members of the Government. Mr Peck talked with some passion about health. He said that we cannot have this idea that there can be any business side to health because at the end of the day delivery of health is about services for the people. Well I want Clayton Cosgrove to stand up and tell the people of Christchurch—the 10000 people who got written off the waiting list just a couple of weeks ago—how much service this Government’s health system is delivering to them. It is nil for those people. People who have serious complaints and life-threatening complaints have been the recipients of letters orchestrated by Mr Peck Annette King and Helen Clark in the name of a public sort of “holding on to the asset” and have been written off the waiting list. They have been told that they do not have a condition and to go back to their general practitioner have a few more Disprin and call medical staff in the morning. That is what the Labour Party thinks health is all about. 
I tell members that we on this side of the House are a bit smarter than that. We know that health is about delivering service. I have to ask every member in this House that if they were run over on the road tonight or if they have an issue concerning the health service that they need to deal with do they truly care who pays for it? As long as someone does not have his or her hand in their pockets and as long as they get their treatment are they not better off? Or will they simply be patched up with a few Elastoplasts given a packet of Disprin and sent home to die? That is what this Government thinks is the best system for New Zealanders. 
All bodies that have an interest in health—the drug suppliers the doctors and the people who sell the high-priced equipment we need in our health system—are treated as businesses. But somehow when it comes to the $8 billion that the Government puts up that is not the case. Health is left up to a bunch of hobbyists who get themselves elected on to district health boards. Well that is not good enough for New Zealanders and it is not something I will ever subscribe to. The public system can survive in this country but it must have a greater capacity to respond to patient needs than the current Government is prepared to let it have. 
I want to move on to the ridiculous comments made by that fellow from the Progressive party—the former Minister the Hon Matt Robson who sits at the back of the House. He said that we are about to end a period of mantra on State-owned enterprises; we are about to end a period when we say that private good is better than public good. What is his justification for that? Well apparently the justification is the Government’s decision to put $190 million into a private company turn it into a monopoly and tell New Zealanders that the Government has saved rail. That is what this Government has done. It has put up $190 million. That member stood here and said that the Government bought the tracks for $1 with a $500 million liability on them. He then said the Government will guarantee that only one company can use them for 60 years and will guarantee that the company will be profitable. Does that not send the message out there to anybody who enters into business in this country that as long as they are hopeless at it the Government will be there to pick them up? That is a recipe for a basket case South American - style economy that we are rapidly heading towards. 
Then that member came into the House brought out his Kiwibank credit card and said: “Isn’t it wonderful that I can get myself into huge levels of debt? But don’t worry the Government bank is going to charge you only 12.5 percent.” Well here is a question for Mr Robson: where does Kiwibank offset its lending obligations? Where does it take its deposit money and invest it? Do members know? Kiwibank uses the same mix as every other bank. New Zealand dollars are invested off shore to protect funds in this country. Mr Robson talked about a 12.5 percent interest rate. Well let us talk about the unprofitability of that bank and ask ourselves when hard-working taxpayers will get some dividend from the $100 million that they have put into this bank. It is middle New Zealand who are paying for it—people who have jobs. It is the father of the house the main breadwinner maybe or the mother of the house might be the main breadwinner. Couples in this country the vast majority of whom have two three or four kids pay their way on everything. They get nothing from the Government. 
They are the same people whose pockets this Government has stuck its hands into and said: “Let’s invest our money in the profit guarantee of Tranz Rail. Let’s put our hands in the taxpayers’ pockets and guarantee the profitability of an organisation like Air New Zealand. Let’s put our hands in their pockets and charge them a bit more in tax then give them a health system that does not deliver service. And then let’s put our hands further in their pockets and take out some money to invest in a bank that they will never get any benefit from in order that other New Zealanders can go into debt and only have to pay an interest rate of 12.5 percent.” 
Our speaking times in this debate are too short. I wanted to speak about the other great disgrace in this country—the proposal to set up an electricity commission; a commission that supposedly will make electricity generation in this country suddenly go a lot further. Suddenly we are to have a chunk of it that we will never use and it will cost us all $200 million a year. This Government’s answer is simply to put its hand in the pockets of hard-working New Zealanders take more of the money that they work hard to earn and then put a line across them that is utter spin that says: “We care and we are looking after you.” 
This country will be well and truly ready for a National Government within the next short while. I tell people like Darren Hughes David Benson-Pope and the member for Taupo that they will be gone. I tell John Tamihere that if he wants to continue in his political career then he should not sit too close to Parekura “Mr Corruption” Horomia. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: That is out of order. The member will withdraw and apologise. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I withdraw and apologise. I will finish my speech by saying to members opposite that they should not sit too close to a Minister who has no idea where truth begins and lies end. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE (NZ Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 Is it any wonder that Gerry Brownlee will never become leader of the National Party after that speech. We have heard from the heavyweights from the Opposition tonight have we not? We have heard from Mr Brownlee and Mr Hide and talking about Tranz Rail the human locomotives—the big guns—from the National Party have been put up. Instead of hearing from the Opposition spokesperson on finance or perhaps from a commerce spokesperson we heard from some insignificant person—the Peggy Bundy from Kaikoura—who is the Opposition spokesperson on health. But we heard from “spongy pud” of course—Rodney Hide. At no time have either of those parties put up a State-owned enterprises policy. I have made a couple of speeches in this House in which I have relished the opportunity— 
Rodney Hide 
: How’s the hair transplant? 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: They cannot hack it. Those two old bulldogs those two old has-beens could not get 7 percent if they tried. They both know that Deborah Coddington is on the way. She is writing her victory speech in the UK on full pay on taxpayers’ funds—which I am sure Mr Hide might want to investigate—while on a Qantas media scholarship. The two old bulldogs have had their day. 
I have talked in my speeches about the stark contrasts between us and them. I have done it a number of times. This is another opportunity and I relish it. That group of ACT and National members are the economic vandals of the 1990s. They are the wreckers and the destroyers. One of those members sitting over there Mr Prebble is the man who maintains today—and I wish he would keep saying it—that he saved rail. Today this Government with 70 percent support in this country has actually done that. 
When we ask the National Party what its policy is on State-owned enterprises—because one would think that a party floundering on 21 percent and ACT which is floundering on 7 percent or 5 percent or 4 percent would want to explain and articulate to the people of New Zealand their policy on State-owned enterprises—what do we get from National and from ACT? We get zip; nothing. 
Rodney Hide 
: Sell them. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: He says “Sell them.” I hope the  
Hansard 
 people are writing that down. That will be on my campaign pamphlet for the next election. I hope they tell the people of New Zealand every day that they want to sell assets. At least Mr Hide and Mr Prebble are upfront. I will give them that. 
When National Party members were asked today whether they would sell the Tranz Rail track Rail Co—or the State-owned enterprise that it will be—hospitals the Accident Compensation Corporation or schools they said they did not know. What they are really saying is that they will try to hoodwink the public. They know. 
R Doug Woolerton 
: Of course they do. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Mr Woolerton is right. Those members know that as soon as they get on the Treasury benches—although that will not happen for many many years—they will flog off the lot. The people of New Zealand actually rejected that policy twice but the National Party continues to pursue it. 
I want to touch on a couple of issues that Mr Hide raised. One has to give him credit for trying. Mr Hide talked about the need for MPs to come down to this House and apologise when they have got it wrong; the need for MPs to have integrity; and the need for MPs to put the record straight. I say to that member that he has never done it in respect of his own personal conduct. He attacked my colleague the member for West Coast - Tasman when he raised the infamous Fiji deal that Mr Hide was involved in when hundreds of New Zealanders lost millions of dollars. But what did Mr Hide do? He did nothing. Did he come down here—[ 
Interruption 
] No no this is relevant; Mr Hide raised the issue. Did he come down here correct the record and show some integrity? No he did not—not once. He will never live that down. 
He also talks about the wastage of taxpayers’ money; he talks about rorts. I ask that member to remember a $110000 rort in respect of Donna Awatere Huata’s vote. Do members remember the half a million-dollar rort—and we are still counting; the Pipitea Street rort? Do they remember Fiji? I ask Mr Hide what he did after the Speaker’s trip. Who paid for his trip to Albania and what did he do? Mr Hide criticises people for overseas travel but at least our people go overseas to advance our country and maybe learn something—not line their pockets or suck up to their rich mates to get their next instructions for the next election. I am aghast that Mr Hide can get up and talk about rorts. I invite him to correct the record and talk about some of his personal actions which he never does. 
I turn to a State-owned enterprise that Dr Cullen touched on—Landcorp. Landcorp is a very interesting State-owned enterprise. It made a record profit of $38.4 million. When I was a fledgling member of the Primary Production Committee we were hosted by Landcorp for a briefing. A number of the board members said to us that they were pleased we had come into Government because now they could put strategies in place to grow they could increase their profit and they could put in place long-term business strategies. They knew— 
R Doug Woolerton 
: That’s right. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Mr Woolerton was there and he backs me on this matter. They knew Landcorp was not going to be sold off. Landcorp had been told by our Minister and our Government that it was now a strategic asset. But it could not grow its business under the National Party because it was always ready for the sale axe to drop. It knew that at any time it could be sold off. This company is one of our biggest contributors to agriculture and one of our most profitable State-owned enterprises. I think it is a jewel in the Crown of the State-owned enterprise asset range and we are custodians of those State-owned enterprises. I think people are proud that these assets are making money for taxpayers. As I said at the start of my speech this is an example of a party in Government that is a builder and a doer not a wrecker and a vandal as we have heard from the other side. 
Debate interrupted.