Chadwick Steve: General Debate 
Chadwick Steve: General Debate 
[Volume:639;Page:9057] 
STEVE CHADWICK (Labour—Rotorua) 
: 
 What a tragic spectacle Opposition members have been today. They have been looking over the Ditch lustfully at how much more money people earn over in Australia and how much better conditions are there. Things that are happening in New Zealand today must drive Opposition members absolutely crazy. 
Out of the 10 new priorities that John Key announced last weekend not one of them is new. We heard about a sensible spending track. Let us go back to the sensible spending track of the 1990s when numbers of nurses and doctors were cut when hospitals were being closed down and when little hospitals like the one at Taupo had hands around the hospital from the entire community. This Government announced just last week that we are spending $25 million to rebuild Taupo Hospital. I ask members to remind themselves of some of those things when we talk about a sensible spending track. 
We then heard about regulatory reform. I wonder whether members opposite are aware of the work that the Minister of Commerce is doing about regulatory review in small businesses. Ministry officials are going around the small-business community of New Zealand getting the ideas and implementing the ideas of those working parties—today; it is going on now. So we wonder what National members will actually deliver on rather than announcing the rhetoric of 10 big promises. 
Tax reform was another one mentioned. Well people should wait for the Budget next week. All sorts of work is going on regarding tax reform with the Hon Peter Dunne and Michael Cullen. Some things are driving Opposition members crazy because they are under way now. Poor old Nick Smith thought he had got climate change right. He was gazumped just this week by David Parker who has brought out an actual carbon trading regime and is not just talking about it. That has been given a time frame. 
Other things that are happening are the unemployment trends where rates of unemployment have been down consistently since 1999. This must drive the Opposition members absolutely crazy because they are the real things that are happening. They are measured too by measures for unemployment. They are going on now. 
Today we heard the member Judith Collins talking about sickness and invalids benefits. She beat up on them and blamed the doctors for not properly managing those clients. She implied that doctors are signing sickness beneficiary forms incorrectly. That is simply appalling! To beat up on the doctors is not a good look for the Opposition. 
I will talk about the debate on section 59 of the Crimes Act we had last week. We heard such cant and rhetoric from the Opposition—and it was not missed by New Zealand women voters. The Opposition has been working quite hard to find out how to get the votes of women but we women will always remember the words of Judith Collins: “I ask the people in the Labour Government who are shouting out whether they were ever smacked as a child. Were their parents criminals? I tell them that my parents are not criminals and I am not a criminal. I smacked my child and I am … proud of it …”. 
Jill Pettis 
: Who said that? 
STEVE CHADWICK 
: It was Judith Collins. She is one of the women who is now very unhappy with the decision of John Key. Without consulting Judith Collins—in fact without consulting any of the National caucus members—John Key made what was quite a pragmatic decision. But it is always very good to ask one’s colleagues whether they are walking with one. 
So we are seeing some real splits and divisions in the Opposition—especially when Bill English knows that this has probably lost the Opposition the chance of a good run at the election next year. He knows about pragmatic politics. He knows about politics and he knows that National Party members are not happy that this deal was done. 
Members of that party are certainly not happy. We heard about Paula Bennett flip-flopping away—and women notice that too. Her charade of consulting her community when she came under pressure was not a good look. Then at the last minute she caved in. I admire Katherine Rich; she did not cave in. 
Poor old Colin King spoke about the amendment that National members were having to support collectively and that they had been whipped into supporting. For all that those members told Labour members that we were whipped we knew our minds and had made them up as a party much earlier and we stuck to our guns the whole way through. Colin King said it was a hollow victory for National and that people could say that National members had sold their souls. After John Key tried to claim all the credit Colin King described the debate on the amendment as pontificating and ego-stroking about achievement.