Ardern Shane: General Debates 
Ardern Shane: General Debates 
[Volume:607;Page:4214] 
SHANE ARDERN (NZ National—Taranaki - King Country) 
: 
 Never before in the history of New Zealand politics has there been so little delivered by a Government that had so much. If members want an example of that they should go back to the speech made by the Prime Minister at the beginning of this parliamentary session on 11 February. She told the media before she gave the speech that it would be boring. A Prime Minister who had overwhelmingly won her second mandate in an electoral process in a democratic society told the media that her speech at the opening of this session of Parliament would be boring—and she was dead right! Her own colleagues struggled to keep their eyes open for the duration of the speech when they were supposed to be attentive. 
Never before has there been a Government that has had so much going for it. Never in my farming career which is now 25 years old have I seen the stars of high commodity prices around the world of favourable weather conditions of favourable interest rates and of favourable exchange rates line up in the way that they have. Despite the Government that is what has happened. The Government has had all of that income. I have to say that the sunny weather is over. The golden weather for this Government is now over and it will have to start to front up. In the speech made by the Prime Minister which she had told the media would be boring she never referred to the chook that has laid the golden egg—that is agriculture. Not once did she refer to the industry that has helped this Government so much. 
There is an expectation in society that Labour Governments deliver on social issues. There is an expectation that we will get a Labour Government from time to time—God forbid—and that when we do get it it will deliver in the social area. What have we had so far from this Government? We have certainly had no delivery in the social area. If members look at what has happened in that particular area they will see that child poverty has gone up. Who would have credited it with the best economic circumstances in a generation and with a Labour Government running the country in its second term? How could it be? How could the Government mismanage the only area where it has expertise? And when it comes to expertise Labour’s certainly is not broad. If we look at the front bench we see that it is mainly made up of academics teachers and people from a social services background. 
In the area where the Government has expertise in the area where we would expect it to deliver what do we have? Child poverty has gone up. What has happened in the area of housing? We have unprecedented waiting lists for State houses. People are trapped in poverty traps such as we have never seen in the history of this country. We would have to go back well before my time way back to the 1930s to find a time when as many people were dependent on the State and were totally locked into that and could not get out. The reality is that there are people from within the Government’s own ranks who know this. The Hon John Tamihere said so. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Who? 
SHANE ARDERN 
: The Minister who is heckling from the other side of the House would do well to listen to what John Tamihere has to say. Some of what he has to say makes a lot of sense. I suspect that Minister over there actually knows it but will he do anything about it? Never in your life! 
Members should look at what has happened in the health sector. They should look at the situation at Taranaki Healthcare where two chief executives are being paid quarter of a million dollars. 
Jill Pettis 
: Who appointed the board for a second time? 
SHANE ARDERN 
: The member for Whanganui is bleating over on the other side of the House. The fact is the chief executive who was there was laid off while he was away on his honeymoon and to this day the claims against him have not been substantiated. He is on $250000 a year plus another one is flying in from Christchurch once a week at a cost of $1000 a week for travel and accommodation. My secretaries are asking for more time so that they can handle the flood of people queuing up outside my offices because they cannot get good health-care in Taranaki - King Country.