Robertson Grant: General Debate 
Robertson Grant: General Debate 
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GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I do not know about unclogging arteries but I am sure we all had to unclog our ears after Mr Guy’s contribution. He talked about the importance of connecting with New Zealanders and certainly on this side of the House we are connecting with New Zealanders every day who are concerned about the increase in the cost of living. We are connecting with New Zealanders every day who are seeing their power prices rise and their rents and their rates going up. We are connecting with New Zealanders who are struggling with increased accident compensation charges. We are connecting with New Zealanders who know that this Budget will not deliver to them a better life. This Budget will not deliver to them a fairer New Zealand. 
This Budget is a tax swindle. This Budget is taking away from the many to give to the few. It is quite clear that the National Government is prepared to borrow for tax cuts; well that is fine. But if we are going to borrow money should we not be borrowing it to invest in our future? What could be more important to our future than early childhood education? 
Paul Quinn 
: You made this speech yesterday! 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: I will make this point everywhere in New Zealand if the costs of early childhood education are going up. Mr Quinn does not think that is important. I challenge Mr Quinn to go to any early childhood education centre in New Zealand and face up to the fact that the priority for his Government is tax cuts for the wealthy instead of quality early childhood education. That is the choice this National Government has made. It has prioritised tax cuts for the wealthy over quality accessible early childhood education. Every member on that side of the House needs to go to early childhood education centres around the country and face up to the parents and to the families who will now be paying $50 a week more in bills and that is on top of GST. If a person in Wellington who is on a low income tries to take a bus into town he or she will find that there is a 50c increase in the cost. There is GST on everything such as power bills. I received my power bill in my letterbox the other day along with a letter from my power company which said that my power bill will be going up. Well I have been lucky enough to get a tax cut. What about the people who have not been so lucky? That letter tells everyone in Wellington the reason for the increase; it is the Government. The letter actually said that it is the Government that is the cause of the increase. The Government is the cause of the increase in the cost of living because it has produced an unfair Budget. 
I cannot finish my contribution today without referring to Mr Finlayson’s words earlier on about the arts community. Mr Finlayson has clearly been looking in the mirror rather a lot for his feedback when it comes to the arts community. Every person I meet in the arts community knows that in the 1990s it was the National Government that undid all of the work in the arts and we needed a cultural recovery package. Every single person in the arts community knows what Helen Clark did for arts in New Zealand. If I can paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen from a vice-presidential debate I say to Mr Finlayson that I know Helen Clark and he is no Helen Clark. 
The Labour Party believes in a balanced economy. We believe in the importance of investing in jobs investing in sustainable jobs and investing in high-tech jobs. We believe in making sure that there is a future for all New Zealanders. We know that we will succeed in keeping New Zealanders in this country only if we invest in jobs. This is not about tax cuts. If we want people to stay in New Zealand and not go to Australia it is about improving wages. It is about making sure that we invest in skills and in training and in developing our economy so that it is sustainable for the future. That is how we will be able to deliver good proper social programmes. It will not come from a short-term approach that is driven by tax cuts for the few and price rises for the many. That is what we are seeing in this country. We are seeing time and time again from National an erosion of democracy a taking away of people’s rights in Auckland and in Canterbury at the same time as the Government is not focused on the issues that matter for New Zealand. 
Members on that side of the House are focused on making personal attacks such as the personal attacks from Mr Finlayson. I say to Mr Finlayson that that is not how to connect with New Zealanders. Connecting with New Zealanders is having the realisation that that member’s Government is putting up the cost of living for every single hard-working family in New Zealand. Mr Finlayson might not care about power prices going up by a few dollars and he might not care about early childhood education cuts but he needs to know that real New Zealanders care. Real New Zealanders know that his Government is making sure that their lives are getting harder and we will challenge this Government every day in this House on that.