Key John: Appropriation (2005/06 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Key John: Appropriation (2005/06 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:627;Page:22225] 
JOHN KEY (National—Helensville) 
: 
 That was the Hon Trevor Mallard—the Minister for muckraking. When the going gets tough around Labour it does not roll out the intellectual giants. We do not see Helen Clark or Michael Cullen; we see the shin kicker who is put in to try to roll out the mess. It is very interesting. 
We are in the appropriation debate that started with Michael Cullen reading his sixth Budget in the House. That is the last time we saw Michael Cullen anywhere around that Budget because it was so soundly rejected and trounced by the public of New Zealand that Labour cannot afford to roll out Michael Cullen any more. He is persona non grata. The Government has sent the Minister of Welfare for the tax debate and the shin kicker for the appropriations debate. We do not see Michael Cullen anywhere around anything economic. In fact we are struggling to believe that we will see him in any of the debates on the hustings because when the public see Michael Cullen and they leap back to economics they will think only of Budget 2005. They will think of receiving 67c in 3 years’ time and will ask whether that is as good as it gets after 6 long years of Labour. They will have to wait 9 years to get anything and that is not good enough. 
Yesterday we saw something quite remarkable that relates to the appropriation debate. Trevor Mallard the muckraker could not help himself from continuing the previous roll he was on and he launched into a press release attacking Westpac. He went after Westpac in one of the most vicious attacks that a Minister of the Crown has ever bothered to mete out to the financial markets. He did that not because Westpac’s data was wrong; or the numbers in Brendan O’Donovan’s report were wrong—that the student loan policy will not cost $300 million per year; it will actually cost $1 billion per year—or the amount of debt on the New Zealand balance sheet will not rise from the current situation which is about $35 billion to about $47 billion in the next 10 years; or the Government will not have to write off $1.7 billion from its net worth in about 18 months’ time. It was not for any of those reasons. He attacked Brendan O’Donovan and Westpac because he did not like somebody who was independent of the Government actually calling it the way it was. 
Trevor Mallard’s press release was backed up by the Prime Minister of this country which was nothing short of disgraceful. It was an attempt to intimidate those who seek to challenge economic analysis and data from an independent non-political non-partisan basis. The message from the Government to such analysts was to not go there or the Government would mess them up in a very untidy fashion. That has been noted by analysts around the country who have said that they will not be intimidated by a bully boy like Trevor Mallard because there is no place in New Zealand’s economic debate for that behaviour. 
We saw something quite remarkable today. On the back of the document from Brendan O’Donovan of Westpac the most ridiculous and most intimidating press release that we have seen from a Minister of the Crown for quite some time—Trevor Mallard—and some very inappropriate statements from a Prime Minister of this country a second bank came out and said that it would not be intimidated by Labour. That was the message. That bank came out and backed another bank that is its competitor. The message was that it would not be subject to stand-over tactics by Trevor Mallard and that the Government’s numbers were wrong. 
This Government is trying to feed the people of New Zealand nothing short of a mistruth which is quite wrong. The banks stood up stood their ground and were backed by the financial markets. I say: “Good on them!” for having the guts to stand up to Trevor Mallard who is trying to intimidate independent commentary in this country. This is nothing short of a police State when Ministers of the Crown start acting in that way. My prediction is that Trevor Mallard will live to rue the day he did that because when those numbers come back to haunt the Government—if it ever gets a chance to roll that policy out—it will know what weak ground it is on. I am very surprised indeed that Trevor Mallard who is known to have stooped to some pretty low territory and who is down in the sewer at the best of times has managed to get under the sewer pipes. That is how bad it has become for Labour. 
Today we saw Phil Goff come down to the Chamber and launch his leadership bid. That is what he was doing in the House this afternoon. There was not one skerrick of truth in what Phil Goff was saying. He does not have the guts to— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member cannot refer to a member’s lack of courage. The member will apologise. 
JOHN KEY 
: I apologise. He did not have the fortitude to come down to the Chamber today with the full transcript because the Labour Party wanted to deal in little excerpts and that was the way it would work. Phil Goff will regret doing that because the public of New Zealand have no place for that sort of muckraking. 
That is why National has a Budget out there. We will see what happens on Budget day because when the election rolls around in 46 days’ time one party will be out there. [ 
Interruption 
] That is right—bring it on! For the record and for Trevor Mallard’s benefit I say that we want an election and that it cannot come soon enough. That is the view of the people of New Zealand as well because when we go to the polls in 46 days’ time we will be standing up and telling honest hard-working New Zealanders that we are behind them. The Labour Party may have forgotten about them. All those blue collar workers out there who toil from dawn to dusk and who used to look to the Labour Party for a bit of support will now look to the National Party. 
Here are the options. Option A is called Labour in which one gets the option to fund a bigger booze allowance for more students and universities around the country. That is option A. The message from Labour to young New Zealanders is that they can feed themselves on a diet of debt and that they should not bother working striving to get ahead or backing up the foundations this great country is built on. Instead they should go out there borrow more money and while they are at it they should get their mates to borrow money as well. 
On ShareChat today I saw that a system was being organised to get that money and put it into interest-earning accounts. That is the message under Labour. My prediction is that 60 percent of New Zealanders who are at university or have studied currently have a loan. Only 60 percent have borrowed. Members should mark my words: the other 40 percent will be borrowing to the hilt—as will the rest—because they do not have enough brains to work out that this is not free money; it is even better than free money. They do not have enough brains to be at university so they will borrow to the max. 
Option A is the Labour Party which is out there telling working New Zealanders that it does not care about them that it does not care about people on building sites slogging their guts out first thing in the morning and that it would much rather support a bigger booze allowance for students. Option B is the National Party which will roll out a tax plan that says to working New Zealanders that it cares about them. They might have been forgotten for 6 years— 
Hon Marian Hobbs 
: Show us the money—$50? How much? 
JOHN KEY 
: Marian Hobbs is asking me to show the money. I make this prediction. It is a good thing that votes are anonymous because in 46 days’ time when we go to the polling booths and when New Zealanders get a chance to vote my prediction is that some on the Labour side will vote National with their party vote. It will not even be Labour Party members; we can forget about them. Labour Members of this Parliament will actually vote for National because they will look at themselves in the mirror when they get up to go down to the polling booths and ask what sort of country they want. They will ask whether they want a country where there is only debt and where working New Zealanders have to pay for a bigger booze allowance for students or whether they want the really strong message that when they get up and go to work in the morning there is something in it for them—a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. 
Some Labour members will vote for National with their party vote because they know a good thing when they see it. They will come over to the Opposition benches in the House—there will not be many of them left in 46 days’ time—look across and secretly in their heart of hearts they will know that they did the right thing for New Zealand. That will make them proud even though they will be in Opposition because they will know that National will not deliver a Budget that is so thick the messengers cannot even carry it into the Chamber. National will deliver a Budget that really makes sense for New Zealand and I cannot wait for Budget day. 
I cannot wait for election day—bring it on! I predict that many of those Labour members will vote National. 
Debate interrupted.