Pettis Jill: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Pettis Jill: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:606;Page:3470] 
JILL PETTIS (NZ Labour—Whanganui) 
: 
 I am very pleased to join this debate following the Prime Minister’s statement. The Prime Minister’s statement was an excellent statement to the country and the House. It set out this Government’s plans for the future and our future is to build and sustain solid levels of economic growth and to fund good public services and infrastructure sustainably. This is a debate where the Government expects to get bit of a towelling but it did not happen. There is no firepower at all in the Opposition. The Opposition is fractured— 
Rod Donald 
: My apologies to the honourable member. I seek to table something that I think she will find very interesting. It is a press release that has just been issued by the Christchurch Polytechnic headed: “Comments on apartheid pre-school are abhorrent and misinformed”. I seek leave to table that. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
JILL PETTIS 
: I am happy to have a press statement such as that tabled during my comments. I am sure I will endorse and support every word that is contained within it. 
As I said the Government expects to get a bit of a towelling during debates such as this but it did not happen.  
I want to devote a short time to talking about what is actually happening to the Opposition in this country. Good government needs good opposition. First of all I want to talk about the ACT party. For years that party has turned around and portrayed itself as the party of business. Well it has quite a lot of business experience but that business experience does not necessarily mean that it equates with the type of business the rest of New Zealand respects. We have Mr Eckhoff who wanted to farm Kiwis. We have Owen Jennings who was an expert at pyramid selling. Perhaps he is headed for Egypt as I speak. We have Mrs Awatere Huata who is greatly into fashion show chaperoning—the type of chaperoning one wants when one does not really need it. We have Rodney Hide with his wonderful Fijian economic tours. We have Muriel Newman who recommends that the poor and downtrodden pick fruit and eat as much from the grower as they can while they are in the process of doing so. If that does not work they can become women of the streets. Now who in their right mind would recommend that?  
Deborah Coddington 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. The member is not allowed to use words like that against members— 
JILL PETTIS 
: It is in her book. The member should read her book. It is in Muriel Newman’s book.  
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: That is not a point of order.  
JILL PETTIS 
: The member should read the book then see the movie.  
Then we have National with a brat pack. It is out of date out of time and out of humour. The brat pack is led now I assume by Roger Sowry who was weaned on a pickle. The National Party is just shaking dead rats. We have Don Brash who is portraying himself as the future business leader and finance spokesperson. He even fancies himself with that role for New Zealand. I have to say that Mr Brash and I share one thing and one thing only in common and that is that we were both born in the same city. There the comparison stops.  
Mr Brash talks about people being frog-marched to collect rubbish—those who are not currently employed. He does not talk about upskilling people; he has a patronising tone towards people and is so out of date time and humour that he is referring to people signing up at 8 o’clock in the morning at the post office. Well we all know what has happened to post offices in New Zealand and when questioned on National Radio earlier this week about that not working Dr Brash had to say that there was nothing wrong with it. I just have to say to him that he should come into the real world.  
It gets worse—and I am sorry to hear this of Dr Brash because he is an intelligent man and I say that with absolute sincerity; nobody doubts the man’s intelligence at all—because he is engaging in beneficiary bashing and stigmatisation looking for a group to discriminate against and pitting New Zealanders against other New Zealanders. He is turning those who are strong against those who feel weak often through no fault of their own. New Zealanders want to work together. For the first time in many many years New Zealanders have pulled together worked together and are looking forward now with a vision about ourselves. We are feeling confident and strong about where we can go as New Zealanders. I think New Zealanders as a whole from throughout the provinces the metropolitan areas and the small rural towns are feeling a sense of well-being about themselves that they have not experienced for a very long time.  
We know as a Government that there is an awfully long way to go. There is no room for complacency at all. The task in front of us as a Government and as a country is huge. We are a small geographically isolated country but we pull beyond our weight and we are developing a new sense of confidence about the fact that we can do that. We do not want to go back to the days of beneficiary bashing.  
I am reminded by this most graphic cartoon which I am holding up for the House of those days of Ruth Richardson. If she lived where she grew up she would be a constituent of mine but she does not live in the electorate any more. The cartoon quotes Ruth Richardson as saying: “Good news! Good news! Under National solo mothers will be able to work.” And there is a picture of a solo mother doing what most mothers do—standing up to their elbows in the sink and making sure their children are fed. The depiction of that patronising attitude that used to prevail is so out of date that this country does not want to go down that track again.  
Some fantastic fabulous things are happening in my electorate of Whanganui. We have the most encouraging employment growth that we have had for many many years. There are fewer people unemployed now in Wanganui than there have been for nearly 15 years. We have wonderful growth in regional tourism and we have a sense of positiveness in our electorate that I have not seen for a very long time. The people have a spring in their step because they are feeling confident and good about themselves.  
In closing I want to comment very briefly on this dreadful awful debate that is ensuing about immigration. I want to encourage the leader of the New Zealand First Party and his colleagues to stop bashing our immigrants. It is despicable and uncalled for. My electorate needs immigrants to fill skilled positions. We are all immigrants in some way or other and I am shocked at this terrible attack that is occurring against immigrants who are welcome in this country. I welcome immigrants into this country and I am asking New Zealand First to stop this bigoted attack on people whom we need in New Zealand. Immigrants are welcome.  
Debate interrupted.