King Annette: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Annette: General Debate[Sitting date: 16 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6682. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour): I wish I had brought my handkerchief down to the House so that I could wipe the saliva off my face from the member Nick Smith who was frothing at the mouth as he made that speech.Many members of this House realise that this is Social Justice Week. It is the week when the Catholic bishops of New Zealand set aside time to highlight how they see New Zealand families faring. This year they have called the week “What does it take for all families to flourish?” and they are looking particularly at family poverty.I have to say that I really do admire the forthright way they go about highlighting the issues without fear or favour on behalf of New Zealanders. Caritas their NGO that does most of the work has a vision of working for a world free of poverty and injustice. So I was very disappointed to hear the Minister for Social Development sneer at Social Justice Week. It probably sums it up: that is how the National Party treats those who go out there and stand up on behalf of New Zealand. It made me think about how hard it is for organisations like Caritas to achieve their goals and their visions when they have got a Government that at best distorts the facts and at worst indulges in malicious fabrications—because there is one word that cannot be said in this House by that Government.Hon Nanaia Mahuta: What is it?Hon ANNETTE KING: That word is “poverty”. They will not mention the word. It is the word that cannot be said. It does not exist. They think there are other words you should use such as “vulnerable people”. Today it was “those in hardship” or as the Minister said “very low-income”. But never say “poverty” because if you say it then it might exist. It might actually exist in New Zealand.You see I can see a pattern from this Government and it is a pattern of cover-ups. It is a pattern of covering up the evidence and the information denying reality. You got it from the Prime Minister today. You got it from many Ministers. Black is white even if it is not as they deny the realities of what is happening in New Zealand. Then they blame everybody else. Going into the eighth year and they are crowing today that it is 1 year since they became the Government. It is 8 years they have been in now since they became the Government and it is still everybody else’s fault. So they blame the beneficiaries. Well of course they crow about how they gave beneficiaries the first increase in 40 years—Hon Simon Bridges: That’s right that’s right.Hon ANNETTE KING: Well for the cabin boy I will tell him that National was the first Government in 40 years to cut the benefit. Bill English who crowed about it today was in that very Government. None of us have forgotten the Budget of 1991 when they slashed the benefit. They did not even restore it to what it was and this is some great win! So they blame the beneficiaries and then they blame the protesters.We are a country that has always allowed people to get out there and say what they think. So what do they call protestors? They are “rent-a-crowd”. Well of course the Prime Minister has never protested over anything. He cannot even remember what side he was on during the Springbok Tour. So you would never have seen him on a protest.Then they blame the unions. They call the unions our political enemies. Well it is the unions that got off their chuffs and got out there and fought for health and safety for workers in New Zealand not this Government. They wanted to say that workers working in dangerous workplaces were OK but if you worked in a worm farm or a butterfly farm that was very dangerous. It is the unions that have stood up for New Zealanders. Then they have to blame everybody else: the lefties the loonies anybody else they can put in there.Then they create total new histories a whole rewrite of entire histories of what has happened in New Zealand. Most of us cannot believe it. We are told the economy was left in a very bad state by the very Minister of Finance who said in December 2008 that the previous Government had left this country ready for the rainy day that had come. So how come after 8 years of rewriting history the previous Government was the worst Government which had no Government debt which had the lowest unemployment rate in the OECD and that had left this country in a far better position than it is in today?There we have I have to say the hallmarks of a Government that you could not trust. You could not trust a Government that goes on making up political targets goes on making up its truth and fooling New Zealanders. Where have we got to?