Cunliffe David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Cunliffe David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:623;Page:18205] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of State) 
: 
 After listening to Dr Don Brash’s opening speech in this debate I was left with this question in my mind: why would any reasonable New Zealander vote for him or his policies? He is a man past his time a man who lives in the past and has no future a man whose speeches since taking office have only inflamed division and despair in this country and within his own caucus and a man whose wedge politics agenda seeks to curry favour with New Zealanders’ baser instincts by demonising the most vulnerable. 
Last year at Orewa it was Maori who despite their massive gains in welfare in the last 5 years are still unfortunately overrepresented amongst our unemployed and our imprisoned. This year it was that old saw—beating up again on “DPB” mums. Who will it be next year? Who will be the lucky spokesperson who decides that he or she can no longer put up with the kind of right-wing rhetoric that seems to serve for policy on the far side of the House. Perhaps we should say the increasingly far side of the House. 
To support Dr Brash one would have to believe that the only reason New Zealand had 5 percent growth last year was that once again we were lucky—for the fifth year in a row! To support Dr Brash one would have to believe that the only reason more Kiwis were working than ever before is that we got lucky again and we would have to ignore the fact that it is their hard work enterprise courage and enthusiasm that has got them to that level. One would have to believe that real wages have not grown which was something that Dr Brash said and we would have to ignore the fact that real wages have risen 10.6 percent in the last decade since 1994—that is after taking out inflation—and that the minimum wage has risen six times under this Government up 20.3 percent since 1994. 
To support Dr Brash one would have to believe that we have done nothing but grow the Government—another contention he made. The facts are that core Government expenditure as a proportion of GDP has fallen under this Government from 33 percent in 1995 to something around 29 percent currently. While the economy is growing faster the Government is actually shrinking as a proportion of the economy not growing as Dr Brash would have us believe. To support Dr Brash one would have to believe that we are a profligate Government frittering away the public’s hard-earned savings. But the facts are that we are saving to protect New Zealand’s future. Net Crown debt has in fact fallen from $36.8 billion in 1995 under National to only $8.7 billion currently and we are on track to be a net creditor nation for the first time since Julius Vogel borrowed to build the railways a century ago. We will be a creditor country by 2008. 
None of the foundations of Dr Brash’s speech stands up to scrutiny. They do not stand up to the facts because they are not about facts. That gentlemanly bespectacled “Presbyterian” is actually an ageing snake-oil salesman selling one very simple recipe—division. But the public are not buying it. Members of the public are not buying it because they can see the contrast between an agenda that is narrow hard and selfish and one that is broad and positive under this Government. 
I had the opportunity to drive through some of New Zealand’s country towns over the summer break. I was really pleased to see that a bit of new paint had been splashed around and that a few flash boutiques have opened in places like my old stomping ground of Te Kuiti and a few other little towns like that. It drove home to me the sense of optimism and positivism that is around in New Zealand at the moment. Why would any sensible Kiwi standing on the brink of one of the best decades in our history change the Government now? Why would they buy the age-old recipe that the other side is selling which in the 1990s saw the rich get richer the poor get poorer and the hard-working middle classes miss out? It has been tried and it has failed. There is no reason to return to the failed policies of the past when New Zealand has not done this well in decades and decades. 
The Prime Minister’s opening address set out some of the many things that we still have to do. We have to work smarter not harder by improving productivity in the workplace. We have to help Kiwis save and build wealth and assets so that they are protected in their retirement. We have to ensure more first-class education training and job skills so that we can add value and compete in an ever-globalising world. 
We also have to provide a First World infrastructure. In the 21st century that means an intelligent information and communications technology infrastructure with broadband to every New Zealand home school and workplace. Fast forwarding the information and communications technology sector to the benefit of our broader economy and community is the purpose of the Digital Strategy that the Government will be unveiling and funding this year. That strategy recognises that that issue is not just a technology issue; it is a people issue. It is about having the confidence the capability and the content—as the Minister responsible for the National Library my good friend and colleague Marian Hobbs has said—to ensure that Kiwis get the best use out of “life online” that we live a truly connected lifestyle where we can live learn and work in ways that our parents would never have dreamt possible and that our kids will teach us new dreams a new way a new sense of nationhood and we will have a New Zealand that is as proud in virtual worlds as we are here in the physical world. 
I am so optimistic when I travel around New Zealand and see a beautiful environment with every potential to be a high-tech paradise and support a high standard of living for generations to come. When we compare that future to the one that we saw a sad picture of today from the Opposition we see that New Zealand faces a stark choice but an easy choice and a historic choice in 2005.