Williamson Maurice: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williamson Maurice: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 24 March 2010. Volume:661;Page:9771. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (Minister for Building and Construction) 
: 
 What we witnessed in this House this afternoon was quite interesting. In fact I have some advice for Television New Zealand: it does not need to fund any more reality television programmes because “Survivor: Labour Party Leader” will be a best seller. What we saw today was a trial to determine which person gets to stay on the island—and it could be Great Barrier Island. I say to Phil Goff that I am sorry but he was voted off the island today. One of the pretenders to the leadership Shane Jones was in full flight trialling out for “Survivor: Labour Party Leader”. The Hon Trevor Mallard will get his call to trial out tomorrow probably or maybe his little stunt in the House yesterday was a trial for “Survivor: Labour Party Leader”. What is really clear is that the current incumbent is on the island today according to Jonathan Coleman but he will be voted off. 
The most fantastic part of Shane Jones’ speech was the bit when he said that the National Party’s popularity was plummeting. If this is what plummeting popularity feels like then I really am very happy for it to continue. When I go around my electorate in Auckland I hear nothing but commendation of what the Government is doing regarding say local body amalgamation. People are commending Rodney Hide for taking eight local authorities and getting rid of the nonsense and the duplication. 
I come now to an issue that does need to be given some consideration and does need to be carefully thought through. I am talking about the very careful mining of very specific sites. I think that if the claims were true and we were going to rip up the whole country and do open-cast mining across all our pristine areas then not a single New Zealander would support that—not one. But I do not know of any New Zealanders who not would say that under the right circumstances provided all the conservation values were protected if not enhanced and if it was done in a careful manner at a low scale at certain points then yes they would consider that to be good for the economy. I can tell members that many New Zealanders say all the time that the big difference between Australia and New Zealand is Australia’s mineral wealth. I say to people that actually no it is not. Australia’s mineral wealth per capita is not any better than ours; it is just that Australia is taking advantage of it. 
New Zealanders know today that we cannot carry on borrowing $240 million every week or a billion dollars every month and not have a day of reckoning. They know when they do their household accounts that the day of reckoning will come if they are spending more than they are earning. I am not hearing one suggestion from the lazy Labour Opposition about how to lift the incomes of New Zealanders lift our GDP and make us a wealthy nation. 
Phil Twyford 
: How about research and development tax credits? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Mr Twyford you should not be wasting your time here. You should be moving on to your next electorate selection. You have at least 64 more to go before you have wiped them all out so I would not waste time by being in the House if I were you. 
Dr Kennedy Graham 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Our colleague was just inviting you to move on to your next electorate. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I do not think we should get too pedantic about that. I apologise to the Hon Maurice Williamson for the interruption. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: It is like being savaged by a sheep when Kennedy Graham takes a point of order. I am really happy about that. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is about the practice of referring to a point of order on which you have ruled. I think it is a long-term Speaker’s ruling that when a ruling has been made one moves on and does not refer back to it in the way that the member has just done. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The way that the member referred to it though did not in any way dispute my ruling. He was building it into a speech. I think the member’s point is certainly valid. I ask the Hon Maurice Williamson to be careful. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I will be very careful. I can tell members that New Zealanders are looking to a Government that has a plan to lift our national incomes and make us once again a wealthy nation. That is what is important and there is a huge list of measures that have already been put in place. When we get our briefing list to come down to the House and speak in the general debate I have to actually call the people in our research unit and ask whether there is any chance of getting a shorter list because the list of good stuff just goes on for page after page and we have only 5-minute calls. 
All I can say is that from my perspective New Zealanders want to have a Government that will do some stuff that will lift our economy. I am happy to go on record as saying that provided proper conservation values are protected and that provided sites are chosen that will mean there is very little disruption and surgical-type mining can be done I am a big fan of mining happening. I holiday and own a place on the Coromandel Peninsula and I do not want to see the Coromandel Peninsula wrecked. But no proposal that has been put forward even looks as though it would wreck the Coromandel. We will have to trudge inland and into the mountains for some time to even locate the spots that are in question and what will be done will be done very carefully. This proposal is really good and I am proud to be a member of this Government.