Hide Rodney: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Hide Rodney: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:606;Page:3359] 
RODNEY HIDE (ACT NZ) 
: 
 It is always good to follow the Minister of Immigration the Hon Lianne Dalziel who truly is one of the seven wonders of the Labour Party. It is truly one of the seven wonders of the Labour Party that that woman could be in Cabinet. I do not know what the other six wonders of the Labour Party are but truly Lianne Dalziel has to be one. 
Let us just look at the miserable Government that we have. We all remember when the Labour Party proudly stood up for the working man and the working woman. Labour may have had its policies wrong but it knew whom it was that it stood up for. Let us look at this miserable Labour Party and ask: where are the working men where are working women and where are the policies for the people who work in New Zealand? There is nothing. Where in the Prime Minister’s statement to this House is there one policy one action one law that will be of any benefit to a working family in New Zealand?  
I look across to the Labour members and I ask them to name one policy or one action in the Prime Minister’s statement that is for the working person. They cannot name one. There is not one. It is just sound-bite propaganda. Labour members should be ashamed of themselves.  
What has happened to the average working person in New Zealand over the last 3 years? This Government has shafted working people. Their average net wage is now $14 a week less than it was when the Government started. The truth of it is that the National Party and the New Zealand First Party in Government did more for the working person than Labour supported by United Future ever did and that is because they provided the policies that rewarded hard work. Where in the Prime Minister’s statement is there a vision a goal for a working family in New Zealand to think that their Government shares a concern for them? There is none; not one; nothing.  
 I truly believe that Labour members should be ashamed of themselves. The Government came into office in 1999. Can anyone remember what its goal was—its No. 1 goal? It was closing the gaps. I ask members whether any Labour member is prepared to stand up here and say that the Government closed the gaps. Not one! Look at them! There is Minister Mark Burton like the Easter Island statue that he is sitting there like a lump of granite on an island. Not one is prepared to stand up and say that the Labour Party set the goal of closing the gaps and that it closed the gaps.  
What did the Prime Minister do? She banned the use of the words. She did not say “Oh let’s not talk about it.” She actually banned the words from being used. That is what Prime Minister Helen Clark did. What is the big goal that they set last year? Growth! Top half of the OECD! We are going to get there! We heard from Michael Cullen that we are on target but he does not know when. He says we are going to get there we have the settings in place but he does not know when.  
When Michael Joseph Savage brought in the 1938 Social Security Act they asked him where the money was going to come from to pay for it and he said that it would come from the productive forces of New Zealand from the people of New Zealand—not from the Government not from Government policy not from Government law but from the productive forces of New Zealand. The Government cannot redistribute what the people do not first produce. Members should go through that statement and reflect on that.  
We would get the sense from the Prime Minister that the money comes from the Government and that the wealth is the Government not the productive forces of New Zealand. We know that the wealth is going to be created by small businesses by medium businesses by big businesses and by working men and working women. Where are the policies for them? We have a full legislative programme the Prime Minister says. What are the top three? There is the Television New Zealand Bill—does that get us into the top half of the OECD? I do not think so. There is the Responsible Gambling Bill which is actually oxymoronic if we think about it like most things this Government does and there is the Racing Bill. Where in there is anything to stir economic growth in this country?  
Jill Pettis looks confused. I realise she is confused because she goes on sound bites and propaganda and what she is hearing from the speeches on this side of the House are the facts so she is confused. Here are the policies of this Government: anti-growth and anti-business. Has Government spending gone up or down? It has gone up. Is that good for growth? No. What has happened to tax rates? Have they gone up or down under this Government? They have gone up. Is that good for business? Is that good for growth? No. What has happened to employing someone? Has it got easier or has it got harder? It has got harder. In fact employers have to give people a Maori farewell before they fire them for not turning up for work. And this Government thinks that is OK. If someone does not turn up for work he or she can be fired. It is just that there has to be a Maori song. Employers have to get Chris Carter along to sing “Pokare Kare Ana” to show that they have due respect. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: “Pokare Kare Ana”. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Oh whatever Chris Carter sings—God knows! What has happened in the Accident Compensation Corporation? Has it got more competitive and is there more choice under this Government? No less! What has happened to local government which is the bane of small business the bane of farmers and the bane of people who want to employ other New Zealanders? Has the scope of local government been constrained and limited under this Government or has it been expanded? 
Ron Mark 
: Turned loose. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: It has been turned loose as my colleague Major Ron Mark says. That is what has happened under this Government. 
I go back to an important point. Where is the care in this Government in this Prime Minister’s statement or in anything that we heard from Michael Cullen today that shows any understanding of the situation of a working man a working woman or a working family in this country? They do not even talk about them any longer. They do not even pretend that their policies are in favour of the working person in New Zealand.  
We had the most astonishing thing happen and I want to share this with my parliamentary colleagues. Michael Cullen came along to the select committee. He heard from the Business Roundtable he heard from Federated Farmers and he heard from Business New Zealand. They put their point of view and they said that what businesses and farmers are really struggling with under this Government and under successive Governments is that there is too much red tape and too heavy a tax burden. And do members know what Michael Cullen’s response to that was? He said they were just like the Post-Primary Teachers Association coming along wanting a handout. We have a Minister of Finance who thinks that allowing people to keep more of what they earn rather than pinching it off them through the Inland Revenue Department is a handout. And he wonders why— 
Hon Damien O'Connor 
: Where do you live? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I do not live in an electorate that this Government has turned into a national park like Damien O’Connor did. It was turned into a national park for Japanese tourists because that member failed his electorate the productive people of the West Coast and I would be ashamed if I were he—a Labour Party member from the West Coast who sold out to the Greens. That is what that member did and he should be ashamed. I come from Epsom in Auckland and I have to say that that is a productive part of New Zealand and we will stop members like Damien O’Connor making us a happy tourist destination only because we do want to be productive.