Goff Phil: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
Goff Phil: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
[Volume:661;Page:9545] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 Mr Foss strayed into areas he should not have—the Government’s amazingly expensive promises. We passed the emissions trading scheme bill last year with its $110 billion to subsidise polluters to continue to pollute. In Labour’s wildest dreams it has not promised anywhere near the amount of money misspent by this National Government in that ill-conceived scheme. Mr Foss talks about the records of Governments. I stand here proudly supporting the record of a Labour Government that saw unemployment at its lowest level in 27 years. I ask Mr Foss what is it that he does not understand about 350000 extra jobs created by the previous Labour Government. What is it that he does not understand about the fact that the previous Labour Government saw upgrading to the highest level in two decades by the credit rating agencies? What is it that he does not understand about the previous Labour Government reducing our public debt in net terms to zero? The National Government should be very grateful for the economic management and fiscal responsibility of the previous Labour Government. 
I want to talk today about Mr Steven Joyce and his mishandling of and embarrassing flip-flop on the SuperGold Card last week because that was the clearest and most recent example yet of a Government without a plan without any guiding principles and prepared to move away from the agenda that it put before the electorate in 2008. Members will remember that when National was in Opposition it promised that the SuperGold Card was sacrosanct and it would not be touched. Then last week we heard a remarkable statement by Steven Joyce who said that the officials would consider how off-peak travel should be defined. That meant they were going to cut the hours in which pensioners who used the SuperGold Card could travel. He said that they would look at the eligibility of certain services like the Waiheke Island ferry and the train service between Wellington and the Wairarapa. By saying “some changes will need to be made because it is currently on track to exceed the available budget” Steven Joyce stated in the clearest possible terms that he was proposing to cut the SuperGold Card. Yet 24 hours and a phone call from behind a bush later what do we find from the Minister? He said: “We have made it clear all along that the Government is totally committed to the SuperGold Card including the transport concession as it stands”. That quote was the absolute contradiction of what Steven Joyce told the country 24 hours earlier. It reminds me of a saying by Groucho Marx who said: “Those are my principles. If you don’t like them I have others.” It was remarkable. 
The Government promised not to touch the SuperGold Card Mr Joyce put his neck on the block and said that he was going to do it then 24 hours later he was running with his tail between his legs in exactly the opposite direction. The remarkable thing about Steven Joyce is that he said it was a misunderstanding caused by his political opponents who were scaremongering. Has the man no shame? Has he no pride? He was following the actions of his leader John Key who just a day or two ago likewise accused the media of hysteria. Mr Key said that the media were being hysterical because they floated a proposal that 7000 hectares of pristine environmental land on the Coromandel Peninsula on Great Barrier Island and on Paparoa National Park were going to be opened up for mining. The media were being hysterical. Well there was one way he could have dealt with that hysteria: he could have told the truth. Was that a proposal by the Government or not? Mr Key declined to answer that particular question. 
The truth of the matter is that the process of Government by this administration has been an absolute shambles. It has been dishonest and it has been decision making without proper consideration before it made proposals and without transparency. We have also seen that also in the super-city reforms where this National Government hides behind Rodney Hide to do its dirty work and will not take responsibility for policies condemned by the Chamber of Commerce in Auckland condemned by the National Party candidate for the Auckland mayoralty John Banks condemned by the  
New Zealand Herald 
 the  
Herald on Sunday 
 and suburban newspapers and condemned by almost every community group and individual that has commented on them. I ask National to stop hiding behind Mr Hide bring him to order and give democracy transparency and accountability back to Auckland. 
If we talk about dishonesty surely the biggest dishonesty has been over GST. I remember the words from John Key before the election very well. They were something like this: “The National Party will not be increasing GST.” After the election suddenly we find that National is increasing GST. The National Government has broken its word and it has broken its promise. Throughout the major cities of this country and around the major provincial towns and the small rural communities I and my colleagues got very consistent feedback from every electorate represented by National members on the other side of the House. What did they tell us? They told us that they did not vote for an increase in GST. John Key promised that he would not increase GST. My advice to John Key is to take a leaf out of Steven Joyce’s book: he should forget the pride forget the shame admit that he is wrong admit that he is breaking his word admit that he is going back on the sincere promise made to the electorate and dump the GST increase. In every community in this country the people of New Zealand told us that they were against it. They said it was just a tax switch and the Government was going to give on one hand and take back with the other. Then they reflected on it and asked whether Bill English had not said that this process would be tax neutral. If it is going to be tax neutral then I ask National to explain this: $1.5 billion is being proposed to go to the top 7 percent of income earners in New Zealand. If people do not earn over $70000 they can forget about their situation being improved by these tax changes proposed in the Budget—that is the truth of it. 
The only people who will benefit from these tax changes are the wealthiest—all of the members of this House included. Ministers like Mr Williamson will get another $140 a week clear. Regarding John Key—I am not talking about his wider personal wealth but about his prime ministerial salary—the tax changes are worth $310 a week. Paul Reynolds the chief executive of Telecom will get on his basic salary—not his bonus because I do not think that he will get a bonus this year—another $1300 a week. But for the ordinary citizens in my electorate the middle-income folk and the low-income folk the best that the National Government can promise them is that they will be no worse off. Well the truth is that they do not even believe that miserable promise. They do not believe that. 
The issue I will finish on 1 year out from the Job Summit is employment. You know there were three big ideas in that Job Summit. It was the Job Summit that John Key told us would not be a talkfest but was. The big ideas included a $2 billion bank loan which fell over before it got off the ground. There was the 9-day working fortnight. It was going to be worth 6000 jobs. What have we got? A couple of hundred. There were 25000 jobs overall but 6000 jobs were saved.