Dyson Ruth: General Debate 
Dyson Ruth: General Debate 
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Hon RUTH DYSON (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 What a hugely ironic speech demanding high-quality public health services from the member Tony Ryall who was part of a Cabinet that charged people to go into every public hospital in New Zealand. We did not call them public hospitals in the bad old days of the 1990s; we called them Crown health enterprises. Nobody will ever forgive National for that and nobody will forget that Tony Ryall sat at the table in a Cabinet that said that every patient who goes into a public hospital in New Zealand should get a bill. That is what he said. Mind you given Judith Collins’ version today of National’s social welfare policy I am not at all sure how beneficiaries would be able to pay their bills to go into the public hospital if they had no money because she certainly would not be giving them any advances on their benefit. 
My colleague Jim Anderton referred earlier on to John Key as a flake. Well I have read a lot of John Key’s statements and I think that Jim Anderton was really underestimating John Key. I think he is a whole snowstorm all on his own frankly. He has the most amazing ability to say just whatever he thinks his audience wants to hear and then on the same day and sometimes in the same hour say completely the opposite to a different audience. He must think that we do not get the papers. He must think that nobody reads the  
Southland Times 
. Lesley Soper reads the  
Southland Times 
. She makes sure that we know what is in the  
Southland Times 
 and we know what John Key said to the  
Southland Times 
 which was that he would give a $200 million interest-free subsidy to the meat industry in Southland. It is just extraordinary. 
But if that is not bad enough he then comes into this House and demands accountability. He demands that everyone tells the truth and that everyone sticks to their policy. He rants and raves about tax cuts and about improving opportunities for New Zealanders and he weeps crocodile tears about the number of people who are moving over to Australia. He says that we should pay people better but then he says—and I happen to have the very quote here from John Key on 17 December last year—“We would love to see wages drop.” That is what John Key said. That is an exact quote: “We would love to see wages drop.” How will low and middle income New Zealanders feel when they read that that is the National Party policy and that its policy is not to cut their taxes actually because for 8 years the National Party has voted against every single tax cut for business and for individuals. It voted against the Working for Families package and it voted against research and development initiatives and tax cuts for business. National voted against them every single time and for 9 years prior to that when National was in Government how many tax cuts did it introduce? 
Hon Members 
: Ah! 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: OK I will give members a clue: it was fewer than three. I will give them another clue: it was fewer than two. I will give them another clue: it was fewer than one. The answer is zero—9 years in Government and not one single tax cut from National; 8 years in Opposition and National voted against every single tax cut made by Labour. There is a word for that. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: We are not allowed to use it in the House so I will not even stray down that path Mr Assistant Speaker and I appreciate your guidance. But I will tell members that the public in New Zealand will use that word and more to describe the way John Key is tricking them into thinking that they would be better off because they will not be. They will be better off under Labour because we not only have a commitment to our policies but we also have 8 years’ track record of increasing the minimum wage every single year. 
On 1 April this year the minimum wage goes up to $12 an hour. What did the minimum wage increase by for 9 years under National? By how much did it go up? It went up by 87.5c. [ 
Interruption 
] No not in a year and not in 2 years but in a total of 9 years there was less than a dollar’s increase in the minimum wage. It is an outrage to treat our most vulnerable hard-working citizens in that way for 9 years. It is now at $12.