Goff Phil: General Debate 
Goff Phil: General Debate 
[Volume:630;Page:2500] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Defence) 
: 
 It is a bit rich for Gerry Brownlee to even utter the words “loyal deputy” because everybody knows that that was a bid for the leadership albeit a pretty pathetic bid for the leadership. The three National Party members there—John Key Bill English and Gerry Brownlee—all looked at the poll on Sunday saw that National was 3 percent behind and that 45 percent of the New Zealand public had voted overwhelmingly that Dr Brash was not up to the job and each one of those men want the job. I give members this prediction. Dr Brash will still be there because those three are cutting each other’s throats. Not one of those three have what it takes to be a leader nor will that pathetic party in Opposition—the once-great National Party—ever persuade New Zealand that it is anywhere near ready to be in Government. 
I take up one thing with Gerry Brownlee. He had to apologise twice in the first minute of that speech. He should have just apologised and sat down. He did not add anything. However he did try to imply improper influence by the Prime Minister’s office with the Companies Office. He knows that implication is untrue he knows it is dishonest and he knows it is totally unsubstantiated. I predict that when that implication is proved to be wrong he will not come in here to apologise for the smear tactic he has just tried in this House. 
Do those members not learn anything? They used smear tactics against David Benson-Pope. Judith Collins and Rodney Hide tried everything in the book and said improper things. None of it bore any truth and none of it had any traction with the electorate. But they do not learn. They use personal abuse because they have nothing of substance to add to this House or to our country. As for Rodney Hide even the founder of ACT said at ACT’s own conference that Rodney Hide was the reason the ACT party has practically disappeared in the polls. 
This has been a bad week for the National Party but a great week for ordinary New Zealanders. On 1 April 470000 New Zealanders had the burden of interest rates on their student loans lifted from their shoulders. What better message can we give to the young people of this country that we want to motivate them to get more skills and more education for themselves their families and the country than to relieve them of the burden of that debt? 
I ask Gerry Brownlee or John Key whether National would reimpose the burden of interest rates. We will not get an answer today but those two members said they were totally against lifting the burden of interest rates from student loans. Last Friday Bill English said he was wrong it had not led to students taking out more loans and that National would keep the policy. Bill English said yes and Gerry Brownlee and John Key said no. They are totally without direction. No wonder they have no credibility in this country. 
What did we hear yesterday? We heard Shane Ardern say he would reverse the legislation passed by the previous National Government abandon science-based biosecurity and not let honey that the biosecurity people have said was safe to bring into this country come into this country. He got away with saying that in the House. The people I admire in this House like Lockwood Smith and Tim Groser who know something about trade absolutely cringed. The National Party is trying to be everything to everybody and it ends up being nothing to anyone. That is why it is in its third term of Opposition and that is why it will stay there for a fourth term. 
What about decent hard-working New Zealand families? If we take a family with a couple of kids that is on between $25000 and $45000 a year it will be getting $100 tax relief in its pockets this week. I think that is great. Who on the National Party bench will say that National members would reverse that? They have said—here is the criticism—that MPs might get something. They said Heather Roy might get something if her husband had not been working but because he is she will not get anything. Twenty bucks a week—I ask John Key what the National Party was promising. It was promising $5000 a year to people who did not need the money and were well-off already and National members whinge and whine in this House because we have lifted the threshold levels so that decent hard-working families will get money to help raise their families. 
I mention an article from the  
New Zealand Herald 
 which states that this is some pay rise for ordinary hard-working New Zealanders. It states that it is richly deserved and that it recognises the role families play in bringing up their kids. The article features a Polynesian family that said its kids would now have fruit in their lunch. This is a good Government and I am proud of what it is doing.