King Annette: General Debate 
King Annette: General Debate 
[Volume:633;Page:4981] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of State Services) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. In a strong democracy the Government proposes policy; the Opposition opposes it and proposes some of its own. In 7 years this Government has proposed and implemented far-reaching policies to transform our economy to support our families and to build national identity and pride. In 7 years the National Opposition has opposed opposed and opposed and there has been little sign of it proposing any policy or even a constructive debate on policy in this House. In fact it has not been able to propose a full policy at any time in those 7 years. 
Let us take National’s flagship policy at the last election—tax cuts. That was its flagship policy but even then it was not a full policy because National refused to tell the people of New Zealand what it would cut to give tax cuts to New Zealanders. It refused to tell the people of New Zealand whether it would cut our health services our education services the services to our elderly people. National is so confused on its own tax policy that last night it even voted against a modest tax cut in the KiwiSaver! So one day National is for tax cuts; the next day it votes against one. This is a one-sided Opposition. It knocks and knocks and knocks it pulls things down it gives misinformation and half-truths and it engages in shadowy dealings. 
Today I want to give this House two examples of how this Government’s policies have worked over the past 7 years. I start with older New Zealanders because older New Zealanders are important to this Government. We have put a lot of effort into ensuring that we look out for our senior citizens. Where did we start? We started right back at the formation of this Government when we reversed the National Government ’s cuts on superannuation. We then went on to increase superannuation for all the older people of New Zealand. They had had shabby treatment for 9 years under a National Government. We then said we would phase out asset testing; something that was brought in by Ruth Richardson and something the National Party was still supporting at the last election. We then said we would bring in—and we have brought in—cheaper doctors’ visits for our older folk and cheaper prescriptions. They were among the first to get those cheaper visits. We increased the number of knee and hip operations by around 20000 because we know that those people are the people who need them most. We brought in income-related rents for those old folk who could not afford the rents they were paying. We have introduced a rates rebate for older New Zealanders—up to $500 off their rates. We made changes to their drivers’ licences and we are making communities safer. Those are things we have done for older New Zealanders in quite a short time. 
Let us look at another area: rebuilding the infrastructure of this country. This includes not only capital assets but the human assets as well: hospitals from Invercargill to Kaitaia; police stations in small places such as Te Kaha; or the big police station at the Counties-Manukau hub. We have built more houses. We have put huge investment into road and rail. We even bought back Air New Zealand so we could keep a national airline. We bought back the rail so there could be a rail corridor. 
We have invested in the people of New Zealand. We have invested in more nurses more doctors more radiation therapists and more dental therapists. Let us just talk about dental therapists for one moment. Tony Ryall told New Zealanders that we do not have enough of them—we do not have enough dental therapists to do our children’s teeth. Why do we not have enough? National closed all the training schools in the 1990s so there were no dental therapists being trained. We have restored that. 
We have more teachers more people on border control more front-line caseworkers more corrections workers and so on. The National Party criticises that investment into human capital. The people of New Zealand said they wanted that investment and we have put it in. I would like to compare that with the National Party and the things that it has done over the last 7 years: its members oppose spend their time in Parliament accusing everybody else of dirt sleaze and corruption but forget about their own actions.