English Bill: Appropriation (2007/08 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
English Bill: Appropriation (2007/08 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:641;Page:11061] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 You know the hardest thing for a Government whose time has run out is for the people in that Government to recognise it. We know what it is like. We have been there. We gave speeches like that—speeches that were all about how the Opposition had no idea of what to do or how to do it and the only people who could keep running the country was us. That was National in 1999. Of course the truth is that the louder we said it the more we portrayed the sinking feeling we all had which was that even our own supporters thought our time was up. 
If there was ever a man whose time is up it is Steve Maharey. Let us look at his one big workable idea that could be costed—in fact he had two—the single core benefit. After $200 million of expenditure on investigating that idea it has been canned. It has gone. It will not happen. Two hundred million dollars was spent on thinking about it. He also spent 8 years thinking about tertiary education. He is the man who spent $1 billion in 2 years on courses that no one finished. He spent $400 million on thinking about tertiary education and they are going to try to implement that on 1 January. 
Here is a simple idea for Mr Maharey. We will abandon his tertiary education policy. After 8 years of reform and 24 reports it has failed and it has cost $400 million. We will abandon it. We will let the people who run tertiary education get on with running tertiary education instead of spending all their time coming to Wellington pleading for money. That is what Labour’s policy is now. It is about bringing people to Wellington to plead for money. I also want to tell Steve Maharey what Helen Clark’s description is of what her Government is going to do. This was the question to her: “You’ve been in power for 8 years. Is there any area of Government where you want to take some action but have not had the chance to do so?”. That question was asked by the  
New Zealand Herald  
in a wide-ranging interview with Helen Clark. Let us see what the answer was. 
Darren Hughes 
: Ha ha! 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Here is the policy over which the member for Otaki is going to lose his seat at the next election: “So undoubtedly there will be areas we will build on for next time which will be new.” And that is it. That is Labour’s policy as enunciated by the Prime Minister just 3 weeks ago in relation to what she wants to do after 8 years in power: “So undoubtedly there will be areas we will build on for next time which will be new.” That is what she said and that came after her description of what Labour has been doing which was that it has taken a while to build up the kitty. She said it has taken a while to build up the kitty for Working for Families and it has taken time to work up the kitty for interest-free loans and the early childhood programme. That is “lolly-nomics” and that is the problem with the economic strategy of this Government. It is not an argument over whether there has been growth—there has been. But it has been mismanaged. And Dr Cullen’s time is up because he does not even know that that is what has happened. 
No one out there believes that 8 years of growth has been Labour’s own doing. What people do believe is that Labour has treated that growing economy like a cash machine instead of a plant that needs to be fertilised. It has treated it as a cash machine to feed the kitty—with middle New Zealand’s cashcard. Why do I say that? [ 
Interruption 
] People on the average wage in the Otaki electorate—and there are a lot of them—7 years ago paid 19 percent of their income as tax. Now they pay 23 percent of their income as tax. So if one is on the average wage in that member’s electorate—and he thinks they all vote for him—one’s tax has gone up. Twice people were promised by Dr Cullen that their tax would go down because he changed the thresholds. Then Dr Cullen cancelled that in this Budget. In fact in the background of this Budget he has said not only that he has cancelled those tax cuts but that he cannot afford to shift the thresholds too much next year because he needs the money for the kitty. That is why that member must know—because if he does not then he is not out and about—that people on the average wage in Otaki are not going to vote for Labour. They are moving away from Labour because they feel exploited. 
But not only that—they have found out that under the Electoral Finance Bill the union they are members of cannot campaign against National in election year. If there was ever a piece of legislation that has demonstrated—well there has not been such a piece of legislation—completely Labour’s deep paranoia about its right to electoral office this is it. You see Labour’s members use the term “a level playing field”. I ask myself who the players are on this field that needs to be levelled. I can tell members who they are. On the one side is the Government—the Labour Government—and on the other side are the people of New Zealand. That is the playing field that is not level. The Labour Government fears the criticism of the people of New Zealand so they want to tip the playing field in favour of the Labour Government—as if $55 billion was not enough on its side already. So the Labour Government has $55 billion of public money to spend—$1 billion per week plus a bit—and it is going to make sure that no group of New Zealand people can spend more than $60000 and if they want to spend more than $5000 they will have to register. And you know what if people want to spend— 
Darren Hughes 
: So covert Customs officers who campaign— 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The member for Otaki should listen to this. If people want to spend $10 they will have to decide whether they are classified as publishers or promoters. If they want to spend $10 on a flyer down their street about the dog control laws and come and talk to the local MP about it they will have to make a statutory declaration to each person on that street that they will not spend over $5000. If people are going to spend anything at all in election year they will be caught by this bill. So that is the level playing field. It is a case of flattening out civil society and the wider community and anyone who has a criticism of the Labour Government while that Government goes on a rampant spend-up of public money. 
What Labour is saying to the public of New Zealand is: “Leave politics to the politicians.” Labour wants to create an elite of latte-sipping suit-wearing socialists who are the only ones who are allowed to have an opinion in this country and we are opposed to the principle that third parties cannot have a say. That is the level playing field—the Government versus the people. 
Darren Hughes 
: Oh yeah the Exclusive Brethren will agree with that bill! 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I want to say to that member that the people will win. The people will win because this is a small and vigorous democracy. 
The people have run out of “lolly-nomics”. They have run out of Dr Cullen ranting at them because they are doing everything wrong—things that he does not like such as buying houses. They have run out of Helen Clark who even on the marvellous occasion of the recognition of the bravery of a New Zealand warrior overseas could not help giving it just that slight political tone by sticking with Willie Apiata all day never moving out of camera shot and not inviting the Opposition to the presentation at Government House. The New Zealand people are tired of that. They want to look forward. They want to know how we are going to face the challenges of a global economy that is showing signs of unravelling. They want to know how we are going to deliver more growth to a community that has found out that economic growth is good for people and can give them more health more education more family security and more savings. That is what people want to know.