Chadwick Steve: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Chadwick Steve: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:606;Page:3317] 
STEVE CHADWICK (NZ Labour—Rotorua) 
: 
 It was memorable today to hear the Prime Minister outline very serious and inspirational issues. I take it this Government will be a three-term Government. That gives us great confidence to move on our economic reform programme and on our programme based on growth and innovation education and health as key cornerstones of where we are going.  
I want us to reflect on a summer that was hardly contentious. In fact it was a somnambulant summer of content. However it was definitely a summer when mad dogs and Englishmen came out in the noonday sun. Let us focus on some of those mad and bad dogs and on irresponsible dog-owners. It was absolutely vital to see that the Prime Minister has picked up that issue and emphasised the need for urgency in reviewing and amending the Dog Control Act. In this Westminster system we do have bills and one of them was brought to the attention of the House today. That was the Local Government Law Reform Bill (No 2). I was simply appalled that leave was not granted today for its discharge and referral to the Local Government and Environment Committee. There is no carping on why leave was not given for that in the House today. If all of us cared about that bill and cared about what is going on out in our communities that seeking of leave would have been granted with unanimous support. The situation will reflect very badly on those parties that did not support that bill being referred back to the correct select committee.  
The Local Government Law Reform Bill (No 2) however does very little about mongrels and unregistered dogs and their irresponsible and thoughtless owners. The “Dog Seizure Amendment Bill” that I proposed which has been in the ballot in this Westminster system of government gave the very powers to strengthen the Dog Control Act that local body dog control officers have been asking for over the last 2½ years. I am very pleased to hear the Minister of Local Government Chris Carter with the support of the Prime Minister affirm today that we will take this issue seriously. That will give some comfort to Carolina’s parents. It is a cheap shot to actually delay the process and hide behind the Westminster system. That is pathetic when we could have got on and done something about the issue today.  
Also I have to say there have been a few mad-dog ideas floating around this summer. We will leave Mr Prebble to be dogged by Donna Awatere Huata until things are resolved appropriately and I support her for waiting her time. Let us look at Don Brash a forward-thinking policy dynamo—the best the Opposition can come up with—asking people to queue outside the postshop to pick up rubbish. What a pooper-scooper idea that is! He would rather the unemployed go out and walk the streets and do something absolutely pathetic called “work for the dole” than give them meaningful training and meaningful skill development so that they can get jobs. I applaud the record low level of unemployment of 4.9 percent. I have seen people in our community turned round because of getting their first job. In fact they are coming into the office to tell us they have got their first job. For one gentleman it was his first job for 15 years. Why did he get it? The reason is that he was given some skills to go out and get a job.  
I want to cover another issue that as a midwife and mother I find simply appalling as a policy-float idea. It came from Katherine Rich the Opposition spokesperson on social policy. She said: “I’m not your DPB-bashing sort of person ... Most of the people I meet on the DPB are pretty motivated people who have the same dreams and aspirations as the rest of us. Beneficiary bashing is a most unsatisfactory practice. It doesn’t really take you anywhere.” She said that in August 2002 and the next thing she has come out with are concepts of time-limited benefits and vaccination requirements limited to beneficiaries—“No pricks no money.” What an absolutely appalling link-up it is to put that on to beneficiaries.  
Let us go back to what Katherine Rich said: “Most ... people on the DPB are pretty motivated people who have the same dreams and aspirations as the rest of us.” Well those mothers too know the importance of vaccination and it is certainly a disincentive to say that they will not get their domestic purposes benefit unless they get their babies vaccinated. If the failure to vaccinate babies is a problem then we need to fix that in another way. It is appalling for a woman—one woman in a party with very few women—who has had the privilege of comfortably taking maternity leave supported by her colleagues to come out now and absolutely attack young mothers who are doing the best for their babies and who are motivated. That stigmatises them and is simply appalling and the women of New Zealand will not buy it.  
If the rate of vaccinations is an issue let us look at how we can resolve it. The Opposition does not even understand that vaccination can be managed through primary health developments. In our community we have a 95 percent rate of cover of young babies who have been fully vaccinated. Let us work now on the conscientious objectors who worry about vaccination: the intelligentsia who refuse vaccinations because they are well informed and have made the choice that vaccinations are not for their children. That is the population group we need to look at not at young mothers on the domestic purposes benefit. I am appalled at that and so are other young mothers whom I have met.  
It is really interesting to see the roll-out of primary health organisations. That is something the Opposition just does not accept— 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: Rolled it out. 
STEVE CHADWICK 
: It is rolling out. By 31 July there will be 36 primary health organisations in this country and they will cover 1.4 million New Zealanders. Primary health organisations are on a roll all right and that cannot be avoided.  
Let us now look at the leadership bid which is another rather odd mad-dog thing that happened from Gerry Brownlee over the summer holidays. Looking at that we can see it is actually Bill English who is firing all the blanks. It is really rather sad. There was obviously a leadership bid with Gerry Brownlee proposing a treaty bill—an intellectual approach I am sure. Or was it the “Dumping of Bill Bill”? If we listen to what people are saying about the National Party’s stance on Maori issues we hear them saying they have never thought National regarded them with much respect or interest. Opposition members are actually saying that themselves. One standard for all—is that what they want? Is that why Wira Gardiner walked from the National Party? Did he walk away despondently because the party had decided it would no longer focus on Maori? We suffered the dogma of “one people” for one decade and we are now having to clean up the problems resulting from that. Attempting to broaden the base of the National Party in order to include Maori on an inclusive basis has simply failed.  
I want to finish by mentioning some positive happenings in in my electorate. Tourism is booming and it is helping the economy. We have opened one more Maori tourism venture this summer. We now have an established centre of excellence in wood technology and training. There are huge training opportunities in added-value timber industries. On Friday I am opening a wood products biotech industry called Tree Lab which is focusing on biotech for woody plants rhododendrons grapes and avocados—huge revenue huge investment and more jobs. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: More GM. 
STEVE CHADWICK 
: It is nothing to do with GM; it is biotechnology. The member should get it right. The Prime Minister is coming at the end of February to open Damar Industries on an industrial park. It is the first huge outfit on the industrial park and is focusing on research and technology providing more jobs in our community. The Minister of Conservation opened the Mamaku block Pakeke and added it to the conservation estate this summer. That is a huge plus for our community. We had the summer arts festival where we had the lake-side concert and Opera in the Pa with community engagement and not one kerfuffle. This is a community on the move out in the regions reflecting and covering everything that the Prime Minister proposed in her speech today.