Mark Ron: General Debate 
Mark Ron: General Debate 
[Volume:620;Page:15672] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 Today New Zealand First wants to acquaint listeners with the extremely poor showing of this Labour Government and in particular the utterly abysmal performance of a number of its Ministers. It never ceases to amaze me how individuals when in Opposition roar like lions but once they get their hands on the tillers of power and their backsides into the limos they just revert to being sleepy little tame pussycats who sit in the comfort of their offices curled up by the heater and doing absolutely nothing. 
I want to give a few examples. Annette King the Minister of Health has presided over a chaotic health service that has gone steadily backwards and under her stewardship the system has failed dismally to bring about the improvements she promised when she was in Opposition. We now have longer waiting lists—we have waiting lists to get on the waiting lists—for surgery than at any time in the past. We are witnessing a failed health system which she has built full of bureaucrats. Morale amongst health professionals has never been lower and what is more no improvements are in sight. Her only success seems to have been in securing an excellent job for Mr King at the Hastings hospital but recent publicity shows that even that enterprise is failing and cost overruns of $50000 a day have now been confirmed. No wonder there is no money for real health services—quite clearly it has been siphoned off into the pockets of highly paid and very incompetent bureaucrats and administrators led by that Minister. Can members imagine what Labour would say if under a National – New Zealand First Government a charity hospital were built in Christchurch—a situation that is now firmly on the cards? 
Let us turn to George Hawkins our police Minister. What an absolute failure! What a disappointment he has proven to be. Criminals now have photos of George on their mantelpieces because he represents the best friend they have ever had. That failed Minister has devoted his years in the job to choosing the paint schemes of the cars that now make up his growing police traffic enforcement enterprise which has become a huge cash cow for this Government. George Hawkins would rather deploy his police staff to jump out from behind parked cars and flax bushes to ticket senior citizens on their way to church for minor offences than apply himself to dealing to the thugs criminals and gang members that prey on our society. Far from becoming a threat to criminals George has become their saviour. 
Now he and his colleagues Phil Goff and Rick Barker have set in train a whole new plan to reward criminals by paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars of hard-earned taxpayers’ money because the nasty police officers flicked tea leaves on to their hands during an interview or even worse took away their teddy bears and comforters for an hour or two thereby causing them serious trauma for which our fine human rights laws state they must be compensated. What absolute nonsense and what an embarrassment those Ministers have become. Perhaps George Hawkins’ next plan will be to have the baddies paid so handsomely that they can travel off to the fleshpots of the world under the justification that whilst they are over there they will not commit crimes here. It is probably a good scheme! However taxpayers will not suffer such stupidity for very much longer. The newly emerging practice of bowing to pressure from the human rights lobby for criminals is regrettable and we only wish those same individuals could demonstrate the same degree of anger frustration and commitment towards helping the victims of crimes when they have had their rights subjugated by villains. 
In conclusion the people of New Zealand have had a gutsful of being poorly served by this team of poorly performing Ministers. Even the Prime Minister has now sent a shot across poor George’s bows but he appears not to have heeded her warning. His job is in jeopardy. There is no doubt he will get the chop and what is more he thoroughly deserves it. He has let the people of New Zealand down badly and he is simply not up to the job for which he is richly reimbursed and the perks of which he richly enjoys. The Government came into office and told the nation that things were going to be different things were going to be better it was going to blitz the waiting lists it was going to eliminate the gangs and it was going to deal to crime. We now know that the Government picks and chooses who it will prosecute for whatever obscure reasons and that waiting lists are longer than they have ever been. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: Before I call the next member I point out that members speaking should and must address other members in the correct way. The score of transgression so far is 4 to 2.