English Bill: Adjournment — Sittings of the House 
English Bill: Adjournment — Sittings of the House 
[Volume:659;Page:8617] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Acting Prime Minister) 
: 
 I move  
That the House do now adjourn until 2 p.m. on Tuesday 9 February 2010 and that the sitting days in 2010 be as follows: 
February 9 10 11 16 17 18 23 24 and 25; 
March 16 17 18 23 24 25 30 and 31; 
April 1 20 21 22 27 28 and 29; 
May 4 5 6 18 19 20 25 26 and 27; 
June 1 2 3 15 16 17 22 23 24 29 and 30; 
July 1 20 21 22 27 28 and 29; 
August 3 4 5 17 18 19 24 25 and 26; 
September 7 8 9 14 15 16 21 22 and 23; 
October 12 13 14 19 20 21 26 27 and 28; 
November 9 10 11 16 17 18 23 24 and 25; 
December 7 8 9 14 15 and 16. 
It has been a long year for the New Zealand economy and for New Zealand families. If we cast our minds back to January or February when the House got back together we will remember that the world was transfixed by a financial crisis and there were some very real concerns that the economies of the developed world would go into some kind of free fall and meltdown. So coming to the end of the year we are able to reflect on what is perhaps New Zealand’s good fortune—we dodged the worst of the financial crisis—and also on the good management of a Government that has helped to stabilise the economy and helped to stabilise and rebuild confidence. Yesterday the Government produced some economic forecasts that show some improvement on the Budget as recently as the middle of the year. 
It is a time also when we should reflect on those who are hardest hit by a recession and generally in this recession as in others they are often those who are least able to carry that burden. So there will be families going into Christmas where the primary earner or both earners have lost their jobs and they will be concerned about what their prospects are for next year. In fact many of them will be concerned about how they will get through next week. That is why it is so important that we continue to focus on policy that will give hope to those families who face Christmas with doubts about their own futures. 
It is also traditional at this time of year to thank those who have helped to make our democracy work and on behalf of the Prime Minister I wish to do that. But I start by thanking the Prime Minister for his leadership and also for something that we have not seen in politics for a long time and that is the sheer enjoyment of the job. The sheer enjoyment of the job is a happy change from the dour sad look of the previous Labour Government as it departed this Chamber just 13 or 14 months ago. 
I thank you Mr Speaker for your oversight of the Chamber. I see now that the public holds you in the same high esteem in which we have always held you. I have been in the House with you for 19 years Mr Speaker and it is pleasing to see that others are seeing those aspects of your character that we have always known about. I thank your Deputy Speaker and Assistant Speakers. 
I thank the staff and officers of Parliament in the Clerk’s Office and the travel office the security staff and the police who work in the complex and always have a pleasant word for us. I thank the select committee staff the Hansard reporters the messengers the catering staff and the cleaners whom many of us see coming into the building just as we are leaving. I thank the librarians in the Parliamentary Library Parliamentary Service the staff who support our MPs and also our out-of-Parliament offices and the staff there who tirelessly work for our constituents many of whom of course have greater needs because of the recession. 
I thank those staff who actively support the Government: the staff in Ministers’ offices and in the whips’ office; the staff in the Cabinet Office and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet who with their high degree of professionalism ensure the successful operation of Cabinet; the support staff in Ministerial Services and the Visits and Ceremonial Office; the VIP Transport Service staff who also always have a pleasant conversation with us to pass the time of day; and the staff of the Parliamentary Counsel Office. 
I also thank officials from Government departments. It is always a big deal for officials when the Government changes but this year I acknowledge the professionalism and excellence of the New Zealand Public Service. It has handled a change of Government and a drastic change in fiscal outlook with professionalism with independence and I might say in some cases with courage and urgency. 
I thank the Government’s support parties. They came to the support arrangements with this Government with great goodwill and I can say with something of a divergence of interest and opinions. But it has always been clear from the start that the relationships we have with United Future the ACT Party and the Maori Party are relationships based on respect not always agreement. I thank them for the integrity they have brought to some sometimes very difficult issues—the integrity of being open with their concerns and of dealing openly about those concerns with other Ministers and their integrity in backing the position that the Government has come to. I am very pleased to note that the innovations this Government has made in building on changes that the previous Government made to coalition arrangements have worked out well—such as support party Ministers regularly attending Cabinet committees. That has created I think more of a sense of a collective interest and a broad understanding of each other’s points of view about a wide range of issues. I acknowledge the critical part that those parties have played in bringing stable Government and if there was a year when stable Government was needed in New Zealand it was this year when there has been so much uncertainty in the wider world. 
I thank the press gallery whose esteemed members have provided careful reporting and thorough analysis of what the Government has been doing and who have shared in a professional manner both the good news about what the Government is doing the bad news about what the economy is doing and the occasional minor issue that the press thinks is a big issue. But you know that is all part of the political process. 
I also thank the lobbyists because they have learnt what good governance is about. We have had to educate them; when they turn up now they bring along serious cases and they are willing to take responsibility for the discussions and the decisions that are made. How many times have members of the National-led Government had lobbyists and interest groups say to them: “Isn’t it great the Government has changed.”? And some of Labour’s best friends have come along and said to us that it is great that the Government has changed. 
I thank the Opposition for giving us such a free run. I never thought that getting into Government in a recession would be so easy in the Chamber and so easy in the battleground of the media. I particularly thank my Opposition counterpart David Cunliffe. I had thought through the year that he was auditioning for the leadership of the Labour Party but he is not; he is auditioning to be the next James Bond. What is more he has almost persuaded me that he might be the right sort of person for that part. 
Of course the Labour Party can reflect on the year. At the start of the year its leadership was secure and firm but now by the end of the year it is in doubt. There is no point in Labour denying that because I know what it looks like. I can give Mr Goff in fine detail the manual that his caucus is following—step one through to step 17. Labour members are up to about step two but there is nothing more inevitable than step three step four and step five and I am quite happy to report on the benchmarks as they go. So the first report I tell Mr Goff is that Labour members are on step two. There will be a barbecue season—there is absolutely no doubt about that. There will be a barbecue season. But I can tell members that it will not be at Phil’s place. It will not be at Phil’s place. I wish the Opposition and their families all the best of Christmases.