Gilmore Aaron: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Gilmore Aaron: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Advance Copy - Subject to minor change before inclusion in Bound Volume.] 
AARON GILMORE (National) 
: 
 That was a wonderful speech from the previous speaker Mr Davis who prior to that speech had a future in the Labour Party. I think Mr Goff saw that he had a future. But it only goes to show the one underlying factor I have picked up from speeches from Labour members in recent days which is that they cannot add. I know that Mr Davis was a good teacher in the far north but his speech showed me that Labour members cannot add. 
In the last 2 days we have seen a whole lot of choices being presented to New Zealand—a future of choices. There is a choice between having a balanced prudent fiscal position—a sustainable position for my children and grandchildren to live in in this country in the future—or one where a bank from somewhere overseas comes and takes us over because we do not have the ability to pay our bills. 
Under a Labour Government we would have the situation of another generation of extreme borrowing and a crisis would occur. Under Labour we would have a situation where we would be borrowing— 
Kelvin Davis 
: $3000 a minute you’re borrowing. 
AARON GILMORE 
: —whatever the amount is that Mr Davis might think is the right number—another $5 billion a year. What might that mean? Labour members are telling people not to worry because Labour has a plan. I would like to hear it and the public would like to hear it but we have not heard it. We heard Mr Darren Hughes talk earlier tonight about his plan. He said we should cut Mr Hayes’ Government pension and that that would save $1 million. That just goes to show us that Labour members cannot add. The last time I heard Mr Hayes did not get $1 million a year. 
We have heard Labour MPs—and I can talk about the one whom I ran against Ms Dalziel—say they would go and get another job if they could but they would not get one paying what they are being paid now. That shows us the future that the Labour Party sees in New Zealand. 
Today at question time we had a question about the decade of deficits that was coming at the point of the 2008 election. What did Labour members do? They went quiet because they knew it was true. They knew that New Zealand was facing a bankrupt position which is why New Zealanders voted in a John Key - led Government. 
Do members know what another $5 billion under Labour would mean to the mums and dads back home? It would mean a situation where interest rates would go up by about 4 to 5 percent per annum just like they did in Greece Ireland and Portugal. On the average house mortgage in New Zealand which is $150000-odd that rise would shift repayments from $100 to $150 a week depending on where people live and how much they borrowed. That is what Phil Goff will give New Zealand—not 10 bucks a week from his $5000 tax-free income but an increase in people’s mortgage that they cannot afford. That would not be a sustainable position. It is not a position that I want nor do the majority of New Zealanders from what we have seen in the polls. 
We also heard today the rhetoric about early childhood education. I know a bit about early childhood education. I have two young kids. I have been through the sector. My mother was the founder of a playcentre. I went to a playcentre. I have been involved in the movement. My children have gone to everything from community-led centres and parent-led centres through to private centres with fully trained staff. Do members know what? Those centres all have positive aspects to them. 
In the last 6 months I have visited 16 centres in various parts of Christchurch. What I heard when I went and talked to those people was that people like choices. They like having the ability to say that if they are parents they do not care whether they have a degree but they want to be able to raise their children in some way. That is why we put in place 20 hours’ early childhood education for playcentres and kohanga reos. Under Labour those centres were discriminated against because they were not run by union members. If people were running a playcentre or a kohanga reo they did not get the right amount of money because they were not part of the early childhood education union. I thought that situation was outrageous. That is one of the reasons we are part of the Government that brought in equalisation that treated centres across the country the same. That is what we believe in. We believe that all people are equal. 
We have inherited a situation under Labour where 40 percent of the kids in the country cannot get access to early childhood education—right now it is 40 percent. There was a meeting 2 or 3 weeks ago in Christchurch that the Labour Party summoned me to go along to. I turned up in Christchurch. I had a whole bunch of union people screaming and yelling at me and saying that we need 100 percent qualified teachers because that was the right way to do things. I said that that was OK and that was fine but I asked who would pay for it. They said that somebody else could pay. That is the problem with Labour: it is always that somebody else can pay. 
The problem we have with the union mentality is that there are not enough people to pay for all the things it wants them to pay for. I will show members a couple of things. The wonderful Ministry of Education has this great pamphlet for early childhood centres about early learning. It states that young children are readers writers and mathematicians. Given the numbers that we have seen from Labour members in recent times I think they could do with a bit of mathematician training. This pamphlet states that parents family and whanau are important parts of a child’s learning. It does not state anything about union members in here. I challenge the Labour members to look at this early childhood curriculum for parents at home and see what it means for early childhood centres. 
We have had record spending in early childhood education this year more than any other Government has ever spent. That means 3500 kids around New Zealand will gain access to early childhood centres who did not have it previously. I challenge Labour members to go to those parts of New Zealand that are getting money for a new centre and say that they cannot have that money because a guy down the road wants a better-quality education and he does not want to pay for it. I do not think that is fair. We will have 3500 extra kids accessing early childhood education in New Zealand because of this Government and that is a wonderful thing. 
One of the other wonderful things we have talked about is the area of science and innovation of which I am a big fan. We have Dr Mapp in the Chamber. He is a wonderful proponent of the great work that is being done in this area. We inherited a ridiculous policy on what was called a tax credit. I will tell members about some of the stupidity that occurred under that policy. Every accounting firm in New Zealand thought it was Christmas—every accounting firm. Every senior tax accountant in New Zealand suddenly ratcheted up his or her rates. They were suddenly making $300000 or $400000 extra in billing because they were going to anyone who had any form of research and telling them not to worry about it and that they would fill in the forms and get them some money and they would take a cut. That is what we saw. We saw not one extra dollar of research and innovation but we saw every accounting firm in the country make money. I know that that was the case because lots of my friends did it and they were very open about it. 
Under Dr Mapp and our John Key - led Government we have seen a move towards innovation. We have seen some wonderful movement in terms of grants to incredibly innovative companies a couple of which I have very fond knowledge of. One company is based on rockets and the other makes jet packs. They are wonderful companies that have a great future in New Zealand. 
Hon Dr Wayne Mapp 
: YikeBike. 
AARON GILMORE 
: And YikeBike. YikeBike is an innovative biking company in Canterbury. Those are the sorts of businesses that will grow New Zealand create our wealth and perhaps give us innovative jobs. The challenge for us is to create real sustainable jobs. People will pay taxes and that will get New Zealand back into a sustainable position. 
I will talk briefly about a series of disasters that we have encountered particularly the earthquake in Canterbury. In Christchurch where I live a series of significant problems has occurred as members will know. With regard to my family my brother’s home has been destroyed my mum and dad’s home has been destroyed and my home has been damaged. Mrs Adams’ house has been damaged. One of the major aspects of the situation for us is rebuilding the infrastructure of Christchurch. I am looking forward to the big presentation on Friday a blessing for the first part of the infrastructure rebuild in Christchurch. 
I will tell members a little thing about some of the reasons why the people of New Zealand will re-elect a John Key - led Government on 26 November. When I was first elected a lady called Joan knocked on my door. Joan lives in a State house not far away from my electorate office—my out-of-Parliament office sorry; I am not allowed to call it an electorate office—and she had been trying to get her fence fixed for 8 years. She was a former Labour Party member. She could not get the fence fixed. She had a dog and a 2-year-old grandchild who kept running through the fence. She could not get it fixed. I rang the Housing New Zealand Corporation which said something about there being problems problems problems and massive bureaucracy and that it would take all these forms being filled out before the fence could be fixed. Do members know what we did? We asked the local people to come down to fix the fence or we would have fixed it ourselves. For 9 years Joan had been dealing with the local Labour MP trying to get things fixed. The crazy thing was that we got it fixed and in 5 minutes she went from being a Labour voter to a National voter because we changed a little bit of her life in some way. 
Carol had a different situation. Carol’s heater had gone bung and she could not work out how to make her house warmer and better. We arranged to have her house insulated. She ended up putting an energy-efficient device into her home. The result of that help is that she thinks the National Government is the greatest thing in the world. For 9 years she tried to get help from a Labour Government that would not give her help but told her time and time again that she was not important enough and that she was not of the right group for it to help in any way. 
Those are the reasons why a National-led Government will be re-elected on 26 November. It is all about science and innovation investment in infrastructure smarter public services a fairer and better tax system and smarter regulation. That is why on 26 November we will see a John Key - led Government and a return to prosperity for New Zealand. Thank you.