Coleman Jonathan: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeColeman Jonathan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 29 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15644. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Defence): There are some interesting characters in this Parliament and you have just heard from one of them. That was the New Zealand First MP from the North Shore Andrew Williams. I tell you it will be really interesting to see him front up to Korean Day in a couple of weeks’ time and tell the Korean voters of the North Shore that he does not want them to be able to buy a house on the North Shore. I do not think he will be invited to Chinese New Year at Northcote this weekend because they will not want to hear that sort of xenophobic rant either. There was so much wrong with that speech that it is hard to know where to start. But one thing I did pick up is that New Zealand First has today announced a community wage. Of course it is completely uncosted but you could heap that on to the other heap of $750 million of uncosted promises that Labour the Greens and New Zealand First have announced and we are not even at Waitangi Day.Of course there are some other pretty interesting members in this Parliament as well. I was sitting in my electorate office the other day doing my electorate work when this red van went by with “MP for TeAtatū” on the front of it. I thought: “This is a long way from PhilTwyford’s stamping ground.” But what I found out is that Mr Twyford has been doing a kayak tour of theWaitematā Harbour to test water quality when really all he needed to do was log on to the council website. But I guess when you are in Opposition there are very few ways to productively use your time so you may as well just go kayaking and pretend it is work.But neither of those two are quite as interesting as that shaven-headed whack job who was on the TV last night. He is a member who frankly I once thought had a great future but for him the future ain’t what it used to be. It was the member for Dunedin North David Clark who was there. He looked like he had just drunk Jim Jones’ Kool-Aid and was pronouncing that Labour would ban Facebook. It would ban Facebook. So if you do not comply with what Labour wants and if you are not falling into line it will ban you. Labour will ban Facebook. It will probably ban the North Shore because theNorth Shore is not going to fall into line with what Labour wants. Labour will probably ban 50 percent of the National electorate because National certainly does not agree with the Labour Party either.But none of those three members are quite as interesting as the leader of the Labour Party who yesterday announced the “Worst Start” policy—that is the worst start for Labour’s year in Parliament. It was a couple of days ago—his state of the nation speech. David Cunliffe has actually misled the public of New Zealand because he said that anyone having a baby and earning a household income of less than $150000 a year would get $60 a week in the hand. I guess a lot of people thought well that was pretty good. But unfortunately the fine print was not included with that policy. As Patrick Gower has written today his opinion is that Labour has been “dishonest”. That is Patrick Gower’s word not mine. His opinion is that Labour has misled the electorate because when you look at it if you are getting paid parental leave for 26 weeks you do not get the $60 until after that is over. That was yesterday’s revelation. Today we also find out that on top of that if you are getting the in-work tax credit for Working for Families you do not get it.So David Cunliffe went out there yesterday and he was here doing his opening address for the year being all sort of fauxblokey leaning on the desk like this—like he is leaning on the public bar leaner. I do not think they have public bars in his part of the woods—that is Herne Bay which is not actually his electorate. But he has been misleading the public of New Zealand. So the more David Cunliffe talks the more the public is going to find out what is going on.You see the real problem for David Cunliffe is that fundamentally I do not think he believes in a lot of the policies that he is being forced to announce. He came in with this big left-wing backing from the unions. He knows that $60 a week—do you know what? When my child was born when I was a backbencher I would have qualified for that $60 a week payment. That is ridiculous. That is not targeted good public spending. That is crazy stuff. The electorate is not going to be impressed with that.Meanwhile on the other side of the fence we have got the Prime Minister’s statement yesterday. It was a very coherent concise and well-reasoned explanation of the Government’s programme and that is the truth of it. We have focused on the things that matter to New Zealanders. We have had our four priorities—growing the economy sound fiscal management better public services and rebuilding Christchurch. We have focused on those relentlessly. In the end I can tell you—take a tip—the public will vote on those things that really matter to them. It is the economy it is being able to get to the hospital when you need to it is being able to feel safe in your own home and it is being able to ensure that your child is going to a school where you feel confident in the educational management. That is what we are focusing on and that is where Labour has lost the plot. I tell you what. Those members know it because actually they are not united on the approach they should take. They have gone further and further to the left over time. Actually if you are going to grab those middle New Zealand votes that is not going to work. I can tell you that.So it is going to be very interesting to see what happens this year because there are two clear sides to the argument. There is a Government that has stuck to its priorities and that has presided over 3.5 percent economic growth over the last year that has a firm plan for the way ahead and that actually does what it says it is going to do. Then on the other hand you have a Labour Party that will be in cahoots—in coalition—with the Greens who are going to be there if they ever get on the Treasury benches spending and spending and spending more money that they do not have. It is going to be bad.I will give you a couple of examples. David Cunliffe has already said: “Well we’re going to scrap the GST off fruit and vegetables plan and we are going to scrap getting rid of that tax-free first $5000.” He reckons that is going to free up $1.5 billion to spend. Well that is about as silly as someone walking down the street here in Wellington seeing a nice suit or a nice dress or whatever in the window of a shop and saying: “I’m not going to buy that and by doing that I’ve actually saved the amount of money that I would have spent otherwise.” So it is false money because actually there is no GST revenue to spend. There is no tax-free threshold to remove. So these guys are playing with phoney money and they do not understand that.What they also do not understand is that actually when you make spending promises the money comes from somewhere. I can tell you where it comes from. It comes from taxpayers’ pockets. What these people do not understand—because this is the best job they will ever have being backbench MPs in this Parliament—is that the wealth in New Zealand is created by entrepreneurial people who go out there who take a risk who create jobs and who actually stimulate the economy.What the Greens want to do is saddle the average New Zealand household with a $500 increase in the energy bill that that household will have every year OK? These guys over here in the Labour Party want to put up the top personal tax rate. I tell you what. This “Bad Start” programme will be paid for by increasing taxes. In the meantime they are going to be increasing the gap between the company tax rate and the top personal rate and what that will do is it will encourage tax avoidance.So I can tell you that on the one hand you have a very coherent set of policies you have got a very solid record and you have got a brilliant Prime Minister in John Key who understands the electorate and who understands what is needed to get the economy going forward. If you do not believe me look at Moody’s rating yesterday on the New Zealand economy. We are in the top 10 developed economies in the world and we are progressing on the right track. The alternative is an incoherent tax and spend profligate group of people with vastly different approaches to life. There is Hone Harawira the right wing of the Labour Party the left-wing core of the Labour Party and frankly the crazy Green Party. Who do you think the public are going to choose? The future for New Zealand is with the solid dependable path to growth that the National Government under Prime Minister John Key represents and I totally affirm his statement.