Coleman Jonathan: General Debate 
Coleman Jonathan: General Debate 
[Volume:656;Page:5245] 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Immigration) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. What a very very difficult time this must be for the Labour Party members. Everything their leader touches turns to mush. Phil Goff is having one heck of a time out there trying to get traction on any issue at all that will get him into the news headlines. Last week’s gaffe on the Monday was trying to roll out the dole to the spouses of millionaires. He thought he had his facts right but by Tuesday it had all turned to dust. On Wednesday he brought a member of the public into the debate but once again without checking the facts. Of course we know how that went. But that lot over there are absolutely desperate to get in and score points on whatever they can. They have been reduced to rolling in the gutter and trying to launch personal attacks on Cabinet Ministers without having anything of substance to bring to the debate. They do not realise that the more they wallow in those beltway issues that are of no interest to the New Zealand general public the further and further away they get from being elected. 
It is really interesting to see the Labour members’ performance in the House today. It is noticeable that there is no senior whip present to keep that lot under control. Where is the whip? The whip is on TV in New York every morning; he has given up on them. I do not know what the junior whip was doing. But quite frankly the performance from the Labour Party in question time today was absolutely disgusting. When we think about the fact that we have an Opposition whose chief whip cannot even be bothered to be here during a sitting week we realise that shows that things are all going downhill. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member quite inappropriately referred to the absence of a member. The whip is in the chair. Could the member please withdraw. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: I will hear the member. 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: I think it is pretty obvious that Darren Hughes is in New York. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: The member must not refer to the absence of any member from the Chamber. He will desist from doing that. 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: When we look at what these—[ 
Interruption 
] I withdraw and apologise. 
When we look at what is happening with regard to the Labour lot though we see that no one is in charge over there. There is no strategy; there is no plan in the House. The plan in the House is that Trevor Mallard gets up and disrupts any answer from the Government and the Labour members try to turn the proceedings into an absolute brawl. There is no discussion of policy. There is no admission that the Labour members know anything about the issues that the New Zealand public are concerned about. 
But do members know what is really interesting? A lot of the people on the Opposition side of the House are very happy with how things are going. Maryan Street Ruth Dyson David Cunliffe and Chris Carter cannot wait to see the back of Phil Goff. The worse the situation gets the happier they are. It is getting worse and worse down in the Labour corridors but those members want it to get so bad that they can mount a coup. 
Meanwhile what is the Government doing? We are getting on with doing the business. This week the Prime Minister is announcing the first seven routes for the cycleway. This is a positive infrastructural move that will build something for the New Zealand economy. It will produce jobs it will leave a lasting piece of infrastructure and it will boost the tourism industry. That is what those guys need to be focusing on—something positive. 
What did Gerry Brownlee and I announce yesterday? The business migration policy. That policy was a complete failure under Labour. In the last 2 years Labour brought in three people in two categories. It was a complete disaster. Labour members are not interested in business. They are not interested in adding to the economy. They had no plan to improve the business migration policy; it was a complete disaster. What has National done? We have worked with ethnic communities with business and with community groups and we have looked at what needs to be done. We have lowered both the language requirements and capital requirements for business migration to ensure we can attract people here who have the capital that New Zealand business needs in order to grow the economy. We want to attract more people with entrepreneurial skills so we have introduced the new entrepreneur-plus category. If someone can come into New Zealand bring half a million dollars into his or her business and employ three New Zealanders full-time then we will fast track that person towards the granting of residence. Those guys in Labour had 9 years to get that going but they did not take any notice of the need for capital in the economy. 
The Labour members do not have an economic plan but they will say what they are against and not what they are for. The funny thing that we notice is that when they are asked some questions about local government Phil Twyford is in favour of the Auckland super-city. He started off by saying that he was not in favour of it but I read the letter he sent to constituents. He is denying it. Those guys are in favour of the super-city. But we need to know whether they are going to rescind the super-city. I say it is pretty unlikely that they would do so. 
But do members know what? When we look at health we see something quite amazing. Labour members talk about what they have been doing in health but I can tell members what they were going to do. They were going to cut $113 million in funding from health. In terms of new funding it is $100 million out and $50 million out. 
The Labour members are lost. This Government is doing the business and Phil Goff is a dead man walking.