Hipkins Chris: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: General Debate[Sitting date: 20 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3474. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka): The truth is starting to catch up with National Party members. It is starting to dawn on them that making outlandish claims about good economic management means that the public actually expects good economic management. As it all starts to come unravelled and it starts to become abundantly clear that that is not what they have been delivering it is all catching up with them. When Alfred Ngaro speaks about borrow-and-spend Governments he does not accept the irony that this Government has actually had the largest borrowing record of any Government in New Zealand’s history.Hon Member: More than Muldoon’s?CHRIS HIPKINS: Even more than Rob Muldoon’s. This Government has borrowed more money than any other New Zealand Government.He talked about borrow and spend in the context of a Labour Government. Well let us bring some facts into that as well. The Labour Government ran surpluses for 9 years—every year that it was in Government. In fact not only did it not borrow but it also paid back the debt it inherited from the previous National Government and it did that whilst saving for the future through the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. Thank you Michael Cullen. As Bill English said when he first became the finance Minister Michael Cullen and the last Labour Government saved for the rainy day that was the global financial crisis. This National Government squandered the whole lot. It squandered it all. It has left the New Zealand economy completely in a basket case because the Government has wasted every opportunity that it has been given and it is all catching up with it.The promises that John Key and the National Party made have not been kept and it is all catching up with them. What did John Key say? He said that it would be a fundamental purpose of his Government to narrow the wage gap between us and Australia and to grow local wages in New Zealand. How has it done on that? The wage gap with Australia is now bigger. It is bigger than it was when the National Party became the Government. The wage gap has got bigger. That is a broken promise. He said: “I am not interested in selling assets; I’m all about building assets.” That is what John Key said. Has the Government kept its promise? No it has not. Assets have been sold off right left and centre.This is a direct quote from John Key: “We would prefer that we were a more equal society with less inequality.” And yet the inequality gap in New Zealand has continued to get bigger and bigger under this National Government. That is broken promise No.—I am up to about 4 now I think but we will keep going because there are plenty more. “I expect high standards from my Ministers.”—that accounts for broken promises Nos. 5 to 87. “I expect high standards from my Ministers.” Broken promises Nos. 5 to 87 are accounted for in that. But of course John Key cannot keep that promise when he will not lead by example. He also said: “My style is to be open and transparent.” Well that is broken promises Nos. 87 to 163 from John Key because he certainly has not been open and transparent. We have had plenty of leaks from the National Government—the things that it did not want us to know about—and it has been abundantly clear that open and transparent he has not been.Let us talk about some of the other promises: “National is not going to be raising GST.” One of the first things it did was put GST up—another broken promise from the National Government. Some of its more recent promises: free doctors’ visits for the under-13s and free prescriptions for the under-13s—except not all of them; only about 90 percent of them. It did not tell the public about that. So there are still 10 percent of kids who do not qualify for that.Hon Annette King: More than that.CHRIS HIPKINS: And probably more than that—another broken promise by the National Government.Then of course it promised to lift wages. It said that average wages will move from $55000 to $62000 under the National Government. Bill English is already saying that that is not going to happen. He is already admitting that that is yet another broken promise by the National Party. I have lost count already. We are up to 200 and something I think broken promises by the National Party. “Over the next 2 years we expect to see about 150000 jobs created.” the National Party promised. Not one single forecast from any economist or from Treasury has indicated that that is going to be delivered.And of course then we have got the big promise. It promised New Zealanders not that it was going to deliver a surplus but that it had already done so. It told New Zealanders that it had already done so and now not only is it not going to deliver a surplus this year but there is also real doubt about whether it will deliver one next year. Bill English was very cagey when asked about Treasury’s telling him that it would have to rely on a recovery in milk prices to deliver the surplus next year. He would not answer questions because he knows that it cannot deliver—another broken promise.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.