Brown Peter: General Debate 
Brown Peter: General Debate 
[Volume:623;Page:18484] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. Today I want to talk about the fraud that this Government is imposing on the elderly. This Government cares more about aberration than superannuation. This Government is more concerned about extending human rights to transsexuals transvestites and cross-dressers than it is about the plight of the elderly. 
John Tamihere 
: Ha ha! 
PETER BROWN 
: That member over there can laugh but this Government will see a State television newsreader get paid $15000 a week while the elderly pensioner receives less than $250 a week. That is what this Government stands for. This Government cares more about gay couples than about normal couples who are told to get by on $383 a week. This is a Government of deception. 
The Government’s own figures—I have them right in front of me and I will table them at the end of my speech—show that the elderly are getting less than 65 percent of the average wage. That is the rate the Government promised them but they are receiving less than they were promised. On occasions it looks to me as if it is significantly less. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The elderly not only are being ripped off by superannuation payments but are facing serious anomalies over the rates for couples if one of the couple is over 65. They are inflicted with long hospital waiting lists—far longer than ever before—and face soaring power telephone and petrol prices. And the Government is going to increase those petrol prices even further. Frankly this Government does not look after elderly folk. It regards them as some kind of problem. 
Who are the people we are talking about? Some of the people we are talking about fought for this country in the war. They were prepared to take up arms for the good of this country. They looked after their youngsters with far less assistance than is available nowadays. Those are the people we are talking about. I say to the Minister—and I see he is not in the House—that the elderly are not fools. They will not be taken for granted. They are more interested in trying to survive on the pittance being granted them by this Government than they are in helping cross-dressers and transvestites. I challenge any Government member to tell me how many elderly folk have come to him or her and said that they are concerned about cross-dressers. I bet they have come in their hundreds to Ministers and Government members and asked: “What are you going to do about my power bill?”; “What can be done about petrol prices?”; “What can be done about ever-increasing power prices?”. Do Government members know how many of the 1200 people who died last year on the hospital waiting list were elderly? 
Darren Hughes 
: People don’t die because they’re on a waiting list. 
PETER BROWN 
: The member is being quite flippant about people on the waiting list. He should go out and talk to some to these elderly folk and hear their concerns about how they are treated in terms of the hospital waiting list. It is just a circus quite frankly. 
Hon Mark Gosche 
: Wake up before you speak. 
PETER BROWN 
: The member can talk! I challenge him to come with me and talk to some of these elderly folk. It is quite moving and emotional to see the situation they live in. The member opposite makes flippant remarks and is dismissive but I say that the way in which this Government is applying assistance to the elderly is just a circus. It is an absolute disgrace. In some areas of the country elderly people are struggling to survive. If one goes down south in the middle of the winter one is told that many of them do not get out of bed in the morning because of the cold and power prices. 
Hon Mark Burton 
: When have the members on that side done that? They pushed prices up to the max. 
PETER BROWN 
: I am not asking what people on this side have done. I have been to Dunedin and spoken to some of the elderly folk and I asked them directly about their problems. This Government should look at their situation and help them. 
I seek leave to table information as a result of a question to the Minister. It clearly shows that the elderly folk in this country are being undervalued. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.