Hughes Darren: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Hughes Darren: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:637;Page:7399] 
DARREN HUGHES (Labour—Otaki) 
: 
 If I were John Carter I would be one of the last members of Parliament to talk about governing arrangements. The highlight of John Carter’s parliamentary career was when he was the senior Government whip. His entire job was to stand up and cast the vote for Manu Alamein Kopu who was given a third-floor office in the Beehive and a limousine in which to run around Wellington City. He had to cast individual Independent votes for Tau Henare Tuku Morgan and RanaWaitai. They were too lazy to form a party for parliamentary purposes because it meant that one of them had to be in the Chamber all the time and they could not have that. He had to cast the votes of Ann Batten and every flotsam and jetsam breakaway that ever existed and that was the pinnacle of John Carter’s career. If I were John Carter I would not come down to the Chamber and start talking about governing arrangements because nothing in New Zealand will ever be as bad as that pathetic ragtag Government that limped out of the 1990s when he was the chief whip. 
It is a great pleasure to support the Prime Minister’s statement in the Chamber tonight. There is no doubt at all that after 7 years New Zealand is a stronger fairer and more confident society because of Helen Clark’s Government and the leadership that Labour working cooperatively with other parties in Parliament has been able to deliver. In this country which is fairer stronger and more confident people are doing a lot better but there is still a huge amount to do. We do not have a Labour Party if we think everything is going to be fine and we arrive at a point where we are finished. If we think things can be at a point where we are finished we join the National Party we become conservative people and we think that after implementing two or three policies everything will be sorted out. But we are progressive people in the Labour Party and we believe we have to keep on going keep on moving and keep on rising to the challenges. 
This year the challenge the Prime Minister gave to the country was around sustainability. The National Party does not like that. Its members spent 10 minutes in every speech they gave telling us why they did not like the number of times the word “sustainable” was mentioned but they were not able to propose policies that would be environmentally friendly. The Prime Minister suggested that we have a big goal for our country: that we try to make our country the first one in the world to be carbon neutral. She has put out a few policies that we could work on this year as a Government and as a community as individuals around this country and businesses to try to achieve some of that. I know that it is a hard challenge; there is no doubt about that. The environment has reached a point where people are now focusing on it in a way that other parties have done for a lot longer. It means we have to do something about it in a very real way. 
The Prime Minister put out the goal which is what the leader of a country should do and now we come through and look at some of the specific things she mentioned. She talked about New Zealand’s energy efficiency strategy. We talked about the targets for biofuel sales. We talked about making the Public Service carbon neutral as a way of modelling good behaviour to the country. We talked about the Government procurement. The Government buys a lot of things in the course of a year and if there is a way we can work with the business community to establish products that are environmentally friendly and as carbon minimal or neutral as they can be then the Government ought to bring procurement to the fore in that regard. We talked about ways in which we can let our households identify how they might be able to reduce their carbon emissions as well. 
I want to know whether National Party members support or oppose those policies. They are silent now—even Chris Auchinvole who is paid $115000 a year to scream in the evening only but is very quiet in the afternoon. I have not quite worked out why that is. He is always a little bit louder at night. He is paid a lot of money. He will not give us an opinion on some of those specific policies that have come out to meet the wider goal of making New Zealand a carbon neutral society. 
Of course the Government will continue with the themes of last year: delivering economic transformation to get wages up and to get jobs more sustainable in New Zealand; delivering to families young and old; and also making sure that we build a strong sense of national identity. [ 
Interruption 
] I hear the two list MPs asking how we will do that so let me give them an example of it in respect of families young and old. On 1 April this year we will give every family who is eligible for Working for Families an extra $10 a week per child. Does the National Party support or oppose that? 
Chris Auchinvole 
: You haven’t done it yet. 
DARREN HUGHES 
: It is going to happen on 1 April. It is legislated for. The National members voted against that and this year kids in our electorates will get $10 a week extra per child from Working for Families to help those families. John Key wanted to give that money— 
Anne Tolley 
: But it’s their money! 
DARREN HUGHES 
: Anne Tolley interjects that it is their money. She misses the point. John Key does not want those families to have it. He wants her to have it. So Anne Tolley wants to take 10 bucks a week per kid off the children from low-income families—because their taxes can never be cut enough to give them that amount—and she wants to take it for herself. I am against that and Working for Families is the way that this year we are going to support families young and old—to answer the question from the list MPs. 
We are going to move this year on KiwiSaver. We are going to bring in the last group of people for the primary health organisations. We are going to give 4 weeks’ annual leave—less than the amount that members of Parliament take—to every working person in New Zealand. We are going to put the minimum wage up to $11.25—that was opposed by National members; it was 7 bucks an hour when they were in charge of New Zealand—it is going to be $11.25 just next month. We have the SuperGold card in coalition with New Zealand First to deliver to seniors in that regard and we are bringing a big focus on Export Year 2007. 
In my own electorate I am delighted to see unemployment fall spectacularly. Do members know that only 29 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds in the town of Levin are unemployed? We have cracked the problem of youth unemployment and now we have to make sure the wages for those kids come up. We are investing in the pensioner housing scheme which the Minister of Housing talked about earlier that delivers a $10 million package to Horowhenua. In May we will open the Horowhenua Heath Centre—a $16 million investment. DesignTex will open up with $2 million worth of Government money in order for us to bring our apparel and textile companies to bear. This year we will do a lot of work on transport to further the aim of Transmission Gully and to get our rail network sorted out between the Kapiti coast and Wellington. So I am very delighted indeed about what the Labour-led Government will mean for my electorate of Otaki. 
I look across at the National Party and see that under MMP all different sorts of styles emerge but I have never seen a major party operate a dual leadership system. It is a new innovation under MMP when we have co-leaders of the Opposition. There is no doubt at all that Bill English pulls all the strings over there because John Key is good for only one thing: getting up and making a few gags. There is no substance to John Key and how do we know that? He went to give a speech in Burnside all worried about poverty. Then he said there would be a food in schools programme. He found somebody who ran a muesli bar company who would supply some food. What do we then find out? The guy running the company was a neighbour from his street in Parnell. This is not a detailed thought-out policy; this is a case of John Key chatting to a guy over a barbecue over summer and saying he would not mind a few of those muesli bars being sent to a school in Auckland. A Government cannot be run on anecdote which is what John Key is attempting to do. That is why lurking behind him is Bill English. But Bill English made a fatal flaw today when he spoke in the House: he called other parties in Parliament toxic. 
Debate interrupted.