Bennett Paula: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett Paula: General Debate[Sitting date: 06 November 2013. Volume:694;Page:14406. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development): I moveThat the House take note of miscellaneous business. What we have is the “Yeah Nah Labour Party”. We have a wishy-washy party with a wishy-washy leader that does not know what it stands for or what it really means. What we have is the “Yeah Nah Labour Party”. It cannot decide where it stands and cannot decide what it means. Labour wants to be the “Assure Party”. What it is actually is the “Unsure Party”. Labour does not know what it stands for. You have got to say that at least the Greens know what they stand for and that is against anything that will actually mean jobs and growth. DavidShearer may have been the “Yeah um” leader but now we have the “Yeah nah” leader. There is no doubt about that.Let us take the man ban—take the man ban as one example. Labour turned round and said: “Yes yes we want a man ban. We want a man ban.” and then: “No no no yeah yeah no no no we don’t want a man ban.” Then of course we have just had the weekend when it came back again and said: “Yeah yeah yeah we will.” So it is “Yeah nah yeah.” We have got one for that.Let us take Cunliffe who does the “Yeah” to one audience and then “Nah” to another audience. Inside the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions conference we had “Yeah” to the living wage and “Yeah” to paid parental leave. Then quite frankly he stepped outside and went: “Oh nah. Oh nah—yeah nah. Yeah nah. Yeah we kind of want them but we’ll just back-pedal here faster than Shane Jones does with a remote. Yeah nah we actually didn’t mean it or maybe at some stage if we can get to it.” Cunliffe is telling one audience “Yeah” but then again he does owe the unions remember. So one message to the unions—in fact David Cunliffe might be at the meat workers’ union now instead of in Parliament and showing that he actually owes it something and that that is where he should be.Labour’s position on big big projects is: “Yeah nah. Yeah we sort of want jobs and that rhetoric sounds good so yeah we’ll go on about jobs. But nah nah we won’t actually support anything or vote for anything that means growth or that means jobs for real families.” In fact let us take the classic example of that which is the New Zealand International Convention Centre. It is the topic of the week. Let us take the convention centre. Labour said: “Yeah nah yeah nah we won’t be voting for the convention centre. Yeah nah we don’t support jobs. We don’t want $400 million dollars that taxpayers won’t have to pay. Yeah nah we don’t want more tourism. Yeah nah we don’t want to see those jobs coming in.” Unless of course Labour is speaking to Skycity itself then it is: “Oh yeah yeah. Actually if we’re in we won’t roll back the contract. Actually if we’re in the word on this side is yeah nah.”Cunliffe says: “We didn’t mean what we actually said.” Let us just quote from him here when he said to Skycity: “Do you want it straight from the shoulder? Here it is. We will not rip up the contract. We will not throw out the terms of Skycity’s gaming licence.”—yeah nah. Yeah nah.His rhetoric this week the “Yeah no” on what he is doing—in one breath on that convention centre he has most certainly done the “Yeah nah”. His response to the unions right now—and let us remember who he is responsible to. Let us take trade. Trade is a goody is it not? When he was in Government he said: “Oh yeah we need more trade. Yeah we’ll support trade. Free trade is good for the country. Free trade is good for jobs for Kiwis.” But now that the unions have got him wrapped round their little finger it is: “Nah nah—well maybe. Yeah nah yeah nah maybe we’ll support free trade. No we don’t think we will now.” because the unions are actually pulling the strings not the “Yeah nah” leader who quite frankly is so wishy-washy.Let us take superannuation. David Cunliffe says: “Yeah we want people to work harder. Yeah we want people to work longer. Nah nah not now the unions are actually running things. Nah it doesn’t sit quite as well so we’ll just backtrack hugely on that one as well.” as he is kind of moving along.Take national standards. In 2012—just last year—we had it quite emphatically from the Labour Party: “No we will not cancel national standards.” Now that the unions are pulling the strings it is: “Yeah nah. Yeah nah.” Just last weekend we had the leader saying that he would scrap national standards: “Yeah nah. Yeah nah. We’re not really sure exactly where we stand on those things as well.”So let us contrast that to the National Party which stands for something. What will the public be saying next year to Labour? “Yeah nah.”