Brash Don: Adjournment 
Brash Don: Adjournment 
[Volume:627;Page:22367] 
Dr DON BRASH (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 That speech from Michael Cullen was full of half-truths quarter-truths and non-truths. It was full of self-satisfied self-congratulatory claptrap designed to fool the public—I will come back to that in a moment. Madam Speaker let me also add my thanks to you and to your colleagues for the way you have conducted this often very unruly House in the last few months. I also thank the staff who keep this place functioning: the Clerk of the House—and by that of course I mean “Clerk” spelled with an “e”—David McGee through to the Hansard reporters the messengers the telephonists the drivers the security staff and all the rest. I give special thanks also to the staff of the National Party. 
I also pay tribute to some of those who have given valedictory speeches here in the last few days. Roger Sowry has made a great contribution in this House—and not just as an MP but also as a hard-working conscientious and compassionate former Minister. He will be sorely missed. Lynda Scott has been unable to give her valedictory speech this week because she is unwell but she has also made a great contribution over the last 6 years and would have made a fine Minister in the next National Government. I am personally sorry to see Richard Prebble go. He has been an extraordinary politician and has left an indelible mark on New Zealand. 
Michael Cullen has argued that Helen Clark’s Government can take the credit for good economic growth over the last 6 years. No objective observer agrees with him—not one. Treasury does not agree with him the Reserve Bank does not and the OECD does not. They recognise that growth over the past 5 years has been virtually identical to growth in the previous 5 years despite two successive droughts and the Asian crisis in that earlier period. They recognise that growth in the past 5 years has been driven by factors Helen Clark can take no credit for at all: high commodity prices a low exchange rate low international interest rates and a flow of people into New Zealand after September 11. None of that has had anything to do with the performance of this Government. 
In the adjournment debate of 1999 when Helen Clark was Leader of the Opposition she said: “I am not prepared to stand back and see the best and brightest of New Zealanders leave this country taking their ideas and their businesses with them. We are going to build a future here for those people.” Well 6 years later New Zealanders are still pouring out of this country and Helen Clark has stopped talking about that because she has done nothing at all to stop it. She used to talk also about getting New Zealand into the top half of the OECD within 10 years. She has stopped talking about that as well which is just as well because there is absolutely no chance at all of New Zealand accomplishing that with its current policies. The New Zealand economy has already slowed down sharply with growth in the 6 months to March this year of less that 1 percent— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Above the average. Better than you achieved. 
Dr DON BRASH 
:—to an annualised growth of less then 2 percent I tell Mr Cunliffe. No reputable observer believes the New Zealand economy will grow at more than 3 percent a year for the foreseeable future. 
A Government cannot crank up growth overnight—a Government cannot even crank up growth in 12 months—but surely a Government can crank up growth over 6 years. Surely there should be some sign of an increased trend growth rate if current policies will deliver it. But of course current policies will not deliver faster growth. On current trends we will never again be in the top half of the OECD let alone be there within a decade. As a consequence of that the exodus of bright New Zealanders will not only continue but will grow. The student loan policy announced by Helen Clark will have absolutely no effect on that. Why is that? Because 94 percent of those holding student loans already live in New Zealand. Most people with student loans do not leave the country. 
When Helen Clark finally announced the election date last week she said this election would be about trust at least in part. New Zealanders trusted Helen Clark to improve our economy and stem the exodus of New Zealanders overseas. Well she has done nothing to improve our growth rate or stem the exodus. She has failed to fix the Resource Management Act she has failed to fix the infrastructure problems of this country she has increased the bureaucracy she has increased the tax rates and she has increased the compliance costs facing the business sector. The exodus continues— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Bill’s on the way back! 
Dr DON BRASH 
:—and grows I tell Mr Mallard. New Zealanders trusted Helen Clark to deliver a good-quality education system but we have seen more resources channelled into the education bureaucracy while schools struggle with inadequate resources. We have seen the shambles of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement implementation and we have seen prodigious amounts of money wasted in the tertiary education sector. New Zealanders have trusted Helen Clark to lead the country towards harmony and togetherness. Instead we have State-sponsored separatism being extended from parliamentary electorates to local government district health boards and primary health organisations with special privileges for Maori New Zealanders in legislation and in the funding of health care and education. 
Now the Labour Party has taken to telling half-truths and lies as we have seen from Trevor Mallard and Phil Goff over the last week. Labour is desperate to avoid debating the issues of real concern to mainstream New Zealanders and will stop at nothing to try to divert attention on to something else. That of course is what has been happening in recent days. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Who’s paying the bills? Who’s pulling the strings? 
Dr DON BRASH 
: There is no American bagman I tell Mr Mallard. National’s policies are being written in New Zealand I tell Mr Mallard by New Zealanders in the interest of New Zealanders and there will be no change in the antinuclear policy unless it is approved by referendum. I guess we can expect to hear more of those kinds of diversions every time Helen Clark or her Government get into trouble. 
Of course the Government has now started to throw bribes around. Less than 2 months ago Michael Cullen told the people of New Zealand that he could not afford tax cuts of more than 67c a week in 3 years’ time and all of a sudden he has found $500 million of extra funding for roads. National applauds more money being allocated for roads but asks why it took the election campaign for Michael Cullen to find that money. Last week the extraordinary and extraordinarily cynical student loan bribe was announced. Nobody whom I have met regards that as a good policy. It is massively expensive and it sends absolutely the wrong signals to students. 
I am happy to make this election campaign about trust and I am happy to make it about integrity and experience. It is true that I have had just 3 years’ parliamentary experience—about the same length as Bob Hawke had before he became Prime Minister of Australia—but I have had long experience in the real world. I am more than happy to contrast my experience in the real world with the experience of Helen Clark’s 24 years in Parliament and umpteen years in academia. 
The reality is that this election campaign will offer New Zealanders a choice. That choice is between on the one hand a politically correct social engineering arrogant Government that has done nothing to improve our growth rate or to stem the exodus of Kiwis and that believes it can spend our money better than we can and on the other hand a party that offers New Zealanders a fresh start with new faces and without arrogance—a party that wants to leave as much money in the hands of those who earn it as is consistent with the wider needs of society being fully met. The National Party is that party.