Mallard Trevor: General Debate 
Mallard Trevor: General Debate 
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Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 There is an old expression: “Lies lies and statistics” and I think we have heard some statistics that fit into the third category of that expression. The member who has just resumed his seat David Bennett said for example that average inflation was 7 percent over 2 years. He was trying to imply that that was average annual inflation but it was not. It was 2 years’ inflation rather than an average. He got that wrong. But then he is consistent with the approach that Bill English has been taking on wages. 
Bill English has been focusing on average earnings and if he was straightforward that would be fine. But he is pretending that average earnings for New Zealanders are going up. But they are going up only for some of the people who have jobs and 61000 fewer people have jobs than had jobs in the period he is referring to. So when 61000 fewer people have jobs including a disproportionate number of young people—Mr Assistant Speaker the member Sandra Goudie appears to be having a fit. Is she all right? 
Sandra Goudie 
: I’m just amused. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Sorry; I seriously thought there was a problem. 
Dr Cam Calder 
: I think she’s fine. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: OK that is good. She is normal. 
I go back to the fact that Bill English refuses to acknowledge that so many New Zealanders have lost their jobs. People who lose their jobs tend to be lower-income New Zealanders which artificially inflates the averages for those who are left in work. But even with that over the last year using the latest figures available the median person who is employed has had a wage cut—not a real wage cut but an actual wage cut—of $9 and that is something that should be causing a lot of anxiety in the Government. 
The previous speaker Mr Bennett from Hamilton bemoaned the state the economy was in when National took over. I quote for him what Bill English said on 18 December 2008 as he released the state of the economy and the forecast—it would be the half-year economic update I presume. At that time Bill English said: “I want to stress that New Zealand starts from a reasonable position in dealing with the uncertainty of our economic outlook. We have room to respond. This is the rainy day that Government has been saving up for.” That is what he told reporters. 
I agreed with Audrey Young when she said that Bill English was swallowing a dead rat because he had said for a number of years that New Zealand was paying off its debt too quickly and that there should be tax cuts instead of that debt being paid off. But it was good that for at least 5 minutes in 2008 Bill English recognised the truth of the situation. 
I would like to make reference to the policy announcements and the developments in terms of overseas ownership of land in New Zealand. I acknowledge some of the comments that have been made by members opposite. The Labour Government did sell off more land than it should have. 
David Bennett 
: 600 million dollars! 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: We were wrong in that area. I do not think that the figure the member is using is entirely accurate. It is certainly not accurate in a net term because quite a few of those sales were sales from for example the United States to Canadians. 
Hon Dr Wayne Mapp 
: No those were net payments. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Sorry; I accept the Minister’s word that that amount was net and that means that we were even more wrong than I was prepared to admit. We made mistakes in that area and that has hurt. It has hurt the ability of young sharemilkers to get on to the land because it has artificially inflated prices. It has hurt us in our balance of payments in that a whole lot of money from those profits has gone offshore.