King Annette: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
King Annette: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
[Volume:661;Page:9549] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
: 
 “The Government has a technique for brushing aside issues that it would rather not confront”. That was the editorial in today’s  
New Zealand Herald 
. It also said that this Government is jumping on the bandwagon to be popular and to get votes with a haphazard approach and little analysis to back up its decision. The 
 New Zealand Herald 
 was talking about the Government’s decision to give $300000 to the All Whites soccer campaign even though New Zealand Football will receive $10 million from its governing body FIFA. The editorial was headed “$300000 to ride the bandwagon” and it concluded that the Government’s contribution was essentially meaningless but that it gives Mr Key the chance to hand over the cheque. That editorial shows that even the  
New Zealand Herald 
 is starting to see through this Government. 
Paul Quinn 
: What about Trevor’s stadium? No one wanted it. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The Government is all sizzle—and we are listening to some of it over there now—and absolutely no sausage. 
Wherever we go now people are saying that John Key is the Prime Minister who just smiles and waves. It does not matter what the issue is he just smiles waves and has another photograph taken. While New Zealanders are having to cough up $300000 for a pretty picture of John Key handing over a cheque to an organisation that does not need it old frail and disabled New Zealanders are having their small amount of home support cut. It is not house cleaning as Tony Ryall is telling New Zealanders. Those support workers might be cleaning old people’s toilets because they cannot see to clean it themselves but they are also buying food for those old people to be able to eat. That little bit of assistance is being cut by this Government even though it can give $300000 to an organisation that did not ask for it and does not need it. That is the Government’s priority. 
Tony Ryall is now the “Minister of Silly Talk” because he says “No no no it is not a cut in service. It is a change of service.” Obviously he has been educated in the school of doublespeak because in anyone’s language if one day we have a service and the next day we do not have a service then that is a cut. I ask Mr Ryall to say the word “cut” because that is exactly what he is doing to the most vulnerable people in New Zealand. Old frail and disabled New Zealanders are having their home support cut. 
Prior to the election National not only made all the promises that the Leader of the Opposition outlined today but also made a promise not to cut health services. National candidates made a big stand on that platform before the last election. They said that nothing would be changing and that there would be no cuts. Where did the National Government start those cuts? It started with the people who it thinks will complain the least. It is no wonder that Grey Power and all the organisations that support older New Zealanders are increasingly alarmed at the attacks on their members. They are asking why this Government hates old people. It is no wonder they are putting out statements like the one that states that this National Government is shaping up more and more like the days of Jenny Shipley. I particularly enjoyed this quote from Grey Power: “If this is the way the National Party treats those low income people then they are looking very much like a one term Government.” 
This is a Government that is making decisions for the few and not the many. Why else would it announce an increase in GST? 
Paul Quinn 
: Even Hutt South is going to go in the next election. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: There is not one member in this House who does not know that an increase in GST will mean higher prices. Even Paul Quinn knows that an increase in GST will mean higher prices not just on his second flat-screen television but also on ordinary New Zealanders’ bread butter and milk as well as their power rates accident compensation and doctors’ visits. The many will be paying the most because they already spend most of their incomes on daily living. Seventy per cent of New Zealanders earn $40000 or below. I tell the Government to remember that figure. A 20 percent increase on the tax those people—our old people single people who are on low incomes beneficiaries and middle income earners—pay for the basics will hit them very hard. 
No one believes John Key when he says that most people will not be worse off but why should they believe him? Before the election he told New Zealanders that there would be no increase in GST. He also said after the election that there would be no increase in GST. He duped New Zealanders. The nice Mr Key said there would not be an increase in taxes. He said he would decrease them. Well consider this: what do we call increasing GST from 12.5 percent— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am really sorry to do this to my colleague but if no one in the Government will defend Mr Key when he is being called a liar I just want to ask whether the rules have changed in the House and people are now allowed to be called liars. I note that no Government member is disputing the fact but I think it might be an abuse of the parliamentary process for my colleague to call him a liar so often. 
Chris Tremain 
: The issue we have on this side of the House is that like the New Zealand public no one on this side is listening to the deputy Leader of the Opposition’s speech so that is probably the problem. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: If the member specifically made that accusation I did not hear it. I thought the member was skirting quite close to what was acceptable. It is probably better that she moves a bit away from that. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I used the word “duped” and I do not think that has been ruled out in this House. As for Mr Tremain saying that no one is listening I say he should go on believing that because the people in his electorate who earn $40000 and less will be looking very closely at whether they should waste another vote on that member who does not think an increase in GST will hurt them at all and that they will be all right after the tax cut. What do we call an increase? I ask Mr Tremain to answer this: what do we call an increase in GST from 12.5 percent to 15 percent? Is that an increase in tax? Mr Tremain’s leader said: “No increases in taxes.” but that is an increase. 
I think we should call the Prime Minister the “Minister of Broken Promises.” Nobody believes the Prime Minister as was shown in a very recent Westpac consumer confidence survey. That survey showed that almost 60 percent of New Zealanders feel they will be either worse off or no better off after the tax cuts and the increase in GST. That is what New Zealanders think about what this Government is promising. If middle-income New Zealanders think the tax cut will make them better off they will be very very disillusioned after the Budget this year. 
A colleague of mine was talking to a dairy worker in provincial New Zealand— 
Paul Quinn 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The speaker referred to a survey by Westpac. I have the Labour Party press release in front of me and it says— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: That is a debatable point. It is not a point of order. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It was also not a point of order because it was aimed at breaking up my speech and I think you ought to rule on that. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: Let us just talk about points of order that break up speeches. I think members on both sides of the House are guilty of that and I would not like to try to decide at this point as to where the most blame for that should go. I think we should leave that alone. It is also out of order to comment on a point of order on which I have ruled. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: It is a shame that Paul Quinn does not take a call in this debate instead of shifting from his seat in the back of the House and being big and brave. He should have the cameras on him. 
A dairy worker living in provincial New Zealand and working in Hawera shared with a colleague of mine last week his costs and his outgoings. After 16 months of a National Government he is going backwards. His gross income is $69549. The basic outgoings for him and his family are greater than his income. That will not help him to stay in New Zealand; in fact it will drive him offshore. But wait a minute: was the National Party not going to close the gap with Australia? It was not an aspiration; it was a promise. It is so easy to do it when one is in Opposition—“We’ll just close the gap with Australia. We’ll just say it in Opposition and hey presto there will be milk and honey the sun will shine longer and that wage gap with Australia and New Zealand will close.” Let me tell this House that the wage gap is growing. It will be bigger in 2010 than it was in 2009 but more than that the Grant Thornton International survey which National used as its Bible when it was in Opposition said that the big difference between the New Zealand economy and the Australian economy is that Australians are hiring people and New Zealanders will be part of a brain drain to Australia. So much for the promise that National would close the gap. 
I have to say that although National members are praising themselves and patting themselves on the back about how great the reforms have been not one of those reforms had anything to do with anything the Government did; it was due to the fact that a Labour Government left them with a very good set of books and that is why this country has done better than a lot of other countries around the world.