Duncan Helen: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Duncan Helen: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:623;Page:18265] 
HELEN DUNCAN (Labour) 
: 
 I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in this debate. I am really proud of the achievements of this Labour-Progressive Government. However I am a little bit sad to follow the previous speaker. Her speech was a sad pathetic speech in so many ways. Knowing the attitude towards women of the current leadership in the National Party and what was actually done to that member this time last year—after the first Orewa speech when Dr Brash lost the first of his women’s spokespeople—we are now looking at the same thing happening to Katherine Rich. It is very sad. 
When we think back to the previous election campaign we realise that we have had a forerunner of this situation of course. When National thought it would lose in 1999 what did it do? It carefully divested itself of all its good women MPs from the top spots. Some of us remember women who made a sterling contribution in the House—Katherine O’Regan Belinda Vernon and Annabel Young. They were all hard-working MPs but were all relegated well down the list to make sure that the men went through and were elected. That attitude contrasts very much with the attitude of my own party that encourages the participation of women and that actively works to promote women. 
The results are obvious in the way the country is going. Women comprise 51 percent of the population and if we do not encourage that 51 percent to take a full and active role in the economic and political life of our country then we will not get the best results. One cannot ignore half the population and expect things to go well. 
I am proud of the measures that have been put in place for women by the Labour-Progressive Government. Paid parental leave has been extended during the term of this Government after having been introduced during our previous term. We have also done a lot of work in early childhood education that benefits women immensely. There is increased funding for childcare and after-school-care subsidies more places in early childhood education and from 2007 there will be 20 hours of free early childhood education a week in community-based services. Of course lower and fairer tertiary education costs are important for women as are increased family incomes. The 4-weeks’ leave is a boon for families and there are a lot more women now in Modern Apprenticeships. We are encouraging women in all walks of life. We can contrast this with the attitude of Dr Brash and we will see why women are so keen to support this Labour-Progressive Government. 
In listening to some of the Opposition spokespeople talking particularly about the area of housing one would feel like laughing if it did not make one want to cry. Access to decent affordable housing for all New Zealanders is a fundamental part of the social policy of this Government. To hear National Party speakers talk about housing and home ownership and criticise this Government is really ironic when one thinks what that party did to homeownership in this country. 
I do not mean just the selling-off of State houses and the iniquitous market rental that National put in place; I actually mean the sale of all the Housing Corporation mortgages. Those low-interest mortgages and low-deposit homes were what gave the chance of homeownership to thousands and thousands of low-income New Zealanders one of whom was myself as a sole parent. What did the National Party do when it was in power? It sold those mortgages and then frittered away the money and destroyed the income stream that enabled the Housing Corporation to house low-income New Zealanders and help them get into their own homes. 
We are looking now at ways to try to resurrect those sorts of policies. But with the asset base stripped away—because all those mortgages are gone that gave the income stream that made homeownership possible—it is very hard to go back and retrieve that situation. We are looking at ways to solve it and have had a homeownership pilot scheme running and we will be even more innovative in those areas as time goes by. We are committed to it so I am not prepared to listen to Opposition members talking down this Government’s efforts when I know what they did when they were in power—which was to destroy something that meant so much to low-income New Zealanders. 
I would also like to commend the work that this Government has done in the area of employment relations. We replaced the draconian Employment Contracts Act with the much more balanced and fair Employment Relations Act and in this term of our Government we have improved the Act even further. Because I was on the special committee that introduced the Employment Relations Act I can remember all the stories of doom and gloom that Opposition members put about at that time. The sky was going to fall because we were putting in place a fair industrial relations regime. Well the sky did not fall and the economy has gone from strength to strength. All good economists know that one needs to reward people—all sections of society—for the work they do. 
New Zealanders are entitled to decent living wages. I was working in a hospital in Auckland during the time of the Employment Contracts Act under the previous National Government and every time the contract was sold the salaries and wages of the cleaners and workers in that hospital went down. They actually went down. Those cleaners and workers would come and talk to me and the women would be crying. They were hard-working Polynesian women doing the menial jobs that nobody else wanted to do and every time there was a change of contract their wages went down. But now National members in Opposition get up and talk proudly about what they did. It is absolutely disgraceful. 
I am proud to be part of a Government that has made those changes. We still do not have a high-income regime in New Zealand for ordinary working people but it is a darn sight better than it was. We have increased the minimum wage five times in the last 5 years. We can contrast that with no increase at all during the 9 years of a National-led Government. So I am proud of what we have been able to do for ordinary working New Zealanders even though it is not as much as we would like to do. The minimum wage has increased and so has the youth rate. I am really proud about all that. 
I want to mention accident compensation briefly too because that is another area of success. When we became the Government we moved swiftly to renationalise our accident compensation scheme. Again all the doomsayers said that it would be the end and that things would get worse. Well things have not got worse. Under this Labour Government average employer levies have remained the same for this year as they did for the 2003-04 year. The Australian comparative performance monitoring report said that while Australian levies were similar to those in New Zealand 6 years ago New Zealand rates are now on average 65 percent less than those of Australia. That gives us as New Zealanders a clear competitive advantage in most industries. That is what the Government has been able to do. 
We know that the National Party should it ever become the Government again—which is most unlikely—would re-privatise or at the very least open accident compensation to competition. We know that because it has told us. That just shows that there is no way National learns from its mistakes. Those National members have not even got the nous to learn from the things they did wrongly last time. Recently of course Australian private insurance schemes have been in trouble. HIH which was hugely active in the New Zealand market went belly up with great losses. That would have happened in New Zealand if it had not been for our Government which got us out of that situation. 
So I am proud to be part of a Government that has done great things for this country. It will continue to do great things for this country and for the people who live in it.