Brownlee Gerry: General Debates 
Brownlee Gerry: General Debates 
[Volume:606;Page:3570] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (NZ National—Ilam) 
: 
 What a mess the Government is in. It sent in the lightweight Rick Barker to have a go at the ACT party and he asked about the dopiest question that a Government member could ever ask. The answer to his question is simple: ACT’s situation arises because Helen Clark rewrote the rules to suit Jim Anderton. It is as simple as that.  
When a Government starts to get caught up by its own spin it is in the early stages of becoming terminal. Without a doubt this week is a turning point for this Government. Poor old Michael Cullen was in the House today firmly on his back foot trying to tell us that the 1200 military personnel in the Gulf have nothing to do with the US forces there. He tried to say that the air vice-marshal sitting over there in the Stout Street defence headquarters is giving those personnel their orders day by day. What a load of garbage that is! There are New Zealand troops in the Gulf under the command of an American general and when the balloon goes up if anyone in this House thinks that general will tell the New Zealanders to go and do a little exercise to pretend the US is not giving a hiding to Iraq and not to be involved in that then he or she is severely mistaken. The Minister of Defence needs to get his head out of the sand poke it up and say to the people of New Zealand exactly what the situation is.  
Later in the week we will see the Prime Minister at the knowledge wave conference. She was there last time it was on saying what a wonderful thing it was. She said to the gathering that the Government had a key role to play in leading the changes that have to happen in order to improve New Zealand’s prospects. Well what changes have happened? There were very very few changes. How much of the advice from that conference has been put in place? There has been practically nothing. In the Prime Minister’s statement—I was going to say in her Speech from the Throne; she called herself a powerful ruler when she spoke to the “International Council of Female Trade Unionists” the other day—she said that the Government was looking at some of the ideas advanced by Professor Michael Porter. He said we should lower taxes improve our infrastructure encourage competition and get the Government out of the economy. What did we get when the Prime Minister went to the “International Council of Female Trade Unionists”? She proudly proclaimed that the Government had increased taxes had stopped the privatisation of accident compensation had moved to regulate labour markets had imposed draconian health and safety laws would now impose paid parental leave and holiday pay at a much higher level than has been the case in the past and has prioritised improvements to workplace law. Goodness knows what that will mean for business.  
The question I have for the Prime Minister is this: what will she say at the knowledge wave conference this year? What will the spin be? One can bet one’s bottom dollar that there will be a line there that ignores the fact that we have had increased local taxes increased import taxes a 4c per litre tax increase on fuel increased accident compensation levies for motor vehicles increased employer levies for accident compensation power price rises of in excess of 10 percent the extraordinary cost of the Resource Management Act a hazardous substance levy on business and health and safety courses imposed as compulsory requirements on businesses. Those things will not get a mention. The Government will completely ignore the fact that New Zealand business people since the knowledge wave conference last time now face if they own an average-sized business extra costs of over $43000 a year in order to operate their businesses.  
This Government claims that it knows where it is going. Helen Clark stood up at the “International Council of Female Trade Unionists” and proudly proclaimed that New Zealand is an OECD star because we had growth of 3.9 percent. As Dr Brash said in the House today 3.9 percent does not move us one iota on the OECD’s lifestyle and well-being rankings. It would take over 10 years of growth of in excess of 4 percent for us to move from position 21 to position 10. The Government is saying that the best it can ever expect is 3.9 percent economic growth. It has given up and it is on its way out.