Cunliffe David: General Debate 
Cunliffe David: General Debate 
[Volume:652;Page:1412] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 People would not know from that speech that 87000 more New Zealanders are going to lose their jobs this year and that a quarter of a million New Zealanders live in families with an unemployed person because that speech was all about some fantastical picture of the inner politics of the Labour Party. 
Well it is a great honour that Jonathan Coleman spent time talking about the Labour Party but actually it is not about us and it is not about the National Party; it should be about New Zealanders. We face one of the greatest crises New Zealand has ever faced—the equivalent of the Great Depression or the Great War—and National is playing petty politics with New Zealanders’ futures. You know you have 3 days left to show leadership. It is going to be an amazing 3 days is it not? I suppose you will not do it tomorrow because the House will still be in session. That gives you 2 days. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I will not be doing it. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Sorry not you Mr Speaker; the Government has 2 days. That gives the Government days 98 and 99 to show us the 100-day plan of action which has been cunningly hidden until the last possible moment in order to reduce opposition to it. 
One can only assume that in the next 3 days we will see the National Government’s real package for small and medium sized business not just the stuff the previous Government did which ACT opposed as being insufficient and that this Government said it would go past—or perhaps not. We will see a real infrastructure plan not just a rebranding and retiming of a few rats and mice that were already in the pipeline—or perhaps not. We will see an honest and detailed disclosure of the latest forecasts for the economy—or perhaps not. We will see tax relief that benefits all New Zealanders and that does something more than transfer three-quarters of a billion dollars from below-average income earners to chief executives and politicians—or perhaps not. We will see a strategic framework for innovation and productivity something that really underpins our businesses that are trying to make and export goods and services—or perhaps not. All this Government has done is to can research and development tax credits and now pick winners of individual companies. 
We are nearly 100 days in and I will reflect on what National started with. It started with a few raw numbers that now sound like they are from a forgotten age: a 25 percent real increase in personal incomes; 377000 more jobs not 87000 fewer jobs; significant increases in the minimum wage each year every year not just keeping up with inflation; 130000 children lifted out of poverty not consigned back to it after some people left; 12000 new State houses not a bogus increase of 69 at the same time as canning the Hobsonville development and the Home Ownership on the Public Estate programme cutting 2000; and 137000 fewer people on the unemployment benefit. 
It does not take long for summer to fade does it? It does not take long for the chill winds of winter to sweep across our economy. New Zealanders do not blame National for all of that. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: They blame Labour. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: They certainly do not blame Labour for it because they know they had a much better time in the previous 9 years. But they do ask that there is honesty that there is clarity and that there is strategic coherence in the response. 
It cannot be just a so-called rolling maul of dribs and drabs. We want to pack down together as a country in a tight scrum and it has to be the Government that leads that charge. It has to be the Government that leads that pack and at the moment it is not. 
National has 3 days to live up to its pre-election rhetoric of 100 days of action. It was not 100 days of rebranding the previous Government not 100 days of repeating and double-counting not 100 days of obfuscating and not 100 days of dribs and drabs. Uncertainty leads to under-confidence and principally we have fear itself to fear in this time of recession. Fear is our greatest enemy and this Government can help New Zealanders if it provides a plan. Ninety-seven days in we have yet to see it.