Swain Paul: General Debate 
Swain Paul: General Debate 
[Volume:639;Page:9275] 
Hon PAUL SWAIN (Labour—Rimutaka) 
: 
 That was Gerry Brownlee who made what one would probably call a tradesman-like effort. Gerry Brownlee is a bit of an honest toiler. He comes in and makes his best endeavour at trying to defend the National Party but boy did he suffer the consequences of the grand big deal! He was the deputy leader but suddenly in the bat of an eyelid he was gone—out of it—because Bill English and John Key had stitched the thing together. 
I am really looking forward to the Labour Budget tomorrow. I am absolutely looking forward to it. It will be a ripper. I remember the nine miserable Budgets under the previous National Government since 1990 when I came in. I remember the miserable anti-family anti-worker Budgets of the previous National Government. Do we remember the first one? Yes we do. It was called the “mother of all Budgets”. We had Ruth Richardson jogging around Evans Bay in a pink tracksuit and saying this would be a magnificent life-changing Budget. Well it was. What did National do first? It cut people’s benefits it cut money out of the early childhood sector and of course at that time it introduced the Employment Contracts Act which stripped away decent wages and conditions for the working people of New Zealand. It has taken ages for Labour to get those conditions back. 
Of course there was also the sale of State assets. I ask those who are not looking forward to the Budget tomorrow just to cast their minds back to those nine miserable Budgets that the previous National Government introduced. What I want to know from the National Party is where it stands on a lot of these issues particularly in respect of the Budget. For example I want to know where National stands on tax cuts. I would like to know. I would like anybody in the National Party to tell us. You see we used to have the message that there would be big tax cuts then we heard there would be little tax cuts then we heard there would be tax cuts when the economy could afford it and phased in over time. So I want the next speaker from National to tell the House clearly what the National Party policy is— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Today! 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: Right now. Anybody now could do it. Anybody could give us an idea of what National’s policy is on tax cuts. Well it is all very deathly silent over there. You see the problem is that National members all want to spend more and cut taxes and it cannot be done. 
The reason why people do not trust National members on budgetary matters is that they do not trust them on other issues. National stood firm once in the good old days for things it honestly believed in. National in the days of Holyoake and Marshall—the days when National was a true and honourable party—used to have said that it opposed Labour’s nuclear policy. Now National supports that policy. National members said they opposed Labour’s housing policy because it was discriminatory. Now they support it. They used to oppose the student loan scheme because it was just election bribing. Now they support it. They used to oppose KiwiSaver because they said it was not the answer to New Zealand’s economic woes. Well now they support it. They used to oppose the superannuation fund. Do members remember that? Now they support it. Of course they also opposed Kyoto. Do members remember that? But now they support it. 
You see in 2005 Mr Key said that all the climate change stuff was a complete and utter hoax. Only a year later he said: “I firmly believe in climate change and I always have.” So the real problem now of course is that Mr Key having bagged Labour’s Kyoto policy then went on to say: “Let me be clear. National will not pull out of the Kyoto protocol. We are committed to honouring our international obligations.” The problem members on this side of the House and the general population have is that if we cannot believe them on that issue how can we believe them on tax?