Cosgrove Clayton: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cosgrove Clayton: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
[Sitting date: 02 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:1870. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour) 
: 
 There is an interesting trend that has happened in the life of this Government in the last few months since the election. It is “third-term-itis” in the second term. But the interesting and more serious point is this: this is a Government now that is getting sidetracked and preoccupied and wallowing in scandals. The body count is going up the mismanagement is going up the ministerial resignations and sackings are going up Government members are getting sidetracked into the mire of their own selfishness and their own self-indulgence and they are leaving the management of the economy out there just in space. They are leaving New Zealanders behind because there is no plan and they are sitting there looking normally like a third-term Government but inwardly looking at their own mess-ups their own ministerial cock-ups like Dr Smith of course and others—and now we have the latest one which is the ethical behaviour of John Banks.  
We should be spending question time not trying to hold Ministers accountable for their mismanagement and unethical behaviour because they should be behaving ethically. Question time should be about holding the Government to account for the big issues. However all the public see from this Government is Minister after Minister getting hog-tied by their own incompetence their own self-indulgence and their own selfishness and it is left to members of this Parliament on this side to hold them to account for it.  
I just want to also raise this issue. You know Mr Goldsmith was I think the person who kicked off this Budget Policy Statement debate. It was Mr Goldsmith I believe who was John Banks’ biographer. In fact I think he wrote two books did he not: the authorised version and the unauthorised version. Then it will be the third in the trilogy of books. It will be on the rise and fall of John Banks to be followed very soon by Mr Goldsmith—who I am told is a very good writer—writing John Banks’ political obituary. That is what will happen. 
Paul Goldsmith 
: You’re just jealous I won’t write one about you. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Jealous of John Banks—hell no! Hell no! I do not think there is anybody alive in this Chamber who would be jealous of John Banks—no one I think especially those of us who value our memory and our mental faculties and can remember our own name where we come from and what our job is. We know what a helicopter does. So does Anne Tolley of course. She spent a fair bit of time flitting around universities in Auckland. He could not remember whether he was in a helicopter; he could not remember what day it was. I mean for goodness’ sake! I put it to you that as we debate the Budget Policy Statement—and this is a serious document—a member who cannot remember where he is or what a helicopter looks like you have got to argue maybe should not have a ministerial warrant. Can he remember what day it is?  
But on a serious note that is the first in a litany of Ministers and casualties where this Government should be concentrating on the content of the Budget Policy Statement. Government members should be explaining to people why it is that unemployment has increased 43 percent to 150000-plus people out of work over the lifetime of this Government. They should not be being self-indulgent having to deal with that member there Dr Nick Smith for his behaviour and having to deal with John Banks Richard Worth Pansy Wong Mr Heatley and the “$48000 man” who just resumed his seat Mr English of course over his little problems with his expenses. No this is a Government that has forgotten about ordinary New Zealanders forgotten about them left them behind and now it is into this self-indulgent wallowing trying desperately to paper over the cracks of the Ministers and the members of the Government who are acting reprehensibly.  
I thought as we all did as we look at the record of this Government that there was going to be a higher plane. Remember the brighter future? Well is it a brighter future as we look at the figures— 
Hon Anne Tolley 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I have listened very carefully to the introduction to this speech and I ask you this: just referring to the fact that it is a Budget Policy Statement speech surely does not bring a mass of wallowing in ministerial actions into scope. 
Chris Hipkins 
: That’s an out-of-order point of order. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! The member knows it is out of order to interject when a point of order is being heard. The member is asking that the speaker be brought back to the subject of the debate which is a debate on the Budget Policy Statement. I have been indicating to the member that he was staying away from the debate for some period of time and it does require just a little more than referring to the title of the debate. I ask the member now to come to the substance of the debate. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I thank Ms Tolley for agreeing with me and conceding that a lot of ministerial wallowing has certainly happened. So if we are going to deal with the Budget Policy Statement and we are going to look at the record of this Government let us look at the record of that Minister and her Government shall we? Let us look at this: prices went up nearly four times as fast as incomes in the last 3 years. There you go—strike one. As we have said there is a 43 percent increase in unemployment. There are 83000 young New Zealanders out of work not in training wallowing on the dole or out there in the wilderness and they hang it all firstly on the global financial crisis and secondly on the Canterbury earthquakes. 
 I put this very simple equation to Ms Tolley. I will make it very simple very simple because I know mathematics is not her forte. When you have 83000 young people who are not in training not in school wallowing out there and then in Christchurch you have the biggest training scheme known to man called an earthquake to rebuild the show why is this Government so inept that it cannot marry those two issues together and put young people to work rebuilding our second-largest city? Oh no. There are not a lot of sounds coming out of the sort of hollow one on the front row—not at all.  
Is there a plan here? The only plan seems to be asset sales. Apparently if you flog everything off that is going to make 83000 young people find a job. If you flog everything off that is going to give people a decent standard of living and prices will not go up four times as they have. So let us examine that proposition because I do come back to that as we debate the Budget Policy Statement. It is a matter of priorities. A Government that is sucked down the hole of its own selfish self-indulgence cannot hope to present a Budget Policy Statement and an economic plan with any credibility when the Prime Minister and other Ministers day after day have to get up and defend their unethical behaviour when they have to get up and try to paper over the cracks of their Ministers who have run amok.  
The people of New Zealand look at this and say that Ministers should be spending every moment of their time in this place coming up with a plan to help our communities rather than the selfish self-indulgence they have engaged in since the election especially that one down the back there who looks through his nose—down his nose—at us. I say this. If you look at the State-owned assets— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: How can he look through his nose? 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Oh he woke up. If you look at the State-owned assets programme here is the justification that has been put up. Here is the grand plan. We have got to sell off assets the Government says because we have to grow and prosper. We all want to grow and prosper. The Government says in order to do that there must be capital injected into the State-owned assets but the Government of course has no money it tells us. Then Mr Ryall of course admits that if the Government faces the dilution equation in order to maintain 51 percent it will borrow it will go into debt it will use taxpayers’ money. To quote Mr Ryall they will do whatever it takes to keep up the 51 percent.  
The Government also promised it would not be tricky with the asset sales debate. The Government says that 51 percent ownership means it is in control and on the face of it you would accept that. It is a basic equation until you look at the legislation and you find out that the door is wide open for non-voting shares to be issued where the Crown may take 51 percent of the control but may have far less than 51 percent of the allocated dividends. That is a big issue which will be examined as we go on.  
There are no guarantees about Kiwis being first in the queue—no guarantees at all—and no plan in terms of that. There is no explanation and no admission that Kiwis already own these assets and there is no economic plan. So I say this as they sort of wallow in this self-indulgence as days pass and another Minister runs amok. One Minister looking after his mates—gone. Another Minister is looking after his mates—on the way out. The body bags are being measured up for the short man as we speak. Then we have a litany of Ministers who have run amok. People in New Zealand— 
Hon Anne Tolley 
: Really? 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Oh yes. You are one of them as well. Heatley English and the rest—and the rest. The people of New Zealand are looking at this Government and saying: “Where is our brighter future? Where is the plan? Where is the concern for us as a community? Where are the jobs? Where are the great reforms we were promised and where is the economic growth?”. [ 
Interruption 
] Oh yes have a good laugh. But the people of New Zealand are not laughing and the 83000 young people who are on the dole are not laughing. The pensioners who cannot make ends meet because of this Government are not laughing as prices go up three or four times.  
There is no plan exhibited in this Budget Policy Statement. In fact if you look at the record of this Budget Policy Statement you will see that it is a shocker. This Government is an inward-looking Government looking down the tunnel trying to paper over the cracks of all the mistakes and incompetence its Minsters are making. It will come out as we go through. Today it is Dotcom. Tomorrow it will be something else. And the Prime Minister stands up and moves the goalposts around talks about ethical standards and dances on the head of a pin when he should be standing up and articulating to the people of New Zealand that he will look after them he will lead them and he will provide them with the brighter future that he promised at the last election.