Ardern Shane: General Debate 
Ardern Shane: General Debate 
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SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki-King Country) 
: 
 It is an honour to follow my colleague Shane Jones from the far north who spent most of his speech attacking the deputy leader of the National Party for not putting up what he would describe as a strong defence of National’s policies in the 1990s. I would remind the member that while he was in the United States studying at university in the 1980s we had a Labour Government in this country and that Government described the main industry in the area that the member comes from as a sunset industry. 
We know when a Government is in its dying hours. We know because the only thing its members can do is to get up and attack a Government that was in power 9 years ago. They cannot promote any of their own policies. They are absolutely bereft of new ideas. Their programme is completed and they have run out of new ideas. 
When we look across at that tired Government what do we see? We look across at the Hon Parekura Horomia and we know that consciousness is that annoying time between naps. That is what we see. When we look at the Hon Steve Maharey we know as the Hon Steve Maharey says: “I have a degree in liberal arts and of course I know that manual labour is the Mexican Prime Minister. Of course I know that.” Then we look and we see the Hon Dr Michael Cullen staring back at the Opposition and we know that the Hon Dr Michael Cullen said in his maiden speech: “I ripped the farmers off then and I will get stuck into them again over the next few years.” And over the next few years he most certainly did. 
When we look at forestry our third largest export industry in this country what do we see as a legacy of this Government particularly for the area of the previous speaker? What do we see? We see for the first time in 50 years deforestation. What do we see in the area of Minister Burton from Taupo an area that is very very dependent on the forestry industry? We see deforestation for the first time in 50 years. What do we see? What do the figures tell us? In 1999 68000 new hectares of trees were planted. In 2006 the figure was minus 15000 hectares; 15000 more hectares were felled in 2006 than were planted. That is deforestation and it is an absolutely atrocious track record. 
Who is the Minister of Forestry? The Minister is the Hon Jim Anderton. He is a sunset industry Minister that is for sure or is he just a sunset Minister in a tired Government? Poor old Jim Anderton does not know whether to throw his hat off or to just move away and retire. The Hon Jim Anderton is clearly one of those sunset Ministers. 
I would ask this Government to look at what it is doing to some of our major export earners such as the forest industry. It should look at what Labour did to those industries in the 1980s and learn from its mistakes. It should not rake up something that it thinks might be harmful to the National Party. The Government should tell us what it will do about its abysmal track record in the time it has been in office. It should tell us what it will do towards introducing something like personal freedom—one of the cornerstones of the National Party. This Government should tell us what it will do to give all people a fair go because what we have seen so far is the major economic drivers of this country on their back legs going nowhere. 
Under this Government we have seen things that one cannot do. One of things people learn in this place when they come here is not only what one stands for but also what one stands against. We have seen from Labour Governments time and time again that they are consummate Opposition politicians. They are in Opposition even when they are in Cabinet. Their tools are petrol and matches whereas National Party members generally come from a background where they have been builders where they make things happen and where they show people how to better their lives and to go forward. 
What we see now in the last 6 months of this dying Government is an Opposition in the making. Labour members are honing their Opposition skills. They know what they stand against; they are good at what they stand against. They have always been good at what they stand against. But if we ask them what they stand for we will get a desert because there is nothing. They know that they stand against for example therapeutic medicines. They will not have them; they are going to regulate them out of business. They are absolutely opposed to complementary medicine. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.