Dyson Ruth: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Dyson Ruth: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:637;Page:7298] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Minister of Labour) 
: 
 I first of all thank the member who has just resumed his seat for giving us one of the more brilliant summaries of National Party policy. Mr Ardern said: “I can tell you what it’s not about.” That really absolutely summarises the National Party position on everything. National members cannot tell us what their policies are about; they can only whinge about what they are not about. 
Mr Assistant Speaker I wish you a happy New Year and welcome you back to Parliament. I hope we all have a very very successful year. I particularly acknowledge our new member Katrina Shanks and say that I hope she enjoys her time in our House. 
This afternoon we heard two very different speeches delivered in our opening session. The first one was from the Rt Hon Helen Clark. The Prime Minister outlined her strong and determined leadership and very sound policies in moving New Zealand forward. She outlined the role that our Government needs to play in order to meet the challenges our country faces in the 21st century—substance not slogans. She talked about our future being dependent on long-term sustainable strategies for our economy our society our environment our culture and our way of life. That is the sort of leadership this country wants this country deserves and this country needs. 
Then John Key took his call. I have to say that when he first took his call I was very surprised. My first surprise came when the Speaker did not inform the House that the speaking time would be divided between the two co-leaders of the National Party Bill English and John Key. I assumed they would divide the time allocated for the leader but even though the time was not divided between the co-leaders it was very clear that the leadership is divided. 
Then came the second surprise—the speech itself. It was 15 minutes of personal denigration followed by 5 minutes of self-congratulation: “As I said in the Burnside address …” as if anyone took any notice of the Burnside address. He referred to it more often than he referred to a single policy. There was not one single policy in the current co-leader’s opening address to Parliament for his first year as leader. There was no substance no policy and no wood beneath what is increasingly a stained veneer. The speech was hollow shallow and surprisingly nasty. 
That was the alternative vision that John Key provided to the House and to the country. So where does he stand on the key issues facing our country? Where does National stand? Helen Clark outlined the key challenges and provided not only a vision of how to tackle those issues but a substantial programme of action as well. Where does the current co-leader of the National Party stand on climate change? Well just 18 months ago John Key said: “This is a complete and utter hoax if I may say so.” He went on to say: “The impact of the Kyoto Protocol even if one believes in global warming—and I am somewhat suspicious of it—is that we will see billions and billions of dollars poured in to fixing something that we are not even sure is a problem.” 
That was John Key on climate change. He was not reported and possibly misinterpreted in a newspaper report. No the comments were made in this very House put on tape recorded by our extraordinarily accurate Hansard reporters and signed off as correct. But by the end of last year the very same John Key said: “I firmly believe in climate change and I always have.” Short-term memory loss is not a good attribute for a leader of any political party. 
Steve Chadwick 
: Flip-flop. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: To not remember what one has said on the record in the House is a very bad look and it is by no means the only issue that John Key has flipped on. 
Aspiring and current leaders of political parties cannot afford to do flip-flops on any let alone every policy issue. People want and deserve to know what we as politicians on putting ourselves up for election in our country believe in. With regard to John Key’s policy position it is frankly like picking up mercury with chopsticks. We just think we have a handle on it and have it and it slides around to the other end of the bowl. It just depends who the audience is and who he thinks will be most impressed by the comments he makes. A divided leadership presiding over a very divided caucus cannot expect to have any credibility and that is exactly what the English-Key nightmare team is delivering to New Zealand. 
I return to the Prime Minister’s address. We were given clear and strong leadership. We were given not only the big picture a vision of where New Zealand needs to be in the future but also a detailed understanding of the challenges that are facing us now and in the future. We heard from the Prime Minister an unequivocal commitment to fair and inclusive policies in our country. We saw demonstrated by the Prime Minister a pride in our country and a belief in our ability not only to continue to improve the lives of all New Zealanders but also to lead the world. Our Prime Minister knows we can and she shows that pride and commitment. She gave us our nuclear free policy as an example where for over 20 years we have held our heads high and led the change in world opinion on nuclear issues. And we can do the same on building a sustainable nation. But that will not happen without a vision without clear goals or without Government leadership—or as the Prime Minister said in the House this afternoon: “The invisible hand of the market does not deliver a sustainable nation”. 
It is clear from the response of the co-leader of the National Party that he does not have even a basic understanding of sustainability. Sure it is about the environment but it is also about our economy it is about our society it is about New Zealand culture and it is about our way of life. It is about our nation and New Zealand citizens—their quality of life their opportunity and their security. It is about their ability to get a job and to be secure in that employment to have a chance to improve their lives to have a home whether owned or rented and to be a contributing part of their community—to be a valued citizen in a fair and inclusive society. 
 That is the vision that the Labour-Progressive Government working with New Zealand First working with United Future working with the Greens working with the Maori Party will continue to deliver. Every single New Zealand citizen will have an opportunity to contribute whether or not he or she is picked up in the back of a Crown limo or whether or not he or she was born into a low-income family. Our aim is a replica of the aims of the first Labour Government where the primary form of security for every New Zealand citizen was having the right to a job. Thousands and thousands more New Zealanders are now in a job than ever before in our nation’s history and more of those New Zealanders are in jobs with security. 
Every year since we became the Government we have increased the minimum wage. Those people who start off in low-income employment at least now have the opportunity to see their wages increase as they go through that annual cycle. This is unlike the Government led by Dr Mapp’s party where for the whole of its 9 years in Government it increased the minimum wage in total by $1. The minimum wage increase in the total 9 years of the National Government was one single dollar! That is a disgrace. At the same time National ensured that State houses up and down the country were sold off and people who were in the remaining State houses were moved on to market rents. People on lower incomes were paying a higher and higher percentage of their wages in rent. That is what Shane Ardern was talking about. That is what is not sustainable in New Zealand. That is what the National Party offers. That is what New Zealand citizens were delivered in the 1990s and that is what our Government seeks to continue to address—that every citizen is valued and that we do have a truly fair and inclusive society.