Graham Kennedy: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill Student Loan Scheme (Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Graham Kennedy: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill Student Loan Scheme (Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Sitting date: 24 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2488. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr KENNEDY GRAHAM (Green) 
: 
 I have listened to the debate both in the first reading and the second reading to date and in Committee. I have to say that nothing has been said yet to alter our substantive view of the Budget in general or these particular bills the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill and the Student Loan Scheme (Budget Measures) Amendment Bill. Nothing indeed has been said I think that would inspire us or the public to want to embrace Government policy on this. The Budget is touted as the most important event of the parliamentary year—erroneously it would seem for the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill agonisingly dragged out last night hit a new low. After the leaders’ speeches we descended not for the first time into the theatre of the absurd—a robust exchange between entrenched positions to quote the Minister Peter Dunne. If we can drag out the debate on this bill when virtually its only aspect of interest is the pecuniary interests of paper boys for 5 hours as we are doing when the importance of the general issue of the global ecology and the global economy and New Zealand’s destiny within that is ignored then pity the poor citizens of this realm. They are worth more than this. 
In this exchange last night what did we learn? We heard Labour call National members of Parliament clowns. We heard— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: True. 
Dr KENNEDY GRAHAM 
: Whatever the accuracy might be it is out of order. We heard National describe one Labour MP as a bloody bigot and none of this occasioned— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! Look whatever members said you cannot get around Speakers’ rulings or the Standing Orders on using unparliamentary language by quoting someone. 
Dr KENNEDY GRAHAM 
: Thank you and I apologise for dragging down the House to such a low level. We heard National taunt Labour to tell the truth which in itself was offensive and disorderly and at least that one—or its aftermath since National repeated the offence—occasioned an apology the sincerity of which was left hanging in the stagnant evening air of the wilting House of Representatives.  
The House last night was populated by a back row of bored minds and vacuous stares with a continuous muffled uproar between the two trenches punctuated by occasional outbursts of derision—and that was just National. The evening was characterised by self-demeaning pack behaviour characterised by an after-dinner cocktail of complacence ignorance and arrogance—and that was just National. And we wonder why politicians are ranked so low in public esteem. The theatre of the absurd was marked by a series of ineluctable predictable voting—64 to 57. That is not exactly a ringing endorsement of Government policy. 
There is a distinction in this House between the main parties and the other parties between first past the post and MMP. It is as if there are two Houses in one—first past the post and mixed-member proportional representation. It is not only the Green Party that seeks to constructively critique Government policy and offer an alternative budget. All parties on the cross benches aspire to be constructive—Green New Zealand First and Mana—yet those speeches were dismissed as excessively earnest or naive. Earnestness in the House of Representatives would be superior to the self-demeaning. Members of this legislature are enjoined and paid a decent salary to respect the dignity of the institution. The people who vote us in expect us to live up to that. Last night we mostly let them down. Suffice to consider that for the reasons that were substantively advanced in the first reading and the second reading the Green Party will vote against this bill in the final third reading.