Bradford Sue: General Debate 
Bradford Sue: General Debate 
[Volume:627;Page:22054] 
SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
: 
 As we head out of this House and into the final phase of the 2005 election campaign voters face some pretty stark choices. Will we see the return of a National-led Government with all the dangers that that implies? Some of us certainly have memories of the early 1990s which are not very far away. Or will we see a Green-Labour Government that can progress a whole range of workable and progressive solutions to environmental and social problems? 
National talks a lot about tax cuts as its big promise but I would like to warn people particularly low to middle income earners of the menace of rapid inflation and potentially huge job losses especially in the State sector that National’s cuts may well bring. The Green Party on the other hand is firmly committed to the sound and universal provision of health education superannuation and welfare that is backed by a progressive tax system to pay for it. We do not want to see the kinds of job losses that we saw in the 1980s and 1990s. There is a big enough gap between rich and poor in this country already as the previous speaker pointed out. Tax cuts that massively favour high-income people will only entrench this gap and the desperation of those at the bottom will continue even further. At the same time National’s blunt instrument of corporate tax cuts will principally benefit foreign corporations not most Kiwi businesses. 
When it comes to students and tertiary policy—another key issue in this election—again the Green Party would like to warn students graduates and their parents about the pocketful of meagre promises that National is offering. Tax rebates on student loans might sound good at first blush. In fact National’s tertiary scheme is of considerable benefit to graduates in high-paid jobs here and overseas but of no use to graduates at home who are bringing up children or who are out of the workforce for other reasons. Again the well-off will do better; women the unemployed and Maori will miss out. 
However the Green Party applauds Labour’s tertiary education policy which it released yesterday. It is great to see Labour acknowledging the desperate situation that faces such a high proportion of our population who are now living with a massive debt burden and I commend Labour for scrapping interest on student loans. However scrapping interest on its own will not prevent some graduates from facing a lifetime of debt. Students and graduates should note that the Green position on this goes a lot further than Labour’s. We are committed to a year’s debt write-off for each year that a graduate—in paid work unpaid work or bringing up children—stays in New Zealand. We also want to work towards a universal student allowance for all tertiary students not just some of them. Fees need to be capped and lowered too. 
On another front voters face some very clear choices as well. A National - New Zealand First Government presents an acute and imminent threat to workers and unions in this country. National and New Zealand First threaten all the gains that have been made over the last 5½ years and that raises the spectre of the demise of the Employment Relations Act and the reintroduction of a type of Employment Contracts Act industrial relations environment. 
 National does not support 4 weeks’ holiday for all workers and voted against hard-won improvements to health and safety in the workplace. It will again at least partially privatise accident compensation. Worst of all National is keen not only to return to the conditions of the Employment Contracts Act days but even worse to introduce a 90-day rule that will basically mean employers can hire and fire at will in the first 3 months of a worker’s employment. Workers and unions need to be very aware that only a Green-Labour Government will continue to protect the gains made since 2000 to support ongoing improvements to wages and conditions such as continuing to put up the minimum wage extending paid parental leave and other family-friendly measures and supporting the right of workers to organise and bargain collectively. 
Another group of people who are also under desperate threat from a National - New Zealand First Government are the unemployed and beneficiaries. Both of those conservative parties have promised an immediate return to forced work for the dole for at least some unemployed people as well as compulsory work-testing for domestic purposes benefit recipients whose children have started school. Work-for-the-dole schemes introduced in the 1990s manifestly failed in their goal of getting people into real jobs. Instead unemployed people found themselves in second-class jobs working for the dole plus $20 a week despised by the regular workers and staff they worked alongside and unable to dedicate themselves properly to seeking regular jobs. Full-time full-wage jobs are the answer; not a return to the 1990s or the 1930s.