Hide Rodney: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Hide Rodney: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:630;Page:2421] 
RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 One of the interesting questions as we look at what might be Dr Cullen’s final Budget is what will his legacy be as Minister of Finance. I struggle during my time in Parliament to think what Michael Cullen’s legacy as Minister of Finance will be. What will he be known for? Will it be for hiking taxes to 39c in the dollar? Perhaps the “chewing gum Budget” might be the one that sticks in people’s memories. It might be the dopey Cullen fund that is his legacy. It is a struggle to think what Michael Cullen’s legacy will be for the financial health and financial management of this country. That shows that the Clark-Cullen Government has lost any sense of vision any sense of purpose and any policy programme. 
We know that Michael Cullen is one of the only competent Ministers that Helen Clark has and that is why Michael Cullen is exhausted. He is absolutely exhausted because he has to do everything. He has to come to the House and rescue his ministerial colleagues. He is the one who has to mop up when a Minister is in trouble. What is the reward that Helen Clark gives Michael Cullen for those years of service? It is this: “Well he is in his early sixties and he will do this Budget but maybe no more.” Helen Clark does not say something like that by mistake. She sunk the knife into her own Minister of Finance; that is what she did. How can New Zealand have confidence in the Minister of Finance Michael Cullen when Helen Clark herself the Prime Minister of New Zealand has said: “Well he is in his early sixties. He may not do any more Budgets.” That is what she said. She has wrecked what little vestige of credibility Michael Cullen had. Helen Clark is signalling that he will not be around for much longer. 
By the way what difference would it make if Michael Cullen were not the Minister of Finance or the Treasurer? It would not make any difference at all would it? Last year’s Budget was a “nothing” Budget. Mike Williams tried to talk it up and he talked it up rather well. The problem was that there was nothing to talk up. That is why I think Helen Clark has come along ladies and gentlemen boys and girls and stuck the knife deep into Michael Cullen’s side. How like Helen Clark it is! I guarantee she has not sat down with Michael Cullen to discuss his future with him. I guarantee she has not sat down with Michael Cullen and said: “Michael we have been good friends for 30 years.” Oh no she would not say that would she? She could not say that. It would be: “We were terrible friends for 30 years and we’ve been working together for a few.” She would say to him: “What are your plans?”. But no Helen Clark has gone public and said that this year’s Budget could be Michael Cullen’s last because he is getting to be an old man. That is what Helen Clark has told the nation. 
I have to ask what Michael Cullen did as Minister of Finance when he was young when he was fresh when he was new and when he had enthusiasm for the job. The only thing I can recall is his putting up taxes rather than letting ordinary hard-working Kiwis keep the money. And there was the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. Oh and he accidentally bought an airline. He said: “I didn’t mean to end up being the owner of it but I sort of accidentally found myself being the owner.” Michael Cullen’s legacy will be a sad empty legacy—a legacy of lost opportunity. The best economic growth conditions in my adult lifetime have been squandered. We are now facing growth of next to zero a possibility of some negative growth a loss of economic confidence and a Minister of Finance whom Helen Clark has no confidence in.