Brownlee Gerry: General Debate 
Brownlee Gerry: General Debate 
[Volume:638;Page:8629] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) 
: 
 For those members who were not quite sure what the previous speaker Parekura Horomia was talking about I tell them not to worry. I understand that that speech was delivered in Latin. 
Today we saw a Government caught out. We saw a Government caught out when Steve Maharey lost his cool and decided to use a profanity to admonish a member on the opposite side of the House. We have known since this Government took office that its members have bullied the media. We have known that they have had what they call a formidable spin machine. We have known that they go on long trawls around the gallery putting their particular view on things and bullying journalists into writing their particular slant on stories. We know that the Prime Minister has had a speed dial; if journalists wrote what she wanted their numbers would stay on it and if they wrote what she did not want they would go. Today the public of New Zealand have seen the Labour Government caught out on that particular tactic. 
Tonight on Television One and probably TV3 Mr Maharey will be there and he may as well be telling the nation to do what he told Dr Jonathan Coleman to do because that is the attitude of the current Government. Mr Mallard indicated that this was coming when he went around the gallery last week and took to the journalists in the Television One news studio. They had not done what he wanted so he went around and made all sorts of threats against them. He said he never used a four-letter word in that office. Well I do not believe him. I do not believe him because I am confident that he accused GuyonEspiner of showing undue bias—and “bias” in politics is probably the worst four-letter word one can use. 
This is a Government that goes out and makes claims about how wonderful it is for putting up the minimum wage for lifting family support and for raising superannuation. What on earth do we have a Government for if it does not make sure that people have rising incomes? The question that has to be asked is whether those incomes should rise because Helen Clark decrees they should or whether they should rise because New Zealanders who are contributing to the productive base of this country should get the rewards directly for the work they do. That is a fundamental difference between us and them. 
You know it is amazing that for 7 years now we have had very good commodity prices. We are still a country that relies heavily on the farm gate. We are still a country that is over 70 percent dependent on the farm gate for the basis of our economy. And there have been good prices available for our farmers. If we track the history of New Zealand we will see that every time the prices have been good incomes have risen quite substantially. But if we track the income rise for average New Zealanders over the last 7 years we see that it has been appalling. The only big rise in income has been for the Government—a Government that has had its hand deep in the pockets of New Zealanders and has heavily heavily taxed those who work very hard for the money they get. 
This is a Government that is going. It is a Government that is about to be booted. We can tell that it is a Government that wants to go when we look at the Order Paper. Has there ever been such a thin Order Paper put in front of Parliament? This is the Order Paper that tells the nation what the Government wants to do. Well I cannot see a single thread of future thinking on this Order Paper—unless of course the Oaths Modernisation Bill will transform the economy; unless of course the Human Rights (Women in Armed Forces) Amendment Bill will transform the economy; unless an amendment to allow justices of the peace to retire will transform the economy; and unless having immigration licences for those offering immigration services which is a new bureaucracy will save the economy. Perhaps if those things are right then I am wrong. But there is not a single thing here that indicates growth in our economy at all.