Tizard Judith: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Tizard Judith: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:623;Page:18196] 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD (Minister of Consumer Affairs) 
: 
 That sad flat little speech was from the National Party’s once—and he hopes future—king. Bill English has been wandering around looking not for a sword in a stone—because he does not have the strength to pull out a sword—but for a dagger. He is looking for a dagger to be put in the backs of Don Brash and Gerry Brownlee. Bill English is hoping that he will be the whale rider who comes into Government on their backs. All I can say is that that pathetic little man was a Minister of Finance when a National Government closed 360 schools refused to pay teachers and resource schools properly slashed apprenticeships and destroyed them and proudly talked about loser and winner schools. And what was National going to do with the kids who were at the loser schools? That was left again to the Labour Government which believes that every New Zealander has an important part to play in this country. Every New Zealander is vital to the future of this country. The talents the energy the hopes and the optimism of every New Zealander matter. I am proud to be part of a Government that will work so that every New Zealander shares a vision of a country that includes all of our energies—a country with energy hope and optimism. 
What do we have from the National Party? We have a bunch of myopic backward-looking mean-minded divisive pathetic little people who are so frightened that they cannot even cope with free speech in their own caucus. Whom do they sack? They sack the women who have the guts to stand up for policies that they believe are good for New Zealanders—mothers who have children and who stay home and look after them. What happened to Georgina te Heuheu when the vicious mean-minded attack on Maori New Zealanders was made in the Orewa speech last year? She was sacked. What happened this year to Katherine Rich who was one of the few women on the Opposition side of the House who was prepared to stand up for working mothers? And mothers are working mothers whether they go out to work or whether they stay at home and look after their children. Katherine Rich was sacked. The member talked about Anne Tolley. Where is she? She was here but she was sacked by the National Party along with Belinda Vernon the only transport spokesperson National has ever had who gave a darn about Auckland. Where is Annabel Young? She was sacked. Kathy O’Regan was sacked. Jenny Shipley was knifed in the back and then sacked. So what do we have in the National Party? We have mean-minded little men who stand up and say that this Government is not doing its job because we have not fixed all the problems that they have caused in the last 30 years. 
I am proud to be part of Helen Clark’s Government and to be part of a Government that talks about economic growth. I am really proud to be an Aucklander. For the first time in 25 years we are seeing real economic growth in Auckland. Auckland has been a burden on the rest of New Zealand because of the under-investment in infrastructure and the under-investment in allowing Auckland to do the job of serving as New Zealand’s only international city. Last year for the first time in 25 years we had 4.6 percent growth in Auckland. I am proud to be part of the Government that has caused that and I want to see the benefits of that flow back from Auckland and this country to every New Zealander. I am proud to be part of a Government that has the lowest crime rate we have ever had. I do not have to go to my clinic every week and hear pathetic sad tragic stories from my constituents who have been robbed in their homes because they are no longer being robbed in their homes. The police have gone out and caught the recidivist burglars. They have also got the young people who are in trouble. They are looking at alternative programmes and are putting people who break the law into prison and keeping them there. 
I am proud to be part of a Government that has created more than a quarter of a million jobs in this economy since 1999 when the visionless hopeless previous National Government went the way that it should have gone many years before. I am proud to be part of a Government that has seen more than 7000 people in Modern Apprenticeships and more than 126000 people in industry training. I am proud to be part of a Government that is seeing the social infrastructure the physical infrastructure the energy infrastructure and the transport infrastructure be put in place so that the innovation and creativity of New Zealanders and the partnerships that they are forming can result in real jobs better incomes better security and a place for every New Zealander in society in communities and in the economy. I am really proud to be part of the Labour Government because when I look at the members on the other side of the House I see a pathetic attack. Apparently mothers are bad particularly mothers who stay home and look after their children. The National Party says that women should not look after their own children should put up with violence and abuse and should miss out on education. It also says that a National Government would have tax cuts for the rich but then it talks about under-funding in things like health and education. I would love to spend more on health and education but I cannot see how that could happen under National’s policy of spending over $1.7 billion on tax cuts for the wealthy which would give nothing to anyone earning under $38000. 
What do we have? We have a Labour Government that is working in partnership with New Zealand with local government with business with the community and with the non-government sector. We are working together to find solutions to the problems of this country. The choice is absolutely stark. We talk about creativity on the Government side of the House. The National members say that they would cut funding for New Zealand films and New Zealand jobs in innovation—high-tech jobs and jobs in information technology; jobs in all those areas. A National Government would slash the money that goes into New Zealand music. Fifty thousand young New Zealanders turned up to the Big Day Out. Which party was the only party represented there? It was the Labour Party. Steve Maharey Moana Mackey and Darren Hughes were there and I was there with my earplugs. It was great music and great people having a fantastic day out. 
What is really great is to have all the jobs. Jobs in the arts are real jobs and I am thrilled that under a voluntary quota system we have gone from less than 3 percent of the music played on air in 1998 under a National Government being New Zealand music to that being over 18.6 percent of the music on the playlists in 2004—and it is going to get better. We have seen great programmes in film and television. National members sneer about the Pathways to Arts and Cultural Employment programme which we launched in 2001. Last year there were over 2200 placements into paid employment from the Pathways to Arts and Cultural Employment membership group. It is not work for the dole and it is not a special deal for artists; it just recognises that creative Kiwis need to be given a chance. 
I am really proud of what this Government has done in Auckland and I am particularly proud of what we have done in transport. We are investing in Auckland—not in roads for Auckland alone but we are building New Zealand’s international transport hub. We are putting in more than $1.6 billion over the next 10 years. We already have $390 million committed for the Auckland ring route—State Highway 20. We are building $356 million worth of new highways at “Spaghetti Junction”. Somebody actually rang me and said that the transport problem is already better than it was. There are two new lanes on the Auckland motorway. We have the Grafton Gully project the Greenhithe Bridge and deviation and the Puhinui interchange. Massive new money has been put into railways into public transport and buses and into traffic management. I am proud to see that we now have a 10-year plan for transport. We have funding next to that and we have a training programme that means that people who have been on benefits and who want to upgrade their jobs are getting real jobs in the New Zealand construction industry. That work will go on unless a National Government is re-elected. We should look back to 1975 when Sir Dove-Myer Robinson’s light rail scheme had been agreed to by a Labour Government. Who cut that scheme? It was National. Don Brash says that he would cut the petrol tax but that he would build roads. I do not know how he would do that because we have had enough trouble in finding the money. We are really committed to making Auckland work and to making New Zealand work for every New Zealander. I am proud to be a New Zealander and to be part of this Government. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.