Cunliffe David: General Debate 
Cunliffe David: General Debate 
[Volume:627;Page:21853] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Communications) 
: 
 I am very glad to have this call today. To use a baseball analogy it is like being in the ninth innings with the bases loaded—batter up! Let us welcome the opportunity to put before the public of New Zealand and our listeners today a very stark choice which is illustrated by a prominent National billboard that talks about National “cuts” because that is ladies and gentlemen the choice that is before all New Zealanders. 
I will say three things today. The first is that Dr Brash’s tax-and-spend policies do not add up and cannot be trusted. Secondly they imply a return to the failed policies of the 1990s. I contrast that with Labour’s programme which continues to work for a just and a prosperous New Zealand. 
Let me begin by contemplating the desperate tactics on the other side of the House that we are seeing rolled out. It is like National members have rung every local chairman of the National Party in every regional organisation and said: “This is it guys. It’s now or never. If we don’t crawl back into power now we will lose a generation of MPs and never ever be the Government we want to be.” So today we saw the most bizarre spectacle in my political lifetime: apple growers criticising the Government for something the Opposition never had the guts to do when it was in power. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member may never allege that someone lacks courage. That is a personal reflection that is out of order. The member will withdraw and apologise. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I withdraw and apologise. It was something the National Party never had the foresight to do when it was in power. We are taking our closest friend Australia to the World Trade Organization. It does not come tougher than that and we are doing it because it is the right thing to do. But if the Waipukurau branch of the National Party wants to make an issue of it for the public I say “Bring it on!”. National is clearly also calling in its chips with the Employers and Manufacturers Association. Thank God it is run by a failed Social Credit candidate called Alasdair Thompson who is well known for his ham-fisted club-footed approach that has got National’s transport billboard campaign slammed by such Labour friends as the Auckland chamber of commerce. I say to Alasdair that he can take his billboards and put them right up his deficit. 
I turn to tax policy. The National Party does not have one. That is why no one can object to it. The National Party has rolled out about $7 billion worth of fatuous spending promises with no way to pay for them. Yes it is a lot of fun dancing with a shadow is it not? But my concern is for the people of New Zealand who might just out of some sort of vain hope want to believe those promises and some of them might even be tempted to vote for them. As we saw with the double deficits in Ronald Regan’s America which Clinton had to fix up and as we are seeing now with George Bush’s voodoo economics the chickens always come home to roost. 
Under this Government we have brought gross debt to GDP down to 20 percent and next year net debt will be in credit for the first time as I have said before since Sir Julius Vogel borrowed to fund the railways. We have reduced unemployment to a record low—the lowest in the Western World. We have got growth up to about double the average that the National Party ever managed when it was in office and we have family-friendly policies that United Future would not have dreamt of. We are rebuilding families by putting money in the pockets of people who had to choose between food on the table and taking their kids to the doctor. We are eliminating child poverty in New Zealand by 30 percent with last year’s Budget alone. 
I ask members to contrast that with the 1990s—have New Zealanders forgotten what it was like? Have they forgotten the way the rich got richer—the top 10 percent only—the poor got poorer and the forgotten middle class missed out? Have they forgotten the Employment Contracts Act that made the workers poorer and managed to drop Labour productivity at the same time? That is an achievement so amazing that it deserves to go down in history. National has already talked about resuming privatisation. This week it is talking about flicking Land Corporation Ltd and privatising accident compensation. What will it be next week? Will it be hospitals? How will it fund those tax cuts that it is promising but is refusing to detail? I ask members to contrast that with Labour. Under this Government expenditure to GDP has fallen debt to GDP has fallen and we have a small surplus but a cash deficit. This is a good prudent Government; it deserves another term.