Pettis Jill: Address in Reply 
Pettis Jill: Address in Reply 
[Volume:628;Page:143] 
JILL PETTIS (Labour) 
: 
 I am very pleased to join the debate tonight. I wish all the new members well as they give their maiden speeches. A maiden speech is a very significant speech. We all remember how nervous we were when we gave ours and I offer my best wishes to the new members who are giving their speeches. 
Tonight I also ask members of the National Party who are giving their maiden speeches to please not rewrite history. History is recorded very well in New Zealand in many forms. I am sure that a number of National MPs will talk about when they were members of the Labour Party and will then go through the throes of saying that they learnt the error of their ways etc. etc. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: Trouble is they got richer. 
JILL PETTIS 
: Absolutely! I am reminded of Michael Joseph Savage’s comment that they walked to vote us in and they drove to vote us out. Under Labour Governments people do get wealthier. Some people may like to read a bit of the social and political history of New Zealand and to remember exactly what happens. 
I went to my first political meeting at the Hylton Hall in Aramoho when I was 8 years of age. My mother learnt to play cards and count when she was 4 years of age because some of the people who became members of the first Labour Government used to come around to my grandfather’s house to play cards and talk about politics. So I have done my apprenticeship unlike some of the people who learnt about politics a couple of years ago and have just had some sort of road to Damascus conversion. 
I encourage members to go back and read a bit of social history. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: It was a road to Washington. 
JILL PETTIS 
: Yes it was a road to Washington but we will get on to that a bit later. Anybody who is interested in the social and political history of New Zealand will always say that the most interesting things in New Zealand history have happened under Labour Governments. What do National Governments ever do—[ 
Interruption 
] I tell those boys to settle down; it is very early in the term. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: It is the old double waka-jumper over there. 
JILL PETTIS 
: No he is “four-party Tau”—“old Tau four-parties”. Anyway I digress. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. It was three parties. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: That was not a point of order. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: Jill’s projecting the future.  
JILL PETTIS 
: Yes who knows? I am very relieved and proud that we now have a Labour-led Government in New Zealand with the support of responsible people who have New Zealand’s interests at heart in supporting it. I think that New Zealanders are quietly very grateful that National did not become the Government. They might have had a little flirtation and put a little tick in National’s box but I think that on reflection they are actually very grateful National is not in Government. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: Especially John Key. 
JILL PETTIS 
: Especially John Key because as I said about him last term he should bide his time. The road to hell is littered with the bones of young men who were in a hurry. I tell John Key to bide his time. That young man’s time will come if he just waits. 
A number of people in New Zealand are quietly relieved that Labour is in Government because they have come to realise in the quiet reflection of the post-election period what some of the policies were that National was proposing. People were not aware of them in the tumultuous period during the election campaign. 
Dianne Yates 
: There weren’t many. 
JILL PETTIS 
: My colleague Dianne Yates is quite right. There were not many policies but those that there were were bad enough. 
The Labour Government has saved people from market rents. Market rents are the biggest contributor to poverty in this country and those Tories were going to re-implement market rents which would have condemned Tau Henare’s whanau to poverty. I say to Mr Henare and his whanau that they have been saved from poverty because of the Labour Government. It is ironic that in regard to such a key social policy as housing Don Brash did not even know on the day National’s housing policy was released that that was its policy. My opponent at a Grey Power meeting in Wanganui did not even know that the housing policy had been released that day and that it involved market rents. Those two men did not care less about the poverty-inducing aspects of the market rents policy and that is absolutely shameful. 
 There are many policies of the National Party that New Zealanders are grateful are not being implemented. As the mother of a son I am glad that we do not have a National Government because the National Party and its secret supporters would have sent people like my son to Iraq while their sons with their scarf-wearing apparel would have cowered behind a whole lot of secret beliefs and said: “I can’t go because I’m too old.” although they would have sent young people. It is all right for some people because of their age and rapid decline to send young people to war while they are safely ensconced in their own homes. The member who is wagging his finger at me knows that I am correct. He knows that he would have sent young men to Iraq while he was safely ensconced in New Zealand. 
Many positive things are happening in this country. I am proud to be a New Zealander and I am convinced that every person sitting in this Chamber is proud to be a New Zealander. We live in a great country and when we travel overseas—which we are privileged to do from time to time—and come back home I am sure that most of us silently say to ourselves when we sight New Zealand for the first time: “Thank goodness we were born here.” [ 
Interruption 
] Well we may say: “Thank goodness we have permanent residency in New Zealand.” Some fabulous things are happening in provincial New Zealand in particular. The economy in provincial New Zealand is performing at an outstanding level. 
Just today as I was passing a bookshop I stopped to buy this publication—I should not have bought it really because that fellow from Wanganui contributes to it regularly but never mind—[ 
Interruption 
] No Michael Laws—I am sure the member is with me on that. But nevertheless I succumbed and bought it because of the wonderful story on the front page about trades people the new elite in New Zealand. One of the reasons why they are the new elite in New Zealand—and God bless them because we need them—is that the building industry is performing at an outstanding level. Apprenticeships are at an all-time level and it is far better to have our young people engaged in apprenticeships than to send them off to Iraq to be shot at. Over 7100 Modern Apprentices are in training at the moment and more are planned. Apprenticeships are an absolutely wonderful way for our young people to be engaged and that is a Labour-led initiative which was supported by New Zealand First when we first came into Government. I remember those speeches about the Modern Apprenticeships scheme very very well. That scheme is paying dividends in literally thousands of ways. 
The provinces in New Zealand are a success story and that is because this Labour-led Government as well as the previous Labour Government has invested heavily in the provinces. Our unemployment rates are at the lowest level they have been at for more than two decades. It is absolutely inspiring to see the number of people who are actively engaged in positive employment which not only makes life a lot easier for their families but also gives them a lift in their spirits. That also contributes in many many ways to our local economy and to our region’s social structure as well.