Coleman Jonathan: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeColeman Jonathan: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19048. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Associate Minister of Finance):I think you can hear with that speech by David Parker the problem that Labour has. It has got a finance spokesperson someone who wants to be the Minister of Finance who cannot finish a speech on time cannot articulate an argument and cannot get a key point across. It is a big problem. What he did say was that whoever gets into Government will be a fiscally responsible Government. Well I can tell you that we have a 6-year record showing that we are fiscally responsible.What he did not actually tell you was that if these people were part of the Government they would be there with Russel Norman pulling the strings. The big question is whether the tax rates that Labour would impose would be high enough for Russel Norman. Would the punishment of hard-working Kiwis be tough enough? Would Russel Norman be laying into the people he does not like hard enough? He would be putting a lot of pressure on David Parker. So in the end all that stuff that David Parker is saying is absolutely and completely irrelevant. If as Chris Finlayson says the multi-headed Hydra gets into Government I do not know whether there would be room for even old Clayton Cosgrove in Cabinet. He would probably find his place taken by the American lady from Mount Eden who would suddenly become the spokesperson on small business.Russel Norman could take David Parker’s place. Old Annette King there—well I mean it will probably be the bald-headed guy from the West Coast. He would end up being the Minister of Health. So you start to see the picture of a very different-looking Cabinet if these people got in.Hon Annette King: What a nasty thing to say.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: It might be nasty but it is true.Hon Phil Goff: Stop all the personal attacks.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Phil Goff would actually finally want to retire. The problem is that these guys have not come up with a single bit of policy. Do you know what their economic development idea for this week is? It is to bring back the moa—to bring back the moa from extinction. I think it would be far better if they worked on something like bringing back David Lange or maybe bringing back Michael Joseph Savage because frankly without someone inspirational from the past chromosomally re-engineered these guys have absolutely no hope at the next election. If they ever got the Treasury benches I can tell you that the Budgets would be bad bad news for New Zealand.And then if you look at what we have basically we have nearly 4 percent economic growth over the past year the third-highest rate in the OECD and 1500 people every week moving off welfare and into work—1500 people. So actually we are getting the country moving ahead. There were 84000 new jobs in the last year. That is growth. That is economic development. That is responsible fiscal management. There is a very coherent plan there. But look at the Budget—through tight economic times what have we done? We have preserved the entitlements for the most vulnerable New Zealanders. We have a $500 million package there for families with free general practitioner visits for under-sixes paid parental leave—Simon O’Connor: Under-13s now.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Sorry under-13s—even better news. So you know we are focusing on getting the country ahead at the same time as protecting the most vulnerable.Gerry Brownlee’s $220 million regional roads package was announced at the weekend. That is infrastructure that I can tell you the Green Cabinet would stop because the Greens do not like roads. They do not like the regions. They do not come from the regions most of those people except for the bald guy from the West Coast.Hon Annette King: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I would have thought you would stop that sort of behaviour. Naming a member of Parliament in that way is just not acceptable.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): I thank the member. It is not necessary. [Interruption] I am on my feet. I would ask the Minister to confine his comments to the estimates. I remind members of pages 128 and 129 of Speakers’ Rulings. That is the debate that we are on. Although some latitude is allowed I will ask the Minister to bring his focus back to the estimates debate.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I know you would not have been so sensitive Mr Chair about that sort of matter—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order! [Interruption] I am on my feet. The member will apologise for those comments.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I apologise Mr Chair.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): You cannot comment on anything that the presiding officer says which you did do.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: So when you look at this you see that it is a carefully thought-out package focused on the needs of New Zealanders. I can tell you that when you look at what these guys have come up with the one idea that David Parker has personally come up with is something called “the big tool”. What you do is you use people’s KiwiSaver to control inflation. Well how is that going to appeal to Labour’s core base out there? In the end what it means is its core voter will be told: “Sorry inflation is going up. You are going to have less money in the pocket to spend each week.” It is absolutely nuts. David Parker is the architect of that. You can tell how agitated these guys are getting over there because they are under real pressure. It is falling apart in their caucus. They have got no plan. They are deeply frustrated—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order! Back on the estimates.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Oh come on! This is—[Interruption]Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Point of order Mr Speaker.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): No no. The member will sit. Earlier I mentioned relevancy and coming back to the estimates debate. You are in the final few seconds and this is a peroration of your 5-minute speech to bring together those points that you want to make relevant on the estimates. I would ask the member in the last few seconds to confine his comments to that.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: The point I am making is that you should look at the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance managing the economy very soundly for 6 years. It is a very sound economic plan which has delivered for New Zealanders. These people can shout as much abuse as they like but out there we are connecting with the electorate. The National Party is objective—