Coleman Jonathan: Address in Reply 
Coleman Jonathan: Address in Reply 
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Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Immigration) 
: 
 This is the first occasion on which I have had the opportunity to speak in the life of this new Parliament. I congratulate you Mr Assistant Speaker on your appointment and I also congratulate the new members elected to this House. 
In reflecting on the remarks made by the Hon Tariana Turia I cannot help feeling that this is an extremely optimistic time for the people of New Zealand. Although this country faces severe and serious economic challenges it is clear that there is goodwill between the National Party and our partners the Maori Party to address these issues in a constructive manner. To hear Tariana Turia speak about giving communities ownership of problems and looking to the people to try to deal with some of these seemingly intractable social problems we are faced with in this country gives me great heart and optimism about the time ahead. There is no question that big government does not necessarily mean better solutions. In fact under the term of the failed Labour Government I think we very much saw the proof of that. Big government and big spending ended up leaving this new Government with a whole host of problems. 
When we go into the community we find that there is enormous goodwill towards this new Government and towards the partnership between National and the Maori Party. I have had a lot of people say to me: “Look I might not have even voted for you guys but I can tell you that John Key is doing a fantastic job as Prime Minister.” People have been waiting for this. They have been waiting for a leader who will step across some of those traditional boundaries and be a leader for all New Zealand. The enormity of the challenges we are facing requires that sort of leadership. 
There is no doubt that when that mob opposite were in power they ended up making a mess of things. Talk about 9 years of wasted opportunities! It was quite a revelation to this new Government when we opened the books to see the mess that was left behind. There was a $2.3 billion hole in accident compensation that the Labour Government completely failed to tell us about. It was completely negligent. It must have known about that months before and if that is not a breach of the fiscal responsibility legislation I do not know what is. It is something that will really impact on New Zealanders in the coming crisis we are facing. 
The Labour Government left the health system in a mess. It had 9 years and it racked up spending to over $12 billion a year yet New Zealanders are getting fewer services and less access to services than ever before. Nine years of missed opportunities to reform the Resource Management Act has left a mess—an endless trail of bureaucracy and red tape that will be left to this Government to sort out. We have many challenges ahead of us in justice and law and order. We have failing education standards in our schools. One in five New Zealand children cannot read or write. That is the legacy of this last failed Government. 
When we look at the Labour Party today we see a divided transitional leadership. It is no secret that the people on the Labour backbenches are pretty unhappy with what they see going on. Phil Goff has no chance of ever leading that mob over there anywhere. As Guyon Espiner said in his recent  
North and South 
 column we do not even know who the next Labour Prime Minister will be—it is someone who is not even on the map politically as Labour is so far away from making an impact on the polls. 
Only three members from the Labour Party who are in the Chamber at the moment are interested in contesting the debate. Labour members have given up. The former Minister Pete Hodgson is probably filling out his curriculum vitae and thinking about options ahead. These people have lost the debate. The debates were held before the last election and despite all the rhetoric and all the stuff we are hearing in the House Labour has lost the argument. Labour was fundamentally and comprehensively rejected by the electorate at the last election. The reason for that was basically that people had lost trust in the Labour Government. They no longer believed anything that the Government had to say and they were right. The last election was about trust but that is over now and the arguments have been won. We have a new Government and the challenges are ahead. 
It is interesting to note that Labour had 9 years to cut taxes but it did not take the opportunity to do so. Within the first 100 days of the new National-led Government taxes have been cut. There will be a continuous programme of economic reform. John Key will be relentlessly focused on what we need to do to get the economy going. We will have to do more with less. Departments will have to manage within their baselines. We will have to increase productivity and get the country going again. 
I notice that there has been a lot of blather and criticism from the Opposition about the fiscal stimulus package. Labour saw the recession coming it had all the surpluses but it never did anything about it. Members can see the spending that has been announced in the fiscal stimulus package. Action is being taken immediately to get the economy going. There is $500 million being spent on new infrastructure projects and $100 million of that will go into projects that will start before 30 June. There are crucial projects in roading education and transport. In transport we have $143 million of spending five large State highway projects and a programme of small regionally funded projects that will take place. The Kopu Bridge has been frankly a festering sore on the transport system for years. Labour did nothing about it. It had huge surpluses and it could have taken action. Nothing has happened. But in the first 100 days of the National Government it has been announced that action will be taken—it actually will happen. 
New schools and education will be a major focus for this Government with the provision of $217 million of spending and five new schools that the population is crying out for. Most important the economic activity around those schools will actually contribute to getting New Zealanders into work keeping them in work and stimulating the economy. I tell members that it will be about jobs this year and frankly that is where the emphasis has to go in order to make sure that we keep Kiwis in jobs and to make sure that we keep the economy going through people continually spending putting money into the economy and keeping businesses going. There has been a major effort put in there. 
In respect of housing there will be $125 million of spending which will allow Housing New Zealand Corporation to upgrade and renovate 10000 more State houses. We are building 69 new State houses over the next 6 months so there is major pressure in the construction industry. These are new projects that will keep people in work and keep people focused on working. 
One would have to admit that under the previous Government there was no investment in infrastructure—it was completely neglected. There was a lot of talk about it. One billion dollars was spent on buying back Tranz Rail. In terms of looking at ways to stimulate the economy if we had $1 billion to spend—we wish this Government had that luxury now—what could we do with it? What did Labour do with that $1 billion? It funded an ideologically based promise to buy back what was New Zealand Rail. The list of things that these guys would have liked to have nationalised makes one’s eyes water—terrible stuff. 
Let us look at the ridiculous stuff that has gone on in respect of the Resource Management Act. In my electorate in the area of Glenfield there has been a 20-year battle to get a Pak ’N Save supermarket. This battle has basically come about because one competitor has blocked another competitor through the misapplication and misuse of the Resource Management Act from building a supermarket that the people of North Shore are absolutely crying out for. These guys could have done something. Within National’s first 100 days changes have been made to the Resource Management Act. Nick Smith has been on the job and we will get this sorted out. 
Health spending was totally unfocused under the last Government which was more focused on getting a statue out the front of North Shore Hospital than worrying about what was actually going on inside the corridors. 
There are a lot of areas where this new Government can bring focus. We must have discipline in spending and we must make sure the economy gets going. National has been stuck with one heck of a handicap thanks to the Labour Government’s legacy of red tape poor-quality spending and a bloated bureaucracy. The country was going nowhere under Labour. We now have a new Government a new partnership an inclusive Government that is focused across the breadth of the New Zealand population a great partnership with the Maori Party and a fantastic leader and visionary Prime Minister in John Key—who I am sure will go down as one of the great Prime Ministers in New Zealand history. 
We are facing tough times ahead—there is no question about it. We are facing economically difficult times but the people of New Zealand know that this Government is up to the challenge it will meet the challenge and it will be absolutely focused on bringing the economy and the people of New Zealand through the tough times ahead.