Cunliffe David: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: General Debate[Sitting date: 30 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19669. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Leader of the Opposition):I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. This is our last general debate for this session. We rise for the general election and it is game on. This is an election that the Labour-led Opposition can win will win and must win for the people of New Zealand—for the people like the 260000 children growing up in poverty; like the people who are without jobs for whom we are promising jobs; and like the people whom we are promising an increase to the minimum wage immediately. The contrast is clear. Today we announced an immediate increase to the minimum wage and another one next year—$2 more. That will put $4000 a year into the pockets of low-income workers. In New Zealand there are 100000 children in working families that are below the poverty line and we have the plan to fix that.Meantime contrast that with the National Government’s plan. What is its solution? Wining dining and mining—milk and disaster. It is presiding over a dairy industry where prices are falling off a cliff. It is praying that this election comes quickly before dairy prices go down and interest rates go up and before New Zealanders see through the fluff and the sham to what is really going on. And what is going on? There are 260000 children in poverty two out of five of whom are in working families. There are 40000 kids hospitalised for poverty-related diseases. Homeownership is at the lowest level in 50 years. Rent and power are up 20 percent each so hard-working families middle-income New Zealanders cannot get ahead.Meantime more people are unemployed in every region of New Zealand except Canterbury. Half of New Zealanders did not get a pay rise despite 3 percent growth and 75 percent of Kiwis say that the gap between rich and poor has got bigger as real wages have fallen in 13 out of 16 regions.Hon David Parker: And they’re right.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: And they are right. Meantime the top few percent are doing just fine. The top 10 percent now own more than the other 90 percent and National gave them huge tax cuts while putting GST up on everybody else. That is the Government’s priority. Now chief executive officers earn 26 times the average wage. The wage gap with Australia which John Key was going to close has climbed $70 a week to $190 a week.It is often said that politics is a tipping game and we know that this game is going to tip because on that side team Key is a pretty sorry mess. There is John Banks the man John Key kept on throughout his trial for electoral fraud. Judith Collins used her ministerial position to entrench and enrich herself and her family. What did she get from the Prime Minister? A $5000 holiday. Peter Dunne the Minister who leaked the Kitteridge report and has never denied it—never denied it—was restored to Ōhariu and to the ministry. Are these higher standards for New Zealanders? I do not think so. Murray McCully—enough said. Gerry Brownlee is the “Minister for Aviation Security” an oxymoron. That is like calling Jonathan Coleman the “Minister for Transparency about the FBI” Simon Bridges the “Minister for National Parks” Maurice Williamson the “Minister Helping Police with their Inquiries” or Nick Smith the “Minister for Three Strikes Fishing for a New Game”. There is Phil “Richard Worth” Heatley Claudette “Put It on the Plastic” Hauiti and Aaron “Don’t You Know Who the Hell I Am?” Gilmore.Well we know who the heck they are. They are members of the tired old National Party. It is the “prop up the rich” National Party and damn the rest. It is the Government that is on its way out. This is the Government that is on its way in. I say bring on campaign 2014. We are up for it. We are going to win this race. Thank you.