Joyce Steven: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeJoyce Steven: General Debate[Sitting date: 16 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17324. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development): Well if I were the Leader of the Opposition I would not be discussing the numbers in caucus in any situation. I would not be talking if I were David Cunliffe about toast—the guy who will not even tell New Zealanders who donated for his leadership bid. That is how straight that person is in this Parliament.But there is actually a more important issue for the Opposition and that is: what is going on with the Labour Party?Hon Annette King: Nothing!Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Exactly—nothing. That is my point. Why is it struggling along at 30 percent in the polls—or 27 percent according to one prominent commentator yesterday? It is not like its leader is not out there rushing around doing stuff. He is too busy to come to Wellington some days because he is so busy out there giving speeches. He is too busy to go on the television for prearranged interviews because he is busy rushing around the place. He is working away but nothing is happening. He sort of tries to look like a leader. He puts on his nerd face and says: “Oh yes I’m a very serious leader. This is what leaders look like.” But actually it is not going anywhere.Why is that? Well it is a tricky conundrum. It is a tricky conundrum and there are a number of possible reasons. One is possibly that Labour members focus on beltway issues all the time—far be it from me to tell them about that but perhaps that is what they do. But possibly a more telling issue is that they spend their lives constantly making stuff up so that when they open their mouths the public go: “Ah I don’t think so.” before Labour members hardly say a word.Here are just a few examples from recent days. Yesterday their leader was out saying: “Labour ran a surplus every year in Government.” Well it did not. In Labour’s last year in Government it was proposing a $3.9 billion deficit—wrong Mr Cunliffe. The claim yesterday that our economic recovery is due only to Canterbury and high dairy prices—wrong. That recovery is a broad-based recovery. The claim that New Zealand was nowhere to be seen on the whaling issue in the last couple of weeks—wrong. The Attorney-General was actually in the court. The claim that there is a manufacturing crisis—also wrong. The sector has been in expansion for 19 months. Of course there is the claim that costs are rising faster than wages.Hon Trevor Mallard: Stand up for Judith!Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Actually since September 2008 average after-tax wages have increased more than inflation. Trevor go home. You are getting on Trevor. Let it go. But there is another example of making stuff up and exaggeration.Here is Labour’s new policy. The new policy says Labour will require trucks not to be driven in the fast lane. Yes it is apparently a new policy of the Labour Party which is sort of OK fair enough except you have to read the fine print. At least on this one the fine print is here which we could not say for the baby bonus policy. The fine print says it is only for three and four-lane motorways. So they will stop trucks being driven in the fast lane but only on three and four-lane motorways. How many three and four-lane motorways do you think there are in New Zealand? How many of these motorways exist? I will give you a clue. Of 11000 kilometres of State highways in New Zealand how many of them are three or four-lane motorways that this wonderful policy affects? The answer is about 50 or 60 kilometres. Of 11000 kilometres about 50 or 60 kilometres will be affected by this. But you do not hear that from the Labour Party. “Mr Nerd Face Labour Party Leader” David Cunliffe—very serious very serious—says: “We’re going to stop these trucks passing but only for 60 kilometres. The other 11000 kilometres won’t be changing.” That is their problem: they make up stuff and they exaggerate. But at least it is the issues that matter—at least it is the issues that matter!Actually I have been thinking of some more policies for them to think about for the next few days. I have got a few more. I have beencrowdsourcing some policies—not just trucks but how about pedestrians who walk slowly? That is annoying. Let us have a rule against that. That could be a new Labour Party transport policy—pedestrians who walk too slowly. Let us have that one because that is an issue that matters.What about another one? What about people who constantly change lanes in the security queues at airports? That is annoying. Let us have a policy for that. Let us sort that one out. And what about people who have too loud TV commercials? They used tohave that one. Let us bring that one back. The reason the Labour Party is struggling for relevance is that its members have no idea what is important to Kiwis. They make stuff up and they exaggerate. In short they are tricky.