Dyson Ruth: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Dyson Ruth: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1313] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Minister of Labour) 
: 
 Mr Assistant Speaker I begin my contribution this evening by wishing you and the officials in the Speaker’s office a very very happy new year. From my perspective I am looking forward to a very happy new year as well and I wish that all members of the House could do so but frankly I doubt it in terms of what faces the National Party. It has had a whole summer during which every day different stories from different leakers in its own caucus talked about their frustration with the clear failure of Don Brash to provide any leadership. What a dreadful thing it is to go through the whole summer hearing and reading about this day after day. I thought the communication skills of the National Party members were at their peak over summer. Tragically for them those skills had leaks. 
Then National had its major breakthrough which was the opportunity to show Dr Brash as a strong competent leader with Orewa III—his third speech in the series. I have not seen the final film in  
The Lord of the Rings 
 trilogy but apparently everybody was disappointed—in exactly the same way they were disappointed with the third of the Rotary speeches from Don Brash. John Armstrong described it in this way: “They set low expectations with the speech and they deliberately played it down but I think it even struggled to meet those low expectations.” That was what one of the best political commentators in our country said of the speech. He went on: “I think we know what National’s secret weapon is for the next election. Don Brash is going to try and kill Labour with politeness. He is meek. They needed a ripsnorter to get into the year proper and I would have gone for the jugular but not Dr Brash.” 
The  
Nelson Mail 
 wrote: “Few voters are likely to rate his speech as much better than dull.” and the  
Marlborough Express 
 summed it up for me and certainly for my constituents from what I have heard from them: “It was too negative and it failed to deliver the solutions New Zealanders are seeking.” Well that is exactly the point. That is why National was defeated again at last year’s election and now it looks forward to 3 long years in Opposition again while we have 3 more years of a Labour-led Government. I want to acknowledge the support of our partners New Zealand First United Future and the Greens in the work we did to become the Government. 
Last week I had the pleasure of going to the start-of-the-year function hosted by Business New Zealand. The President of Business New Zealand Stephen Collins got up to welcome everyone to the function and his opening words were: “Business in New Zealand is in very good heart.” He has listened I am sure to speeches from members of the National Party and wondered what planet they are on. Why does the leader who is now widely called “Dr Doom” in the business community insist on trying to talk us into a recession? Why is he so set on causing depression for New Zealand and not looking to promote our country and be proud of New Zealand as the most fantastic place in the world to live in to work in and to relax in? That is what I am proud of and I just wish the members of the National Party would show some leadership on that issue. 
As the Prime Minister said in her opening remarks to Parliament last week Labour and the Progressive party are not in Government to manage the status quo. It is never good enough. We have seen progressively over the last 6 years that as we have raised the bar people’s expectations and opportunities have been raised and their expectations for future opportunities have increased as well. That is what I look forward to contributing to over the next 3 years. We want our country to be more affluent and more dynamic. We need a strong economy to deliver the living standards the services and the quality of life that our citizens deserve expect and are prepared to work for. We want all New Zealand families to enjoy more opportunity and more security and to share in the progress that our country makes. We want to build pride in New Zealand’s national identity and to celebrate the achievements and successes of our people not to run them down. Those people who have achieved both in the past and in the present have brought great credit to our country both within it and internationally. 
We have spent the last 6 years working hard with and for the citizens of our country; growing the economy; dropping our level of unemployment to the lowest in the Western World; investing heavily in the critical services of health education police and our social services; promoting our unique and rich culture; protecting New Zealand’s environment; and maintaining our nation’s reputation as principled independent and nuclear-free. It had to be the joke of the year when Murray McCully persuaded his caucus to come out publicly and say: “Nuclear-free? We’ve changed our mind.” The whole country laughed. It was the best joke they had played on New Zealanders for a long time. New Zealanders just laughed at the thought of National expecting to have any credibility at all on the nuclear issue—not a chance. Labour has stood strong on that policy for over 20 years and will continue to do so. 
It is clear that the confidence of the National Party has taken a very significant blow over the last few weeks. Its caucus expanded as it was since the election gave it a born-to-rule arrogance in the House. But after Don Brash’s Orewa III speech after National’s caucus retreat in Taupo which was totally dominated by the increasing factionalism of its caucus and now after the blunder of its new and obviously one-term MP Craig Foss it is starting to look very shaky. Craig Foss is happy to encourage illegal workers to take the jobs of New Zealanders—New Zealanders who had been sacked so that those illegal workers could take their jobs. What an absolutely disgraceful position for any member of Parliament to take let alone a member of Parliament who comes to this House to represent those people who were sacked. What an absolute disgrace! 
But the icing on National’s crumbling cake is its feigned horror at the electoral expenses of the New Zealand Labour Party. That horror came from a National Party that forgot to include GST on its broadcasting expenses return. One would think the former Governor of the Reserve Bank might know how the GST system works. He forgot that and he forgot his meetings with the Exclusive Brethren—he forgot to include their expenditure for the National Party on its tax returns. That is why New Zealanders were very happy at the last election and I predict that for the next three years they will forget the National Party and look to our Government for leadership and support of their aspirations.