Borrows Chester: General Debate 
Borrows Chester: General Debate 
[Volume:674;Page:20484] 
CHESTER BORROWS (National—Whanganui) 
: 
 It gives me pleasure to be able to stand in this general debate and draw some distinctions. There was a little comment just a few weeks ago by the Leader of the Opposition the Hon Phil Goff that underlined for me the difference between Labour and National. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: What was that? 
CHESTER BORROWS 
: What it was is this: when National put up the minimum wage to $13 with an extra 25c an hour the Hon Phil Goff said that that was only 10 bucks a week and that that was pathetic—that was pathetic. All those people on the other side of the House said yes that was pathetic. Yet a few weeks ago what did they announce? They announced a new policy that says the first $5000 of income will be tax-free for all wage earners. It will give wage earners an extra $10 a week—$10 a week. Well $10 a week is pathetic when we say it but it is a great innovation when they say it and they never—never—explain. 
Just a few Thursdays ago when Labour members announced the new capital gains tax and what a huge innovation that was going to be and how absolutely wonderful it was what did they announce then? They announced then but did not explain that right up until the Wednesday night a rich person in this country according to the Labour definition was someone who earned $60000 a year. That was because Labour supported a tax rate of 39c in the dollar for everybody earning over $60000 a year. But they woke up on Thursday morning and what had happened? All our rich mates were suddenly those earning $150000 and so they were going to be on the top tax rate of 39c in the dollar. There was no explanation about that whatsoever. There was no explanation but they had changed their minds. Phil Goff David Cunliffe and David Parker had gone to sleep on Wednesday night knowing that everyone earning over $60000 was a “rich prick”—in Labour parlance. But they woke up on Thursday morning and found that the rich were those earning over double that—over double that—with no explanation whatsoever. 
We had my friend from Mangere Su’a William Sio explain about the price of milk. He said it had gone up 21 percent under this Government. That was not a lie because I cannot say it was a lie but it was factually incorrect because we know that under the last 2 years of the Labour Government milk went up 23 percent—23 percent—and that under the last 2½ years of this Government it has gone up 9 percent. There is no explanation of that. We never hear an explanation of that. Labour did not care enough to do anything about the price of milk when in Government but right now of course the price of milk is the most terrible thing. 
Su’a William Sio also said that the price of petrol had gone through the roof but failed to announce of course that the price of petrol is actually coming down this week. Who knows where it will be next week because it is fluctuating. 
Labour hates it when things start moving positively. The crime rate has gone down and they hate it. We have more young people accessing apprenticeship schemes now and they hate that as well. They want to say that National has not got a plan yet our plan articulated in the Budget and spoken to by our members of Parliament constantly outlines where this Government is going. This Government is going in a forward direction; it is not going to look backwards. It is going to be careful with the way it spends taxpayers’ money because there is no such thing as Government money in spite of Labour policy when Labour members hold the Treasury benches and when all the money is theirs and they are happy to spend it on their mates. The previous Labour Government took up 13 hectares of public office space in this city over its period in Government. But that is all fine; that is job creation. It has nothing to do with productivity. It is job creation and that is innovation. Labour members hate it when a Government comes in and says that it is going to be careful how it spends taxpayers’ dollars. 
They hate it when we say we are going to target money towards those people who have nothing. The previous speaker the Hon Nanaia Mahuta talked about the 40000 in her electorate who have a low income and who have received apparently nothing from this Government. What about those people living on the pension? Those people living on the pension are earning $160 a week in the hand—more than they got when that lot was in office.