Guy Nathan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Guy Nathan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:637;Page:7485] 
NATHAN GUY (National) 
: 
 It is with pleasure that I rise this afternoon and wish my colleagues a happy New Year and I extend good wishes to our newest member of the National caucus Katrina Shanks who will be giving her maiden speech anytime shortly. I welcome Katrina. She did a fantastic job in Ohariu-Belmont and was not far away from taking that seat. I believe that in the 2008 election Katrina Shanks will take it. I welcome Katrina and her colleagues into the House this afternoon. 
It is a special occasion for me that I can follow on from the Minister of Finance—“Mr Mortgage Tax” or “Mr Chewing Gum Tax Cut”. He is someone who is on the way out like this Government which is extremely tired and has a lack of ideas and a lack of vision. Prime Minister Helen Clark in her address last week mentioned the word “sustainability” 33 times. That is obviously the key word and that is how this Government thinks it will get back into power for a fourth term. The Greens are holding up in their poll rating and Labour members have worked out with their little bit of polling that if they scare people into thinking that icebergs are going to float up their street their creek or their canal that climate change will hurt everyone. So we heard the Prime Minister mention sustainability 33 times. Her address last week was full of slogans without any detail. 
Last week I was walking across the street when a person yelled out to me. He said: “Hey Nathan!”. I turned round and saw an old university colleague of mine crossing the street. I stopped and shook his hand. But it was not his normal hand because he was wearing a brace out from his shoulder down to his elbow and had things screwed into his arm. I said to him: “What’s happened to you?”. He said: “I’ve been shot.” I said: “Shot?”. He said: “Yeah have you heard of Graeme Burton?”. This is a true story. I said: “Yes.” He said: “Well I was out on my mountain bike with a mate of mine happily on a Sunday afternoon.”—I think it was. He was riding through the tracks on his mountain bike going flat out and came around a corner and came across a person who had been shot dead by Graeme Burton and stabbed. He could not stop quickly enough to help this person. He braked locked up his bike and there was Graeme Burton. He cycled away as quickly as he could. Graeme Burton had a shotgun full of buckshot and blew the bone in this person’s arm into seven pieces; he blew it apart. 
This Government’s stance on parole is hopeless. What did we see from Damien O’Connor when Graeme Burton was running large in the hills above Wellington? Nothing. A colleague of mine whom I went to university with was out having a joyride on his mountain bike and had the bone in his upper arm blown to bits in seven places and this Government is silent. We thought that even the Prime Minister would get tough on the Parole Board. We thought there would be something in her state of the nation address. But there was nothing. There were more words more slogans but they did not address the core issues for this country. Yet she comes out and talks about selling the VIP car fleet because that will save $500000 in 3 years’ time. That will reduce our carbon emissions. What will happen? This fleet of cars will be sold on the open market in New Zealand and another New Zealander will buy them. So we are going to move into vehicles powered by bio-diesel. I cannot wait to see Parekura Horomia trying to fit himself into one of those vehicles powered by biofuels. 
When we are talking about climate change what about the people involved in forestry? What about those people who are scared of this Government bringing in a tax for changing land use? Whereas farmers or landowners might have been going to harvest their trees at 28 or 30 years’ maturity they are now out there firing up their chainsaws as we speak because this Government is going to impose a $13000 a hectare tax on changing land use from trees. Under this Government we have a terrible wishy-washy policy on climate change. It is all over the place. The Government has scared foresters and landowners who want to steal the carbon credits. It has forced them to fire up their chainsaws and more pine trees are being felled in this country now than are being replaced. The Government needs to look very hard at itself because it is the one that has inflicted this terrible deforestation that our country is incurring. 
I thought that the Prime Minister’s statement would be great. I thought that surely she would mention something about the backbone of our economy—surely she would mention something about the farming sector which I am pretty passionate about. [ 
Interruption 
] I say to Mr Hughes who represents the most marginal seat of Otaki that the Prime Minister had one sentence about farming on page 4 of her address. She said when talking about emissions: “In agriculture part of the answer lies in changing farming practice now …”. There were no ideas; no solutions. 
Darren Hughes 
: What are yours? Give us one. 
NATHAN GUY 
: No why should we divulge now all the things we are proposing when Labour members have had 8 long years. They are hopeless. That is why they will all be gone. They will be packing their bags. They will be down in numbers in 2008. 
It is interesting to see that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is out there looking for more employees to go and sell the Labour Party’s climate change policy. The ministry employs 1500 staff and it is now looking for an extra three to get out there and sell this climate change policy. The ministry spends $1.2 million a year on public relations consultants yet it wants to go out and employ more people. I cannot work that out. 
Today we asked the Minister of Finance about carbon neutrality. We asked to hear from him about the six departments that are going to reduce their carbon footprints by 2012. There was nothing. He is absolutely hopeless. What we see from this Government is that it is now going to hang on to power by the one proxy vote that Taito Phillip Field—who the Prime Minister says is unstable unethical and immoral—will give it. The Government is going to hang on to the thin thread of power by one proxy vote from someone who more than likely will end up in court. The courts have a long list of cases because the Government cannot solve the problems and I believe it will take 12 to 15 months before Taito Phillip Field appears in court. This Government is going to hang on by a little thread—one proxy vote from Taito Phillip Field. 
It is also interesting to see in the Prime Minister’s statement that 2007 is the year of the exporter. Well well well! Are not exporters struggling? There is a high dollar. What is this Government doing about that? What is the Government doing about farmers who are the backbone of this country? Sheep farmers are now finding that this is a 7-year low for them as $25 has gone off the lamb schedule yet this Government says that this is the year of the exporter. The rural economy is going to close its cheque book lock it in the top drawer and provincial towns around New Zealand will feel that. 
I was really interested to hear Paul Hargreaves the former boss of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research say on Radio New Zealand National this morning that the institute could forecast floods 12 to 36 hours quicker than MetService yet MetService has the contract to do the weather forecasting for heavy flood warnings in New Zealand. We have two Government departments run by different Ministers that cannot get together and forecast our flood areas. If that had been the case in 2004 if the institute had had the opportunity to forecast flooding I think we would not have been in the same situation then whereby one farmer in the Manawatu lost 3500 lambs in that flood. I think that is shocking. It is bureaucracy gone mad. We have the technology to forecast flooding in this country and the Labour Government cannot sort it out between Steve Maharey and the Minister for State Owned Enterprises whose name I have forgotten. 
Just to sum up this Government is on its last legs. I look forward to seeing the end of it. Its members are tired. They do not have any ideas at all. I think the most important thing for National is that we have rejuvenated and I welcome Katrina Shanks into our caucus.