Parker David: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Parker David: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 18 August 2010. Volume:665;Page:13233. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 We heard the Prime Minister today admit under questioning from Phil Goff that the Government is struggling to make progress. Those were his words—struggling to make progress. He said it was because the Government had inherited a mess from the previous Labour Government. Let us just reflect on that. National inherited zero net debt gross Government debt that had come down from 38 percent to 17 percent of GDP and an unemployment rate that was amongst the lowest in the world. So let us park that mantra from National to the side. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Minor details. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Yes minor details. John Key said the Government is struggling to make progress. I was amazed to hear that acknowledgment today. The Government is struggling to make progress. I think we might hear more about that in Parliament over the next few days. That was an incredible admission from a Government that has already been labelled by the media as lacking a plan. 
The Government is struggling to make progress because its members do not know what to do. Look I am not the only person who thinks that. 
Hon Steven Joyce 
: No. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: I tell Mr Joyce that after the little gaffe of making a mistake about whether the gap was widening between New Zealand and Australia and after Mr Key followed Mr Brownlee down that slope Mr Key was accused by TV3 of being too selective and slippery. For the Prime Minister to be called slippery is not very good. The  
New Zealand Herald  
said “This provided its own commentary on the Government’s attempt to close the gap”—and this is the  
New Zealand Herald— 
“which has so far encompassed little more than tinkering with the Resource Management Act and suchlike.” The same editorial stated in respect of the Government’s economic performance “when relatively little is done relatively little happens. Things can even go backwards.” What did Bernard Hickey say? He said: “We are losing a whole generation of workers before our eyes and our government appears to be sitting on its hands hoping the problem will go away.” 
What did the National Government say earlier in the year? Earlier in the year it was promising a step change. This was its thing for the economy in February 2010: “Our 2010 priorities. National seeks a step change in economic performance.” What is its latest version? Edition two of the same document came out a week ago. There is no talk of a step change. Three things have dropped out of the plan between then and now. The Government has stopped promising a step change it has abandoned its attempts to extend the areas open to mining and it has dropped its plan to investigate a hub for financial services. There is nothing new in the August plan; it is just that the Government has dropped out some of the things that were in the February plan. 
National members’ latest acknowledgment is that they have been wrong about savings. Having tipped over the Kirk scheme having opposed the Peters superannuation scheme at the end of the 1990s having undermined KiwiSaver and having stopped contributions to Government saving via the Cullen fund they now say the big problem relates to savings. We have news for National members: we have been saying that for years. That is why we developed the KiwiSaver plan that is why we started contributions to the Cullen fund and that is why since the election we have been saying National has got it wrong. The big difference between New Zealand and Australia is in the level of savings and National members have just agreed with us about that. They have just agreed with us but will they deliver in that area? No they still have no vision; all that they are planning is to establish a committee. After two Budgets 2 years into this National Government its big announcement and its big plan last week when it was on the ropes in respect of the gap with Australia widening instead of narrowing was to establish a committee. The Government does not even have members for a committee and it has no terms of reference for it yet but its plan is to establish a committee. 
It continues to be amateur hour on the National Government benches at a time when the economy is tanking. We have more and more people going overseas— 
Hon Steven Joyce 
: Ha ha! 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Steven Joyce laughs but Bernard Hickey says “We are losing a whole generation of workers before our eyes”. I say to Mr Joyce that if he wanted to do something about that he could have done something at the Hillside railway workshops. He had the justification for doing so in an independent report from Business and Economic Research Ltd and he has ignored it. As a consequence there will be 300 fewer jobs in Dunedin.