Goff Phil: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Goff Phil: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14107] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Defence) 
: 
 The member Rodney Hide’s party has all but disappeared both from this House and in the public opinion polls so I do not intend to spend very much time on his speech. But I will give the member this: he has ideas even if they are ideas that I disagree with. 
I contrast that with the speech we heard earlier this afternoon from the Leader of the Opposition and the reaction of his own team to it. There was unambiguous disappointment on the faces of the National Opposition members when Mr Key delivered a speech that lacked substance and had not a word of policy in it. It was all motherhood and apple pies—he said National would increase productivity and have everybody in work and that living standards would go up. Did he say anything about his ideas for how that would happen? That was a speech from a man who lacks vision—a man who has no coherent set of principles and no idea of where he would want to take this country. But then we heard an extraordinary statement of double standards: we heard that the Government was tired and bereft of ideas! That statement came after the Prime Minister had just spoken for 40 minutes setting out the hard achievements of this Government and the direction for this country to take over the next 3 years. 
What can we say about National’s policy? Well it was against Working for Families a policy that helps 70 percent of New Zealand families to raise their kids. National was against that policy but suddenly it is no longer against it. Labour came up with a very good idea that is very popular and helps low-income families to the tune of $190 a week for someone who is on $30000 a year. It is hard for the National Party to say it would scrap that policy—although I would not guarantee that if given the chance it would not do that. 
Then there was KiwiSaver. The National Party was against KiwiSaver. National members said KiwiSaver would be a disaster and would never work. Well 400000 New Zealanders have voted with their feet and joined up to KiwiSaver. It is a great scheme enabling those New Zealanders who had no opportunity and no incentive to save for their future to now do so to the benefit of this country. 
But then there are all the other policies too. Do members remember about Iraq? The National Party voted in this Chamber to send troops to Iraq. Then it said it had not which was a patent lie. National members fudged. They said they did not vote to send troops to Iraq; it is on the record of the House that they did. 
There was also the nuclear-free policy. In public the National Party has always been in favour of it. But Don Brash and Lockwood Smith said the policy would be gone by lunchtime then were outraged when their duplicity was exposed in this House. How can we believe anything that party says about the nuclear-free policy when it has flip-flopped over 18 years from one policy to the next on that issue? 
Then there was climate change—one of the great issues of our time. John Key told the country that climate change was a hoax but within 6 months he said there is a crisis. He said there is climate change and asked why the Government was not doing something about it. How can we possibly believe a man who went from one extreme to the other on that issue in a matter of months? John Key is a man who has no analysis no judgment and no vision for the future. 
And so it goes on. There was the air combat wing. National members said we were letting down the country that we were abdicating our responsibility and that they would bring it back. Suddenly they said that the air combat wing was not really a priority for New Zealand and that they were adopting Labour’s policy. You know that is the only policy that National has. Its policy is to adopt Labour’s policy. 
The list goes on. There was a National caucus meeting last week. We have the policy of interest-free student loans. It is great. It gives students the opportunity to borrow money without having a mounting debt of extra interest giving them the chance to have an education. But National Party members said about our policy that it was irresponsible and unaffordable. John Key said that National would fight that policy with every bone in its body. Well there are no bones—not even a spine any more. That policy is yet another one on which the National Party has simply said “Me too!” to what Labour is doing. 
The list goes on and on. John Key then had the temerity to talk about the Labour Party being vacuous—that comes from the “Hollow Man”. That was from the “Shallow Man” who received an email stating that the Exclusive Brethren would secretly give him $1 million. He said he could not remember receiving it. I do not know how often John Key is offered $1 million; maybe it happens a lot in the circles that he travels in. That was very hard to believe. The National Party was the hollow party. That party was prepared to be backed by extremists who gave it money in secrecy. It is no wonder that the National Party does not like the law that forces it into the light of day so that the public can see what the party really stands for who supports it and who it is paying off if it ever gets into Government. That legislation is very necessary indeed. 
Then Mr Key talked about Labour driving people to Australia. I thought that instead of rhetoric I would look up a few facts on this issue. What happened between 1999 and 2007 in terms of relative wage rates in Australia and New Zealand? In the last 7 to 8 years they went up by 9.3 percent in New Zealand and went up by 9.7 percent in Australia. My statistician says that the gap in income grew by 1.6 percent in Australia’s favour between 1999 and 2007. I asked what happened between 1990 and 1999. Do members know what the gap was then? The gap grew by 50.4 percent. This country year after year after year in the 9 years of the National Government slipped back behind Australia. We are maintaining the pace with Australia today. I find it a bit rich that the guy who is constantly knocking his country John Key spent so much of his life out of this country. That is one thing but what was he doing? He was working for finance companies speculating against the New Zealand currency in order to damage the New Zealand economy. That is true patriotism! 
I find it very hard to accept the accusations that Mr Key made. He asked whether this is as good as it gets. Let us think about it. There were 377000 new jobs created in 8 years. Unemployment is at 3.4 percent which is the lowest rate of unemployment in 24 years. What has happened with regard to benefits? The number of people on benefits is down by 140000—not by their being threatened as the National Government did but because people who are given opportunities and the means to take advantage of them do that. They get off the benefit they work for their country and they work for their family. Real incomes in this country in the last 8 years—that is incomes after the increase in prices—are up by 25 percent. One sees those figures and one wonders how the National Party can come into this House day after day and knock this country—particularly when its track record is so bad. 
Bill English should look down. He was the man who as Minister of Finance cut superannuation from 66 percent down to 60 percent of the average wage. He is the man who promised no ifs no buts no maybes that National would scrap the surtax and who brought it back with a vengeance and then cut superannuation again. We have restored the level of superannuation for the older people of this country. We have helped people as they get older. There is a 250 percent increase in home support giving our elderly folk the chance to stay for as long as they are able to in homes of their own. 
The list of achievements in this country is a very long one. This Labour-led Government brought in the Superannuation Fund. This Labour-led Government has got our debt down to 20 percent of GDP which is one of the lowest levels in the Western World. Labour has provided a stable and consistent Government the last 8 years. This Government has a leader who has ability understanding and judgment who does the hard work and who will be the Prime Minister for the next 4 years.