English Bill: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
English Bill: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:648;Page:16845] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 I think the story that Dr Cullen and Helen Clark have been telling their caucus for about 18 months is: “We’ll just wait for another couple of weeks because then some rabbit will jump out of the hat.” Well the bad news for the Labour caucus is that not only is there no rabbit but there is no hat either. One of the reasons there is no hat is the Minister of Finance. The Minister of Finance got up in the House today to lecture us about fiscal policy. Actually fiscal policy is not that complicated but Dr Cullen has managed to make it very complicated. He is the man who has spent 8 years saying that anyone who offers tax cuts to New Zealanders is reckless and furthermore anyone who offers tax cuts—and therefore has to borrow more money—should be taken outside and have his or her head pushed under the water and held there because that person is so stupid. Of course after 8 years and 6 months he discovered that the public were right and he was wrong. So what did he do? He turned around and offered significant tax cuts and the effect of that is that he is now going out and borrowing almost all of the money he will need for those tax cuts. 
That is why however elegant and sophisticated his analysis sounds no one believes him. People do not believe him because he did not believe himself. He said that he would never do it that it was bad and that it would wreck the economy to offer tax cuts but he went and offered tax cuts. He said that any attempt to borrow another dollar would downgrade our credit rating and wreck our economic future yet according to his current Budget he has gone out to borrow $13 billion. That is why no one believes Dr Cullen—he never believed himself. 
He is also suffering from the delusion that every member of the New Zealand public thinks the Government knows how to take advantage of the economic opportunities that are offered to New Zealand. Well the track record of this Government in recent weeks has shown New Zealanders why they should not trust those people in Labour to make the important decisions that need to be made so that New Zealand can take those opportunities. Yes National stands for standards in education—unashamedly. And do members know what? We do not stand for more “Wassup!” in education. That is the difference. The hugely literate Dr Cullen has a strategy for lifting standards in education which is the distribution of badges with “Wassup!” written on them. That is his strategy. Another badge says “I love Maori success”; as if any Maori 15-year-olds will look at that and feel that the Government has deep respect for their capacities—of course they will not. That is the difference between National and Labour. Yes we stand for educational standards and now it is absolutely clear that Labour does not. It stands for wasting taxpayers’ money patronising people who it thinks are dependent on it and leaving progress in education to hand-wringing and counting the failures. 
I do agree with Dr Cullen about the big opportunities that New Zealand has but did members not notice that when he introduced this bill and talked about the opportunities ahead for New Zealand he did not mention anyone except the Government; it was as if he thought the only people who would grasp these opportunities were those in Government. Well that shows a big difference between National and Labour. Labour sees the future as being about what the smartest politician—and Dr Cullen thinks it is him—can dream up. We see the future as being about enabling millions of New Zealanders who are innovative who are enterprising and who are self-reliant to get on and grasp those opportunities. We think the Government should be less of an influence on the future not a growing influence on it and that is the difference. Dr Cullen talks about the redemptive power of the State and we talk about the power of the people. That is the difference. 
Our economic policy is unashamedly based on creating the environment where business individuals and organisations can get on and seize opportunities because they are there. The terms of trade are shifting in New Zealand’s favour. The weight of international economic activity is gradually moving towards us. These things are the best news since Britain went into the European Common Market and left us pretty much on our own. But taking advantage of those opportunities will require the use of the talents and the innovation of every single New Zealander. 
Let us look at a policy where the Government does talk about infrastructure. New Zealand is the only country in the developed or semi-developed world that has a bizarre objection to the use of public-private partnerships in the building of infrastructure. Public-private partnerships are important not only because someone else supplies some money for investment in infrastructure but because they enable the Government to harvest the disciplines and skills of the private sector—in managing risks in particular in taking a long-term view about investment and in bringing those skills into the substantial public investment in infrastructure that any Government has to do. Why is it that Labour does not do it will not do it and has refused to do it and regards anyone who even suggests that it does it as some kind of extremist maniac? I do not know the answer to that question— 
Hon Member 
: They don’t either. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: —and I do not think that Labour knows. It is just that that is something Labour believes in. A couple of weeks ago I had the good fortune to spend some time talking to two Australian Federal Labor Ministers from the new Government—Mr Lindsay Tanner Minister for Finance and Deregulation and Mr Anthony Albanese Minister for Infrastructure. I have to say that if they gave the same speeches in New Zealand as they give in Australia they would be accused by Dr Cullen Mr Duynhoven and Annette King of being Roger Douglas extremists. They talk openly—openly—about the virtues of profit the benefits of private enterprise the need for a Government to harvest the best of private enterprise— 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: So do we; what’s wrong with you? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Well that is what they do. That is why that member is going to struggle to hold his seat because in New Plymouth they have a strong sense of the potential of New Zealand and they have an even stronger sense that the Labour Party and the Labour Government stand between themselves and the potential that could be realised. 
Infrastructure is just one example where the Government has shown that it is just unsuited for the challenges ahead of New Zealand because those challenges are going to be considerable. We have an economic downturn and the public know that Labour is the “party” Government. Those members in Government had a good time while there was a party but now there is a hangover they have all got bad-tempered and want to keep their toys away from everybody else. Helen Clark in particular has been caught flat-footed. They do not know how to deal with an economic downturn except to complain about it and to say that the Government has done something to make it not as bad as it might otherwise have been. 
National is unashamedly forward-looking with its economic policies. We will be outlining to the electorate our plans covering tax cuts infrastructure and standards in education. We will also be unashamed about our ambition for New Zealand. Most New Zealanders are ambitious for this country but the problem is that the Government is ambitious only for Labour. It is ambitious only to try to get Helen Clark’s name in the history books for a fourth term. But New Zealanders actually have more important things on their minds. That is all this is about; it is now all about Helen Clark while two million New Zealand households out there are trying to make ends meet. The public know that the Government has taken a much bigger share of their income than it should have. They know that the Government books are in great order while theirs are running overdrafts. They know that 80000 people left New Zealand last year. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: Tell us what your policy is. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: We meet people in the street every day who say that if Mr Duynhoven gets back into power they are certainly going to leave. I can understand that. Some say: “I’ll stay because I think it is important that we see him off.” That is what people are saying out there. That is why the Government— 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: You are a liar Bill. Not one person has said that to you; not one. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Not one—the member is right. In New Plymouth we cannot find one person who says: “I’m keen to vote Labour.” and I can tell that member that we have looked very hard. There are some who will vote Labour because they always have but none of them really want to.