O'Connor Damien: Appropriation (2010/11 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
O'Connor Damien: Appropriation (2010/11 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Sitting date: 03 August 2010. Volume:665;Page:12924. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Labour) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to follow Mr Joyce who started his speech by saying that the agenda of the Government was unfolding day by day. I will tell members that the way I see it is that the Government wants to build more prisons. The Minister of Corrections said that here in the House. Those members think that that is success. Not only will they build more prisons but also they will have them in private ownership. That is what the Government’s agenda is. It has also indicated that it will privatise newly built schools. Mr Joyce said that he will build more roads. Well the only roads that he is building are the ones around the cities. The people in rural New Zealand who create the wealth know that their money is being taken to fund Mr Joyce’s city roads. The only agenda that is going on here is that National is putting more money towards its mates who funded its campaigns. That is the simple fact of the matter. National’s mates will build the prisons build the schools and build the roads. 
What those members want is higher unemployment and lower wages. I ask whether members know that that is the economic agenda that National is rolling out. We have seen higher levels of unemployment and declining wages. That is not good news for New Zealand. When will the National Government wake up to that reality? Mr Joyce had the stupidity to say literally 3 minutes ago that lower interest rates allow the economy to grow. I tell Mr Joyce to wake up. The official cash rate has just been put up and it is likely to go up further and further. The inflationary pressures that this Government has brought to the economy through the rise in GST and the emissions trading scheme is likely to drive up interest rates further. That means that the only thought that Mr Joyce brought to this House is that lower interest rates allow the economy to grow but he has it wrong. 
I must speak on behalf of the rural economy. I picked up a paper today and the heading was “Does the ‘farmer’s government’ give a damn?”. It could read: “Does the ‘farmer’s Government’ have a clue?” because it is the same thing. Rural folk up and down this country are asking what this Government is up to. They voted in National as it has been called the “farmers’ Government” for many many years. They voted National back in. They did that because they were promised that the emissions trading scheme would be scuttled—no emissions trading scheme. The farmers up and down this country thought that National would scupper the emissions trading scheme. Why? Because National campaigned against it. Because it ranted and raved against climate change and the emissions trading scheme the farmers understandably thought that National would scupper it. National also went up and down the country saying that it absolutely opposed any increase in taxes. Maybe that is true except that it has put up taxes as GST has gone up. It said that it would cut bureaucracy and cut costs but it has not. If the step change that it was advocating was a step down then National should have been upfront about it. For most workers in the country its economic agenda is a step down. 
At least with Labour under Helen Clark we had clear and consistent leadership. Do members know what farmers are saying up and down this country? Mr Guy knows this. They are saying that we have confused and contradictory leadership from National. They do not know whether their Government gives a damn. Those are the facts and all those members over there know that because they are getting that feedback. The reality—and we were able to expose it today—is if that is one’s plan for building the recovery and for an economic step change little wonder their leadership is confused and contradictory. That is the fact. People have seen U-turns on so many issues now that National cannot tell a U-turn from a circle. I am guessing that National will go round and round again and again. 
Let us go back to the emissions trading scheme. Contrary to what farmers and rural folk thought would happen National passed a dumbed-down emissions trading scheme. It is a Clayton’s emissions trading scheme that many of us think will be ineffective. It will not drive behaviour change but that is what we should be attempting to do. Across the globe the view is that we are emitting too much and we should reduce that. Does the emissions trading scheme passed by the National Government against the wishes and expectations of rural New Zealand do that? No it does not. The question is where to now. 
Amy Adams 
: What’s your position? 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: I ask Amy Adams what her farming constituents say to her. I am guessing that they are asking the same question: “What is our Government doing for us?”. They know that the National Government is confused and contradictory. I ask where to now. I ask what the plan is for a step change in economic recovery. There is no plan. The rural sector though that scuppering the emissions trading scheme would be a step up. Well it is not and they know it is a step down. It is a step down not just for rural folk but also for every taxpayer who will pay the cost and subsidise the ongoing behaviour of emissions across the industry including farming. 
National in Opposition campaigned that it would reduce costs and bureaucracy. The one thing that it has done that is out there for everyone to see is increase every single cost on the farming industries and the rural and primary sectors for everything other than the cost of finance because it put up GST. GST has gone up. Every single cost for any farmer or any primary producer will go up. That is aside from the increase in interest rates and the resultant high dollar that they will have to suffer. Many in the sheep and beef industry are suffering. They have their backs to the wall. Many in the pipfruit industry are suffering. Many wine growers in the wine industry have their backs to the wall. They had expectations that their National Government would deliver some assistance but it has not. It does not have a plan. It has a Minister of Agriculture who refuses to intervene. He will appoint taskforce after taskforce but get nowhere and do nothing. I understand that his mate Dr Murray Horn has just resigned from the Wool Industry Taskforce. He walked out. He got his big fat check and he has gone and done a runner. I ask what will happen with the wool industry if the Minister refuses to intervene and show some leadership. He does not because there is no leadership from John Key there is no leadership from his ministerial colleagues and there is no leadership from National because its members do not know where they are going. They have no plan. We have said that we need to look at the area of monetary policy again because it is failing the export sectors in this country. 
KPMG did an extensive report on primary industries. It said some glaringly obvious facts. Unless we spend more on research and development and unless we have higher skills in the primary sectors this economy is ruined because the primary sector still generates over 65 percent of our export earnings. If we do not get it right there there will be no money for anything else. The National Government might rely on public-private partnerships to build its prisons and schools but in the end it has to generate wealth and it has to do it through the rural sector. Mr Joyce was praising the broadband initiative. What a joke! The Labour Government committed $48 million to that initiative and the extra money is coming from a levy on everyone else using broadband in this country—another tax. It is another tax that he refuses to acknowledge. 
The National Government’s plan has simply been to increase GST increase costs and do nothing to show leadership direction or vision. It is a sad sad day. All it has done is cut polytechs cut adult and community education and cut the skill base from the rural sectors. It is restricting the opportunities to encourage people into the primary sectors and that means that down the track this country will suffer dearly. It took the $700 million that we had set aside for research and development and used it to pay for tax cuts. Instead of a research and development tax credit it reintroduced a system of grants that is a bureaucratic nightmare.