Blumsky Mark: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Blumsky Mark: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1113] 
MARK BLUMSKY (National) 
: 
 As I mentioned in my maiden speech I entered Parliament because I was concerned about the New Zealand that was being created for my daughter to live in. But having been in Parliament now for nearly 5 months I have reached the conclusion that things are actually worse than I had originally thought. To quote the Prime Minister from her statement made to Parliament this afternoon: “We are in Government to make a difference for the better. … Our Government’s task is to provide leadership and sound policy …”. Well Labour has been in Government now for 6 years but has it made a difference? I suggest that the members of this Labour-led Government get out from behind their desks wander through the streets of Wellington and surprise themselves and us by stopping and chatting to everyday Wellingtonians to find out just what they have to say about the difference that the Labour-led Government has made and about the leadership it has shown over the last 6 years. Are we better off? Yeah right! Government members have to be joking. 
Let us look at some of the issues. I will start with transport. In Auckland transport has been ignored to the detriment of that city and of the rest of New Zealand and in Wellington transport has become a farce especially with regard to the western corridor debacle. The Labour Government has stuffed up what was originally started as a very fair process with the right players around the table sorting out what was going to be the best long-term solution for the region with regard to the western corridor Transmission Gully. So how did the Government stuff it up? It got in the way. Halfway through a very fair process it said it would support any solution the region came up with but only if it cost $450 million - odd. Hello! Now we have a divided community we have potential legal battles and we have delay after delay. Wellington says “Thank you—not!” for that leadership from the Labour - New Zealand First Government. 
Let us move on to education. Are we better off in education after 6 years of Labour? Well that is not the case for the tens of thousands of kids who go to private schools because this Government has dramatically slashed each pupil’s Government contribution in every one of the last 6 years. But even more of a concern is that this Government is encouraging a generation of our children to have no aspiration and to just accept mediocrity. I am on my daughter’s school board and it is a real concern to us on the board that under the present National Certificate of Educational Achievement regime there is now no driver for high achievement. The kids know far too early whether they have reached Achieved or obtained Merit. Gone therefore straight away is the desire to study hard in order to push up their marks. They think there is no need now to study—that they do not have to bother because they are accepted into university—so they can go out shopping. Why would they bother to study? But we cannot afford to be in a country where the youth are not being encouraged to stretch themselves or to push themselves harder. 
I turn now to the police. Just this morning the national sales manager of a major national retail fashion chain came to my office. She was concerned about how hard it was to get the police to come out to her Wellington store where vagrants and troublemakers were making such a nuisance that they were turning and driving customers away. Those people were drunk and abusive loud and intimidating out in the streets of Wellington outside her store and the police when they were called and called were too busy. She was told they were sorry but it was not a priority for them. In the last 6 years this Labour-led Government has sold us short. We need to have more police in the streets here in Wellington now because our businesses are hurting now. 
Let us look at health. Here in Wellington as in many other regions the health sector is not meeting its own targets. One newspaper has described the decision-making process as “bureaucracy gone mad”. As one doctor put it 100 people are trying to make one decision. Capital and Coast District Health Board faces problems of poor morale staff shortages and specialists leaving because they are dissatisfied. Why with all the dollars that Labour has poured into health are there still huge problems? The Labour-led Government cannot be proud of what it has achieved in the last 6 years in health. We are not. 
Let us have a snapshot of economic development. Just what has been happening in the last 6 years? I take this opportunity to quote an end-of-year review of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. It stated that it is a cumbersome structure. Its priorities for policy and expenditure are not very clear. The impact of the grants it gives out is low. The reach is low. There is far too much duplication occurring. Evaluations of when it gives the money are very difficult and it is very hard to do the assessments. So are our millions and millions of dollars that are being given out by the Government well spent? Probably they are not. 
But I suggest to members that they cannot blame the officials because the officials are just following the Government’s lead. They are just following the example that has been set by Helen Clark and her team. Given Labour’s excessive illegal election advertising spend why would the officials worry about expenditure either? It is only public money so they need not worry—they can just spend and carry on spending. There is absolutely no accountability about it so the officials need not worry—and Labour is quite happy to do the same as them when it comes to spending on election advertising campaigns. 
Here in Wellington as in the rest of New Zealand the situation is actually becoming a bit tough out in the business world. The Labour-led Government is making a difference: things are getting tougher. We have a high exchange rate for the dollar. Where is the tax support that has been promised for businesses? There is far too much paperwork for them to do and by the way the legislation the Government keeps putting out really does hurt. Business is getting very very bad signals about the changes to the minimum wage and youth wage that the Government seems to be very very supportive of. 
In conclusion I say that those Wellingtonians who are out on the streets would have to admit that they are not better off after 6 years of a Labour-led Government. They—and we in the Opposition—do not want there to be more of the same. We do not want more bureaucracy we do not want more tax and we do not want more welfare. I have a final challenge for the Prime Minister from Wellingtonians. In her speech today the Prime Minister mentioned Australia four times the UK twice the USA twice China twice Auckland nine times and Wellington not once. That I say to the Prime Minister has to change.