Goff Phil: General Debate 
Goff Phil: General Debate 
[Volume:648;Page:17122] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Defence) 
: 
 That is the man who is so concerned about schools that he said 2 years ago he wanted to cut the funding to decile 1 schools because they were getting too much. Decile 1 schools have the kids who come from the lowest-income families in this country and Bill English is promising to cut their funding so that maybe he can put some more subsidies into private schools that look after people who are in the decile 10 category. That is the man who is so worried about the New Zealand public that as Minister of Finance he cut national superannuation from 65 percent of the average wage to 60 percent. 
Hon Bill English 
: It’s not true. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: It is on the record Bill English and you are on the record—your track record is known. 
Hon Bill English 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I wonder whether you could take members through the rulings and the Standing Order about the use of the word “you” because today we have had I think four examples now of senior members— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: All right; enough. 
Hon Bill English 
: Well this member has done it twice. The Speaker has made it clear. The member is an experienced member who should know and he continues to breach that rule. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I understand that. I will keep an eye on it. I have to say that I almost pulled you up Mr English from the Chair for doing exactly the same thing. [ 
Interruption 
] Yes the member did and I almost pulled him up. I have sought not to. But I would ask members to please desist from using the word “you” or “your” as much as they can. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: The member does not like the truth—that is why he interrupted the speech. But the other truth that came out about Bill English last month was at the Finance and Expenditure Committee where it was found that Bill English in 1998 spent $45.7 million of hard-working New Zealanders’ tax money on privatisation and on getting advice on how to sell State assets and $5 million of that went to his mates Merrill Lynch to try to sell off Auckland International Airport. That is Bill English—so worried about the taxpayer’s dollar and the kiddies at a school that needs some more funding to fix a problem that he wasted $45 million of New Zealand taxpayer money. 
But it is worse than that because we found out from Merrill Lynch today that the National Party has a secret plan to privatise accident compensation. Merrill Lynch was very happy about that. Merrill Lynch—the same company that the Leader of the Opposition once worked for—is very happy because that will put $200 million of New Zealand money into the pockets of big insurance companies in Australia. Merrill Lynch raised the question of why the National Party would do this because the premiums in New Zealand are low and the service is better than that of Australia. In fact the premiums on employers are 2½ times higher in Australia which has the very system that National wants to adopt. Why does National want to adopt it? There is no economic logic. It is either ideology or it is to line the pockets of the party’s business mates and donors or it is both. I believe it is both. It is certainly not acceptable to New Zealanders. 
The National Party is fast developing a reputation for lack of openness and transparency. It will not even own up to the fact that it is now paying vast sums of money to Crosby/Textor to be its spin doctor. It will not even own up to whom it is employing to manipulate public opinion. Is it any wonder? Crosby/Textor is the company that got push-polling down to a fine art. It is the company that libelled Labor candidates in Australia and had to pay out because of lawsuits from those people. We are getting a picture of this National Party still doing exactly what  
The Hollow Men 
 revealed through the party’s emails. Do members remember what the party was told? It was: “The secret of success is sincerity and conviction. Once you fake that then you’ve got it made.” That is the level of the sincerity and conviction of the National Party. It is absolutely fake. 
Hon Bill English 
: That was Mike Moore! 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: I tell that member to read it in  
The Hollow Men 
. The paranoia of National members about leaked emails knows no bounds; they are claiming it again—John Key this time. For heaven’s sake we have just had a police investigation 2 months ago that found that there was no evidence that the National parliamentary computer system had been hacked into. In fact it concluded that no unauthorised or unlawful breach had taken place. That backs up what Nicky Hager said. The people who leaked those emails I say to Bill English are the people within the National Party who had had a gutsful of the deceit and the manipulation of public opinion within the National Party. There are still some decent people within the National Party who do not tolerate that form of politics. It is bad politics it is politics that lacks transparency and it is the politics of deceit and connivance. 
That is what we have got from the National Party once again on the accident compensation programme. In 2005 the Insurance Council revealed that it had been told what the National Party wanted to do. It did not intend to reveal it; it was another leaked memo. It said that the National Party had the detail but was not prepared to disclose it. National is not prepared to tell the New Zealand public what its secret agenda is. We know what its secret agenda is; we have seen it before. This is the party that says it is against buying New Zealand rail but will not actually admit to the fact that it will sell it. It is time the National Party came clean.