Dyson Ruth: General Debate 
Dyson Ruth: General Debate 
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Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) 
: 
 People all around the country are asking what the plan is from the Government. Well we have just seen that the Government does not have a plan but it does have a Mapp! That is about as close as it will get to having a plan. The member who has just resumed his seat Wayne Mapp once held the lofty title of “PC Eradicator”. The “PC Eradicator” was going to sweep the country and eradicate the scourge of political correctness. Well the only thing that was eradicated was his title. It was gone by lunchtime. Wayne Mapp did not have any credibility to start with and that was why he got the job of PC eradicator. 
There are 16 more sleeps until Christmas. I know that a lot of people in this House are looking forward to what is a very special time for many families. We will have time with our families without the pressure of work have special food together have special times to share and perhaps if we have been very good—as I understand Mr Speaker you are reported to have been this year—we will even get some special gifts for Christmas. I hope that everyone in the House does have a wonderful time. 
But I know that for a lot of New Zealanders this Christmas will not be a good time. For a lot of very hard-working ordinary New Zealanders this Christmas will be very sad and very hard. What many of our New Zealand families face are increased costs and a decrease in income. People who are already on a low wage and are working really really hard at their job have then been offered a 0 percent wage increase. When they face increased costs for petrol electricity and food and for rent or mortgage repayments—everything that they have to take out of their pay packet every week—and they are offered a 0 percent wage increase by the Minister of Health and by the Minister of Finance they really do wonder what they have done to deserve such a heartless Government. 
This Government lacks any respect for people and the jobs that they do. It does not care about the fact that not just at this Christmas but throughout next year as well life will not get any better but will get harder. A lot of New Zealanders face insecurity in their jobs. They are facing a 0 percent wage-increase offer which is in fact a wage cut and they are watching all the prices around them go up. For example Maori and Pacific workers have seen their weekly earnings actually fall in the past year. It is not just that they have had a 0 percent wage increase; their average earnings have actually fallen over the last year. The average wage per week in June last year for a Maori family was $398 and now it is $392. For Pacific families the average wage was $375 a week and now it is $359. So they have already lost money. 
In the South Island the clerical workers who work in our hospitals in our district health boards have been offered a 0 percent wage increase. That is a wage cut. Those are front-line health workers. Those are the people who answer the phone make the appointments put away all the patient records and make sure that the doctors and nurses can do their jobs properly. They are being told that the $14 an hour that they are paid is enough and that it is tough for them if they have to face increased costs. We know of course that 2000 people a week have lost their job. That is 2000 jobs a week gone from the New Zealand economy over the last 12 months. 
In circumstances like those people would expect to have a Government and particularly a Prime Minister that cared. Yesterday the Prime Minister was asked in this House about the predictions for unemployment—about his commitment to supporting New Zealanders to keep their jobs and for those who have already lost them to get into a new job. I was just astonished at his answer. He was asked directly about unemployment and the answer he gave my colleague Annette King was: “Why should there be no road rage on my cycleway? I think it is a good idea.” I am not sure what road rage on cycleways has to do with unemployment but hard-working New Zealanders deserve better than that from the Prime Minister.