Bennett David: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 11 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15784. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): That speech by Ruth Dyson is not worth commenting on but we have got a changing world out there. It is especially heartening to see the public of New Zealand understand the change that is going on in New Zealand and around the world. They see a Government that understands that change is part of that change and is leading that change in a positive and constructive way. They see a Government that is getting its house in order that has got through the worse recession in our generation and that has started on the rebuild of Christchurch. They see a Government that understands what needs to be done for its people and that has a wide ambit of knowledge and understanding of what can be done for New Zealanders going forward. It is a positive future-looking and aspirational Government. It is what the people of New Zealand have demanded for years and they have finally got.On the other side we have an Opposition that cannot get out of the trenches. The members look behind themselves all the time. They have no vision no understanding and no comprehension of the modern world. They live in an environment where they think everything should be protected as it was in 1950. They think that everybody should have the same job that they had 20 years ago. They think that everybody should have the same income that they had 20 years ago. They do not live in the modern world and that will be the difference at this election. The public will go out there and look at a Government that will deliver and build a stronger future or an Opposition that will try to attack and demean New Zealanders going forward and the public will not accept the approach of the Opposition.Often we hear in our city like other cities about the loss of jobs and people say that it is terrible that there has been a loss of jobs. Well it is. Nobody wants to see anybody lose their job. But there is the development of the workplace and there is the development of new jobs that come into each city like Hamilton for example where the number of people employed has increased in the last few years and where theparticipation rate in the workforce has increased over the last few years. There are more people working more people looking for work and more people getting jobs. That does not mean that there will not be any change in employment in the state of where somebody has been working.A great example was a few weeks ago: Kodak. Everyone remembers Kodak that great company that just filed for bankruptcy recently. It had 145000 people working for it in its heyday. It was huge. It was a world brand. Everybody knew Kodak. But it did not understand the digital market. It did not pick where the market went in the products that it provided and it went under. Something like Instagram which Facebook has just recently bought for about a billion dollars shows the development and change that you see in a modern society and in a modern economy. We cannot all maintain those jobs that were there in 1950. We have to look forward to a country that goes forward is competitive and can take its place in the modern world. That is the change and the direction that we need to look at. We need to be innovative we need to work off our strengths and we need to look forward not look backwards. Our public does not want us to look backwards; they want us to give them that direction going forward.When you see the policies of the Opposition they are all negative policies. It wants to tax those people who are earning income. It wants to increase the taxes on those people earning income. We will see that later in the year when it comes up with its tax policy. It wants to tax and tax and tax. Then it says that it is bringing in this parental policy this Best Start policy. That is a policy that is a trick for New Zealanders. Most New Zealanders will not get it. We did not know the detail until 2 days later. Even Mr Cunliffe did not know the details until 2 days later which counted out basically half the people who would be getting paid parental leave. When you actually bring the taxes in that will go on those middle-income earners to pay for these policies there will be nothing in it for them. They will actually be losing money to pay for more money to be spent on the core vote that the Labour Party seeks to get. That is not a progressive policy. That is not a future-forward policy that looks at building a stronger economy or country. That is a policy of going backwards and trying to keep people under the control of the Government. That is where the Labour Party stands and it has always stood that way.You will hear things about the minimum wage and even the Green Party will talk about living wages and things like that. How the Government of the day will suddenly be able to tell people what their income level should be and then make it work will be great to see. I would like to see where it sits on that number because the Green Party has certainly got a higher number than the Labour Party in terms of what it sees the minimum wage should be. Where that will actually go in the end is something that is yet to be seen.When you look at the other party on the other side there you have got the New Zealand First Party. That is an anti-immigration party that is against the changing face of New Zealand. It is a party that is stuck in the past. It does not understand the future of this country going forward. It is disgraceful that we have a party like that in this Parliament that says the things it does and attacks those New Zealanders who come here and build their future in this country. That party should be ashamed of what it says. It is a disgrace to this Parliament that it says those things when we have a country that will go forward. Those people who come here and migrate here to build this country to be stronger should be encouraged. We should be encouraging those people. We should be rewarding them for making the choice to come to New Zealand. We should be making it easier for people to make that choice and not be listening to the 1950s rhetoric of a party that has no understanding of the modern world going forward.Then the Green Party is here—the Green Party that used that mantra of the clean green image that it stands for. The Green Party does not stand for environmental reasons. The Green Party is the far left of socialism in this Parliament. It seeks to have a socialist agenda. “Communism” is too good a word for the Green Party. It is to the far left of socialism and it will not be successful. Look at the countries around the world that have gone left in recent years: France and Australia. How are those two economies doing? They are in the mire because they have listened to the people who are talking of the past policies that you see from the Labour Party and the Greens. When you look at countries that are going forward they have been progressive right to centre-right Governments. This Government is looking at building a stronger economy giving everybody the opportunity through the education system and making sure that we look after all New Zealanders regardless of their country of origin. Thank you.