Cosgrove Clayton: Address in Reply 
Cosgrove Clayton: Address in Reply 
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Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 As is appropriate Mr Deputy Speaker I congratulate you—and your fellow office holders—on your appointment and also the Speaker Dr Lockwood Smith. I also pay my compliments to the Governor-General. 
This debate is occurring in the biggest global economic crisis we have ever seen—certainly in the lifetime of members here. I suspect that no one in this House nor in the great countries of the world—the UK Australia and the US—knows how deep it will cut or the impact it will ultimately have on our people in New Zealand and those in other countries. The leadership of the UK the US and Australia has been called upon to do everything they can to try to stem the tide as it were of the negative impact of the recession. 
We can look at and compare the approach here—and I mentioned a couple of these points when talking on the tax bill—with what Barack Obama the President of the United States whom Mr Key takes great relish in likening himself to has done in the United States. Even before Mr Key and Mr Obama were elected roughly at the same time and even before President-elect Obama became President he had publicly put out a plan. He had put together a strategy he had published that strategy and he had talked and jawboned about his economic package in the House and the Senate. He cajoled people and he gained support for his economic package over and above the previous President’s package so that when he was elected and actually had the power to do something about it the wheels were turning the support was there and the package was moved to practical implementation. 
If we look at Australia we see Kevin Rudd’s package—and a second package has been announced today. The National Party tends to debate this argument by comparing dollar figures. But I say that we should compare National’s approach with the aggressive nature of the package in Australia where the Australian Prime Minister and the Australian Government together with the state Governments have pledged to do everything they can—not to drip-feed or have rolling mauls. We know that Mr Brownlee—I think he made the third XV at St Bede’s College—knows all about rolling mauls. There should not be rolling mauls or drip-feeds because they are based upon the political cynicism of the National Government which just drips it out so that it has something to put in its Budget and to try to lengthen its honeymoon. Those are the motivations in relation to the rolling maul. It is not about actually saying “To hell with it! We’re going to put a stake in the ground we’re going to have a strategy and we’re going to do everything now. And if we don’t have anything to announce in the Budget well we will have tried everything we could have to protect the people of New Zealand.” 
If we look at Gordon Brown in the UK we see that he is doing everything that he and his Government can do. They are not drip-feeding for political purposes but they are saying that they will try to stem the tide of the negative economic impact that this recession will have. But the game plan of members over there on the Government benches—and I hope the journalists are listening because a few of them have latched on to it—is to try to convince the people of New Zealand that the Government inherited a mess that it inherited hell in a hand basket and that it now has to clean it up. Well let us look at a couple of very clear facts that are evidenced throughout the world. 
That crew over there inherited from the Labour Government the lowest unemployment rate for 20 30 or 40 years but in the previous 2 years especially the lowest unemployment rate in the OECD and the world. Those are clear OECD figures. The National Government inherited from the previous Government the third-lowest level of debt in the OECD. Gross debt was 20 percent of GDP and net debt was almost zero. That is what the National-led Government inherited from the previous Government. 
It inherited a 4 percent unemployment rate. The present Government can look at Labour’s record over 9 years during which each week 1000 jobs were created. A thousand jobs were created each week over 9 years. Now we know the big bang package the next scrum or maul the next movement of the forward pack in National—the summit of five Ministers going up the line. 
We had an admission today by Mr Joyce that the total amount of relief that New Zealanders can expect is perhaps—maybe if they are lucky—the creation or saving of 2000 jobs in total. But as Phil Goff said in the last 3 months 10000 jobs have gone. Treasury predicts and we know that every week for the next 15 months 1000 jobs will go but this Government is trying to say that its package is the big bang that will maybe as Mr Joyce said save 2000 jobs. Well I say that that is grotesque and irresponsible and that National—this rolling maul with its drip-feeding—is motivated by one thing which is to generate an announcement once a week or once every few days that tries to hoodwink people. 
I heard Mr Heatley interject on me earlier about State houses. He has said that the Government will build 69 new State houses and he calls that an increase when on the same day he has cut 1500 houses—the construction build—out of Project Hope. Even with my limited mathematics I know that that works out to be a cut and a deep one. That member stands up and has the audacity to bleat and to accuse the previous Labour Government of being slum landlords when the previous National Government sold I believe 13000-plus State houses in its time in office. 
I will quote Brian Gaynor as I did the other day. Members opposite rubbish Brian Gaynor today but he is an eminent business person. I know Mr Gaynor; I had some interactions with him in the minerals industry some years ago. He is an eminent business person and an eminent commentator. In today’s  
New Zealand Herald 
 he compared the trans-Tasman package with our own and said “our transtasman neighbours are planning to take the direct and aggressive route to the try line while we have a slow moving maul with little idea who is carrying the ball and which way the maul will move next.” That is what he said about New Zealand’s package. The Australians are taking direct and aggressive action. It was Kevin Rudd who stood up after he delivered— 
Paul Quinn 
: That’s why the All Blacks win because the Aussies don’t know which way we’re going. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I think we have a parrot or something chirping away at the back of the Chamber. Maybe he should have a few more sunflower seeds. 
Kevin Rudd said his first package was not enough so he said “We’re going to go again.” This National Government is gambling with New Zealanders’ lives. It is saying to New Zealanders “Well we’re going to drip-feed a bit here and a bit there.” National members are saying today by their own admission that even though the country has lost 10000 jobs and even though the Government inherited the lowest unemployment rate in the OECD National’s package will save maybe if it is lucky 2000 jobs but will bleed 2000 New Zealanders’ jobs per week for the next 15 months. That is irresponsible. 
Colin King 
: What about the 43000 who were leaving for Australia under your lot? 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: That is the sort of arrogance coming from the back row. That member might want to reflect on the impact of 1000 job losses a week in his own electorate of Kaikoura. [ 
Interruption 
] That member does not have an electorate; he is a list MP. Well where he lives there will be 1000 job losses a week. Those members should reflect on that rather than stand up and try to trivialise what is a serious economic crisis. 
People know the economic facts. They know that this crew in the National Government inherited one of the best economies in the world with low debt and the lowest unemployment in the world. But National’s political tactic is to try to convince people that the economy was a mess when it got in. That is rubbish. It will not wash. I ask members opposite whether the best they can do is to have a summit of five Ministers then a Maori employment hui and then a Job Summit chaired by Mark Weldon Chief Executive of the New Zealand Stock Exchange who is an odd choice of individual to have chairing a summit I would have thought given the economic crisis in the capital markets. 
National members’ strategy is to go to a Job Summit but not say “This is our plan that we were elected on this is our strategy that we were elected on and we want the commerce sector to help us implement it.” Oh no! It is a bit like the case with Judith Collins. She wanders around this country and says “We’ve been elected but what should we do? What is the plan?”. The plan is to go to a Job Summit but not present a plan. Bill English will not get up and present a strategy vision or plan like Obama did like Rudd did and like Brown did; Bill English will go to a Job Summit and say “Can you give me a plan? What should I do? I’m going to take the edge off.” We say that if the sharp edge of the knife adds up to only 2000 jobs when 10000 have been lost and we will lose 1000 a week—thanks to Mr Joyce—then that proves that today National has no plan and no vision and is grossly irresponsible in using this recession as a political tactic to drip-feed little announcements. 
At the end of all those announcements New Zealanders will say “Well why didn’t you do it aggressively like the Australians? Why didn’t you do it aggressively and responsibly like the Australians and the British? Why didn’t you throw everything at it?”. Every one of those 1000 who will lose his or her job each week will ask why the Government did not act to do everything it could to save his or her job. I look forward to hearing Mr Brownlee Mr English and Mr Key giving a robust explanation for that.