Smith Lockwood: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Smith Lockwood: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:627;Page:21989] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 I think the previous speaker the Hon David Cunliffe mentioned that people want to know what they will get when they ring the police. [ 
Interruption 
] Under this Labour Government though dialling 111 has produced anything other than police. 
Let me share with the House this little titbit that I found out the other day. Members will be aware that there is a motorway going through my electorate called ALPURT B2. It is the first tolled motorway although it is not in a Labour-held seat but in a National-held seat. There are a couple of tunnels involved in this motorway construction so everyone has been involved. The police came along because of course people thought the police would be interested in safety in those tunnels. But the only thing the police were interested in was a place in those tunnels for their speed cameras. That is the only thing they were interested in. They were not interested in issues of public safety in those tunnels; all the police were interested in was to make sure there was a place in those tunnels for their speed cameras. 
That approach will change when the Government changes—the public is sick of that. [ 
Interruption 
] The Labour members will get a chance to take their call. They should just settle down for a moment. 
What the public finds so insulting about what the Associate Minister of Finance has just said is the notion that the Government knows better how to spend its money. When one goes around the country now one of the things that has changed hugely in the mood of the public is that people are sick of the Government and they are sick of Prime Minister Helen Clark telling them how they should run their lives and telling them where money should be spent. The people of this country are sick of that. 
The public are sick of people like the Associate Minister of Finance David Cunliffe standing up and saying: “We know best how to spend your money.” We have heard today where this Government is spending money. For workers in New Zealand it takes a lot of work to earn money and it is hard work earning money. When workers hear that this Labour Government’s priority for spending money in tertiary education is on singalong radio courses and that the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service spends their hard-earned money on Sound of Music parties and on Cowboys and Indians parties they find it kind of insulting when this Government says: “We will give you a tax cut—67c in 3 years’ time.” That is why the public is so angry about this Government. It is a bigger issue than just tax cuts. 
The public are sick of people like David Cunliffe standing up and saying: “We know better than you do how to spend your money.” Members heard the Associate Minister trying to explain deficits and surpluses. The public know that! The public know that one cannot spend more than one earns. What the public object to though is being told endlessly by this Government that they are too stupid to know how to spend their money that this Government knows better that this Government will tax them more and that this Government will spend their money on singalong radio courses in tertiary education and on Cowboys and Indians parties and Sound of Music parties. That is what makes the public so angry. 
I asked the Minister of Finance some specific questions about what he is doing in response to Treasury advice. I specifically asked about the Treasury advice on the burgeoning public sector where Treasury has told him that in fact core public sector expenditure risks growing faster than the rate of economic growth in this country and it risks choking off economic growth. It is growing at an average of 8 percent a year and Treasury is pointing out to the Minister that that is very serious. I want to hear from the Minister what the Government is doing in response to that. 
We also asked the Minister another question which he has ignored totally about what the Treasury advice on interest-free loans to students was. I know from my time as an Associate Minister of Finance that Treasury will have given advice on that and advised that that policy will invite abuse of the student loan scheme. I think that the people of New Zealand deserve to know the full advice the Government received on this—what would one call it?—bribe. 
John Key 
: Desperation. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: It is an election bribe from a desperate Government.