Pillay Lynne: General Debates 
Pillay Lynne: General Debates 
[Volume:609;Page:6354] 
LYNNE PILLAY (NZ Labour—Waitakere) 
: 
 There is 54 percent support for the Labour Government and 44 percent support for Helen Clark. That says it all. This Government has got it right. We are straight up we are accountable we are fiscally prudent and we are forward-thinking. We have good politics good policies good initiatives and good government. What do we see? We see more New Zealanders in work than ever before—an increase of 132000 New Zealanders employed since December 1999. Also as a former nurse I am so pleased to see reduced health costs in primary health-care. Thirty-four primary health organisations in our country are delivering cheaper more affordable quality health-care to New Zealanders. And baby boomers—and I am one of them—feel a lot more secure knowing that we now have a superannuation fund that is working. That is good for all New Zealanders. 
Our kids are having much better chances—through the Gateway programme initiatives apprenticeships affordable tertiary education with a fee maxima regime and a fair day’s pay for trainees. All trainees will now receive the minimum youth rate of $6.80 per hour. That is good for New Zealand. And why? It is because we want to see 150000 people in training by 2005. We need their skills and we want to ensure that all 15 to 19-year-olds will be in either training or education or work by 2007. 
We are investing in our future. Our growth and innovation strategy will strengthen this country’s growth and it is working. We are getting support—yes we are—of 54 percent compared with 26 percent for National. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: 28 percent! 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: And 7 percent for Bill! And where is Bill? He is closing his electorate office— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member must refer to members by their full names not just by their Christian names. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: Where is Bill English? He is closing an electorate office and now he is off to the USA—if the heat is too hot get out of the kitchen! 
I quote from Bill English: “We want to create the kind of relationship (with Washington) we’ll need in government.”—dream on—“I’m confident. There’s no question about the leadership.” Dream on! Here is the doozy: “But he said the group was not going ‘trophy hunting’ by looking for meetings with senior members of the Bush Administration. ‘We will be meeting a range of mid-level people.’” This comes from a party that is not even engaging with mid-level people in its own country. It cannot do it here because it is too hard so it goes and tries it some place else. 
The trend for National is downwards. Let us look at the statistics. We see National has lost support in the main centres and among women and young people. It may be up 1 point but support is down 5 points in Auckland to 20 percent; it is down 6 points in Wellington to 16 percent; and in its heartland the rural areas it is down 13 points to 27 percent. When Bill English took over National had 39 MPs. It now has 27 and of those very very few are women. What about ACT the perk-busters the party of values not politics? Where is the missing member? The leader says they do not want that member in the party but will they expel her? No they will not expel her because they will lose the money. They will lose over $100000 of party advertising.