Goodhew Jo: General Debate 
Goodhew Jo: General Debate 
[Volume:652;Page:1858] 
JO GOODHEW (National—Rangitata) 
: 
 Although I hesitate before responding to some of the diatribes that came from opposite I do need to correct some of the—not false statements but half statements that have come from the opposite side of the House. Let us very quickly review the pay equity debate. Pay equity reviews are taking place throughout the Government departments. Those reviews are continuing. There are however two pay equity investigations that have been stopped. Just to add a few facts into the situation the social worker gap between male and female used to be 9 percent. Most in this House would say that that is unacceptable. That gap is now down to 1.5 percent. That pay equity investigation has been cancelled. There are better ways to spend the money but that of course would not worry the members opposite. 
John Key and the National-led Government are forging ahead and creating confidence amongst voters. People voted for change on 8 November and they are getting those changes. We are delivering on the promises and we are creating confidence amongst even those who did not vote for National. Yesterday I spoke with Prime Minister John Key and I passed on a message to him. Many people would think that any supportive message that I passed on to the Prime Minister would come from National supporters but this one did not. Many people will be surprised to hear that this supportive message came from self-avowed Labour voters who said they had been surprised. They had grave concerns about John Key and they said those concerns have been allayed. They have discovered that in fact they were wrong about John Key. The determination to deliver on promises has surprised them. The work rate of the Prime Minister and the members of Cabinet has surprised them—and they are delighted. Not only that the sheer common-sense approach of this Cabinet of John Key and of the legislation that has come before this House has been greeted with delight by the public. The economic future of New Zealand businesses and of our State-funded services the livelihoods of the employees and the welfare of families are what is at stake. Therefore there is delight in seeing the actions of this Government. 
Members have heard details today from the Prime Minister of the assistance going to employers so they can ride out economic hardship and we have heard more details from Minister Bennett about this. The fact that it has been done speedily is also important. Just 1 month after the Job Summit this scheme will be in place. How is that for action? The Government assistance of $12.50 an hour per worker for up to 5 hours per fortnight will be a voluntary agreement negotiated between the workers and the unions. Hello—what does this say? This tripartite arrangement is an emerging hallmark of this Government. There is willingness for these parties to work together in light of the economic uncertainty. That news is positive for everyone but the Opposition. It is clear that the success of this Government is having a destabilising effect on the Opposition—in particular on the leadership and on the leadership aspirants. As Leader of the Opposition the Hon Phil Goff struggles to register on the radar of New Zealanders—the Cunliffe Cosgrove and Jones camps are nipping at the leadership heels. They are secretly delighting in the Labour woes. They could not say that to their own people of course but they are hoping that by the time they assume the leadership the sinking ship will not have taken on so much water as to be totally unsalvageable. 
This Government is committed to delivering on its promises. It is committed to prioritising front-line services over backroom bureaucracy. It is committed to action not procrastination. It is committed to New Zealanders’ future rather than concentrating on measures that are purely about re-election as the previous Government did. The people of the Rangitata electorate are looking for leadership. They are looking for vision and proactivity in Government and National’s John Key - led Government is delivering on that. We have a woeful legacy from the Labour Government. We have increases in funding with no increases in elective services within health. We have massive but hidden budget blowouts in more than just health. We have the district health board deficits. We have the woeful situation with the Accident Compensation Corporation books. We have the numbers of people who have been hidden on special little lists within the district health board system. We have a surgical waiting list cull of 30000 people that happened under Labour but there was even more hiding there.