King Colin: General Debate 
King Colin: General Debate 
[Volume:638;Page:8848] 
COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise and speak in this general debate. I wish to make some points in the short period of time I have. This Government gloats over and glorifies the fact that it creates dependency. All we have heard from speakers on the other side of the House is that there are these poor hard-up people who are most vulnerable. I can tell you from where I am standing that you are responsible— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member is bringing the Speaker into the debate. 
COLIN KING 
: My apologies! The members across the House are responsible for that. We acknowledge that people are hard-working; however they aspire to be self-sufficient. Many New Zealanders understand the sickening debility of having to live on handouts. Unfortunately this Government has created dependency but it has not created a solution. 
I turn to the issues of tax and Government spend. Labour’s mismanagement and misjudgment in its tenure as Government is at a stage never before seen by New Zealanders. This Government wants to focus on everybody else’s problems because it is very aware of its own. This Government is presently backed into a corner when it should be celebrating its achievement. It knows it is responsible for a runaway situation where our year of the exporter is something not to be celebrated. 
I would like to go through some of the issues of judgment that are coming to the fore at the moment. Misjudgments are associated with the pledge card Taito Phillip Field the smacking situation overspending a lot of spending on low-quality non-productive education and Michael Cullen’s idea of how to solve the problem. The Auckland stadium is another distraction from the situation—the maimai in Auckland Harbour. The only person who was stuck in the water was Trevor Mallard and there was nobody there to pull him out. Now there is the matter of art royalties—who did the artwork? 
Over the last 8 years it has been remarkable. We have seen a reckless growth in low-quality tertiary courses—total wastefulness. We are now confronted with reforms but the reforms are also wasting money. We have a health situation. What a disaster! Huge amounts of money are being spent with no improvement shown. What is happening? Waiting lists are shorter—because people have just been sent back to the doctor. In respect of law and order in my very own home town of Blenheim where I live I have seen it quoted in the local paper that in actual fact there could be an incentive to start up crime in our community because of stays of proceedings. It is absolutely outrageous that the court system cannot deal with that. We have such a problem with youth crime the rate of which is up. The violent crime rate is up and we also have the terrible problem of dependency the rate of which is up. We want people in this country to stand on their own two feet and to aspire to be self-sufficient. If we do not do that we will end up having a Third World economy. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: An 80 percent reduction in unemployment and you say it’s dependency? 
COLIN KING 
: Around deforestation and climate change may I remind the member across the floor there that we on this side of the House were accused of burning a $200000 cheque—which has now turned into the well-known situation of the billion-dollar bungle. Those members did not listen; they did not heed. We now have a deficit of some 40000 hectares of deforestation. Labour’s absence of policies has destroyed investment in the forestry industry. In actual fact it has been written in the papers and widely circulated that we are currently operating in a vacuum of policy around climate change. The Government does not know. This is a Government of mismanagement and poor judgment. 
Let us have a think about 15 to 19-year-olds. There was a long time there when the Minister who is now Minister of Education was espousing the idea of making sure that by 2007 all children or young adults between the ages of 15 and 19 would be in either education employment or training. Unfortunately when we ask questions about that officials do not know. What we get back in answer from Ministry of Social Development officials is a promise to get back to us soon. Unfortunately this Labour Government has turned into a Government of mismanagement and misjudgment. Going on for instance to a pet subject of mine the Modern Apprenticeship programme I ask how many Modern Apprentices have completed training.