Hipkins Chris: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: General Debate[Sitting date: 19 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5945. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka): The main message from that contribution by that member Tim Groser was that there is no plan B and the Government does not have any idea what a plan B would look like. Well I am happy to enlighten them as to what a plan B might look like. A plan B would see unemployment going down not going up as it is under this National Government. A plan B would see Government debt going down not going up as it is under this National Government. Plan B would see the Government surplus going up and not down—in fact not being non-existent as it is under this National Government. Plan B would see growth in the business community that leads to job creation and a lot of that would be driven off the back of increasing research and development something this Government has no idea how to stimulate.Plan B would involve more diversification of the New Zealand economy when this Government seems to be wanting to put all its eggs in one basket. Plan B would involve improving health and education services in New Zealand. Most important Plan B would involve higher living standards for all New Zealand families something this Government simply has no idea how to deliver. Have those members not come a long way from that brighter future they promised New Zealanders back in 2008? They do not talk about that any more. They are no longer aspirational for New Zealand. Oh no—oh no. They are simply content to manage New Zealand’s decline. They have got their heads in the sand and they have no plan B. They have no idea how to turn New Zealand’s economic fortunes around and that becomes more and more obvious by the day.In 2010 John Key said that he would hate to see New Zealanders become tenants in their own land and what is happening? Day after day we see more examples of farmland being sold offshore of housing being sold offshore of valuable State assets being sold offshore. Not only will this Government not do anything to stop that it is encouraging it. It is furthering it. It cannot wait to sell more and more of what is New Zealand out from under the feet of New Zealand citizens. I think that that is disgraceful. It is no wonder that John Key was too ashamed to answer questions today in the House from the Leader of the Opposition about that broken promise that he made back in 2010 because this Government is quite content to hock everything off.This Government has been selling off the housing stock. It is going to sell off State houses. First it said it was going to be to community providers and then of course community providers said: “Oh no. We can’t do that.” So now it is quite content to sell large chunks of State housing to overseas investors. That is absolutely wrong. That is absolutely bankrupt and the Government should not be doing that. Then the Government said that it wanted to ensure that New Zealand’s strategic assets—valuable strategic assets—remained in New Zealand’s ownership. Yet every single application from overseas investors to buy New Zealand’s strategic assets like farmland has been approved. The Government has not declined one single application to buy those strategic assets—so much for protecting New Zealand for New Zealanders. This Government is quite happy to see everything sold off offshore: sensitive land State assets like our energy companies and of course housing—no problem with hocking that off offshore.Of course Government members never tire of finding new ways to hide what they are getting up to. They use new terminology to try to hide exactly what it is that they are doing and hide the fact that they are breaking their promises. So now we have Bill English’s latest one called “capital recycling”. “Capital recycling” is Bill English’s great new phrase. Bill English is going to sell $1 billion to $2 billion of assets in order to have his capital recycling programme. Let us put that into context. The State-owned enterprises sale programme raised less than $5 billion. Bill English is suggesting that he could raise nearly half as much as that again through selling off other assets like Landcorp farms and Government-owned assets that currently exist whether they be in education or health.National members said at the last election that there would be no more asset sales if National were re-elected. That was absolute utter tosh because they are selling off everything that they can get their hands on everything that is not bolted down. So much for not wanting New Zealanders to be tenants in their own country! We have got a Government now that is quite happy to sell off absolutely everything to sell it out from under the feet of New Zealanders and that is wrong.