Ryall Tony: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Ryall Tony: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14186] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 I also acknowledge the comments the Hon Ruth Dyson made about Katherine Rich. I hope they were given sincerely because this Labour Party opposite has failed to make any significant improvement in the areas of importance to ordinary New Zealanders. I want to talk about ordinary New Zealanders because the Prime Minister does not want to talk about ordinary New Zealanders. She sneeringly referred to tradespeople and blue-collar workers in the House today; she did not care that they were going to Australia because they were being replaced by people with university degrees. 
Hon Bill English 
: Like her. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Like her! She wants a country of people like her and not of people who can do our plumbing our electrical wiring or our building or get our patios sorted out. She wants a country of people like her who are so out of touch with where this country is and where this country could be. 
And what do members think of Ruth Dyson talking about Labour’s “record of delivery”? Let us look at Labour’s record of delivery. This Labour Government is a Government that has delivered the largest wage gap between Australia and New Zealand which sees Australians being paid a third more than New Zealanders. This Government took interest rates from 4.5 percent to 8.5 percent and anybody looking to roll his or her mortgage over is probably looking at rates of up to 10 percent this year in the way things are going. Under this Government violent crime has gone through the roof. It has delivered that and that is because of the sun and the moon. The Labour Party thought that “dial 111 and scream” was a feature of the 2005 general election but people will not believe what they will see with the sun and the moon being responsible for crime in New Zealand. This is the Government’s record of delivery: one in five children are leaving our schools without the literacy and numeracy skills needed to read a fire extinguisher. 
That is what has come out from this Government because this Labour Party lacks ambition. It is tired it is bereft and it is focusing on its own agenda instead of on the things that matter to the ordinary people of this country. This party opposite is neglecting the very people who put it into office; this party is allowing our country to lose all the opportunities that the economic golden weather of the previous years should have delivered to it. 
Instead we on this side of the House have a party that is focusing on the real issues facing New Zealand. We are going to be positive we have great expectations for this country and we have a plan of action that will lift the sights and performance of this country. We will provide better living conditions a better life for New Zealanders and a better life for their families by implementing an ongoing programme of personal tax cuts. We will say to hard-working New Zealanders that they can keep more of their pay and have greater incentive to work ahead. National will be a Government that invests in the infrastructure needed to get our productivity moving—in broadband and in partnerships with the private sector where they really matter. We will be investing in research and development and we will be trimming the resource management costs that are such a burden to New Zealanders. 
I cannot believe the gall of the Prime Minister and the Government in talking about what they will do for first home owners in this country. This Government opposite has made it harder and harder for young people to buy their own homes. Interest rates are up the costs of building one’s home are up and Resource Management Act building consent costs are up. These members have made it harder for ordinary New Zealanders to get ahead not easier and none of them believe what they have to say. 
More important a John Key - led Government will focus on the quality of spending in our public services because there has to be a new Government in the future that focuses on performance and not on building bureaucracy. How can it be that in the Bay of Plenty region alone in the last 8 years the district health board there has employed 176 new managers and administrators but only 27 new doctors? How can it be that in Rotorua with one of the country’s smallest district health boards 77 new managers and administrators have been employed in the last 8 years and only 20 new doctors? How can it be that we have a health system that has been employing more bureaucrats than doctors over the last 8 years? It just does not make sense. 
And how can it be that billions of dollars are being put into the public health service yet the heart surgery waiting list at Wellington Hospital has trebled? The number of people waiting more than 6 months has gone up astronomically in the last year. How can it be that in many weeks there are more cancelled operations than there are actual operations for heart surgery at Wellington Hospital? How can that be? How can it be that billions have gone in and we are not getting the improved service that New Zealanders would want from the public health service? 
We are getting a lot more bureaucrats and bureaucracy in our health system but none of the extra service. Fewer people are getting elective surgery fewer people are getting to see a hospital specialist and people are waiting longer and longer to get care in our public hospitals. Helen Clark says that she will not tolerate poor performance in our public hospitals. Well what has she been doing for the last 8 years? 
Let us look at crime. Annette King is so bumbling. There is only one person who is more bumbling in this Government than Annette King and it is Michael Cullen. He is the man who in the Finance and Expenditure Committee told Parliament this morning that one cannot give New Zealanders tax cuts because they will get the Oliver Twist mentality and ask for more gruel. But here is what he did not tell the select committee: who dishes out the gruel? It is Mr Bumble. It is “Mr Bumble” himself the Minister of Finance. Mr Bumble—who incidentally was the beadle—was the guy who dished out the gruel for Oliver Twist and as soon as he had given more he had to go off and tell Mr Limpkins the chairman of the guardian board. It just sums up that Government bench incredibly does it not? It sums up that bench incredibly—“Mr Bumble” the beadle and “Ms Limpkins” the chair of the guardian board. They are denying New Zealanders the opportunity to keep more of their pay and more of their hard-earned income in tax cuts. 
But let us look at crime. I have had my arguments with George Hawkins but I have to tell members that I agree with him completely. Crime in Manurewa is the highest it has been in 25 years. The level of crime in South Auckland is absolutely unbelievable—absolutely incredible. Do members want to know who the victims of crime are in Manurewa? They are ordinary hard-working family people the sorts of people who Helen Clark sneers at. They are ordinary hard-working family people in Manurewa trying to get ahead. Graffiti is out of control violent crime is out of control and kids are scared to go to school without their parents taking them and what does the Government say? It says: “Oh it is the sun and the moon.” That is what Annette King said. She said that this crime wave across the country is the responsibility of the sun and the moon. That is from the woman who defeated the Government on the trans-Tasman therapeutic goods legislation. With her inept handling of that she actually gave the Government the cleanest MMP defeat a Government has had in the history of this country’s new electoral system. And those members say that she is a safe pair of hands! 
Hon Bill English 
: Don’t forget the Electoral Finance Act. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: She ran the Electoral Finance Act and that showed a really safe pair of hands. Goodness knows what one would describe David Cunliffe as if Annette King is a safe pair of hands. 
John Key is right on the money when he says that tackling youth crime sentences for those who deserve them and a smart use of criminal justice resources will get those kids under control and make our communities safer. John Key offers New Zealand the positive values that New Zealanders want. He is a man who has come from a pretty hard background from a strapped background and from a family that did not have a lot of money and found it difficult to make ends meet. But he worked hard he got ahead he lived the Kiwi dream and now he is offering himself as Prime Minister of New Zealand. I would celebrate his success. 
Hon Bill English 
: They don’t. They hate him. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: They call him a working-class scab. That is the mentality of those members but New Zealanders admire John Key a man who came from such a harsh background to be the success he is today. Through his hard work and his vision this country has the opportunity to have a future that we can only dream about under this Labour Government. This man will reward hard work and will value New Zealanders.