King Annette: Address in Reply 
King Annette: Address in Reply 
[Volume:652;Page:1065] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
: 
 That contribution was from the Hon Gerry Brownlee the Minister of Energy and Resources who appears to have summered well. I would like to say to Mr Brownlee: “Please please do not attempt any more jawboning of petrol companies.” because since the member told them to put their prices down the prices have gone up every week. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: I seek leave to table a document showing that oil companies put prices down 3c today. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Can he also please stop telling electricity companies to keep their prices down because those prices have gone up as well. 
On 1 April this year the chief executive officer of Telecom will receive a $500 - plus-a-week tax cut. On 1 April a home-care worker looking after a sick and disabled person will receive a $12-a-week tax cut. The chief executive officer of Telecom earns $1.75 million a year plus that amount again in incentive bonuses cars and so on; the home-care worker earns $26000 a year and uses his or her own car and petrol to provide the service. That worker will get $3.60 net a week in an increase in the minimum wage. On 1 April this year a pensioner will get less in his or her pension per week than the chief executive officer of Telecom will get in a tax cut. On 1 April this year a couple with two kids on a joint income of $48000 will get $18 a week in a tax cut; the Prime Minister John Key will get $183 a week in a tax cut. So when it comes to real messages to New Zealand about the seriousness of the world economic situation I have to say that I think that Fran O’Sullivan in the  
New Zealand Herald  
got it about right when she said that John Key should postpone the upcoming tax cuts on 1 April and instead redirect the already budgeted funds to provide a fillip to our most cash-strapped consumers. I agree with her and I say to John Key: “Don’t lecture low-income New Zealanders on the need to keep their wages as low as possible.” as he did when he announced the rise in the minimum wage while refusing to turn down the $183-a-week tax cut that he will get on 1 April. I say to Mr English: “Don’t lecture wage earners to keep their wages low when you are going to take $120 a week in a tax cut.” Where is the moral high ground in that? It makes a mockery of the freeze on MPs’ salaries that we have talked about in this House today. 
What we are seeing is the real meaning of a fair society under a National Government. This is how it looks after the vulnerable. This is how it looks after the underclass when it tries to keep those people out of poverty. This is that Government’s response to the economic crisis that we are facing as Kiwis the like of which we have never seen before. The poorest in our society will carry the biggest load; they will be the victims of this depression. It will be low-income earners it will be those who lose their jobs and it will be those who care for families for the sick and for the disabled. It will be those who are on a fixed income and who are too old to work any more. If this Government truly cares for the people of New Zealand as it claims to do these are the people it should be taking care of. But you see the last 80 days of the 100 days of action promised by John Key have been about a long hot summer holiday. They have been about the surf the sun the seashore and a fair bit of political posturing. 
Before Christmas the National Government rammed legislation through this House under urgency without select committee scrutiny or any public input and that has raised many concerns from commentators around New Zealand. They are saying that if the National Government which was going to be so open so transparent and so consultative starts its term of office like this then that does not bode well for the next 2 years. I have to ask whether it was absolutely crucial that workers starting a new job now should have their rights removed for their first 90 days of employment. Was it absolutely crucial to do that before Christmas? Was it extraordinarily urgent for bail laws to be changed before Christmas while legislation cracking down on gangs was ignored? Was it imperative that education standards that already existed had to be put into legislation and passed before Christmas when legislation to address family violence was only talked about? You see that is what I call political posturing. The legislation passed before Christmas did not make a blind bit of difference and it did not make New Zealand a better place over the Christmas holidays. Did the man who was charged with violently beating up a small child over Christmas get bail? Yes he did. Did the changes in education standards matter during the 6 to 8 weeks of the school holidays when nobody was at school? No they did not. Did the murderers of Nia Glassie get longer sentences? No they did not. What this Government should have been putting first second and third was this country’s response to the economic crisis that we face. 
You see National is failing New Zealanders by not treating the economic problems we have and the looming problems we have with any urgency at all. I believe that we are living in a fool’s paradise. I hear it every day; people say “New Zealand will be OK. She’ll be right. It won’t happen here. Our businesses are different.” Why do we think that the whole world is facing an unprecedented crisis but New Zealand is immune? And that view I have to say is being fostered by the drip-feed “no worries mate” approach from the Government. It is fostering this complacency in New Zealand because it has not put any urgency into addressing this problem. 
 First of all it has been a long summer holiday and Anne Tolley proudly proclaimed that she was Prime Minister for 1 week of it. Goodness me! Thank goodness the banks in New Zealand did not know that. Then there was the hastily called so-called Cabinet summit. Five Cabinet Ministers without the Minister for Social Development and Employment huddled around a table in a hastily called summit and said: “What will we do? What will we say? John’s just got back from Hawaii and people are saying we’re doing nothing.” They called a meeting of five people a Cabinet summit. As my colleague Clayton Cosgrove said what do they call a full Cabinet meeting? Is it a Nuremberg rally? Cabinet meetings of Ministers are held every day of the week but what was interesting is that the Minister for Social Development and Employment herself was not even invited. That is how important National believes unemployment is in New Zealand. She did not even get the phone call or the invitation. Today in the House she blustered and flustered and said that the Government is doing lots. But did those Ministers invite her to sit around the Cabinet summit? No they did not. She is not a player in the game. In fact who is playing this game? 
New Zealand has seen nothing from this Government so far. The Minister for Social Development and Employment has managed one press release on employment matters in the 3 months that she has been Minister. It is 3 months today. There has been one press release in 3 months such is her concern about unemployed people in New Zealand. I ask the Government: why do we have to wait for a talkfest before we get some action out of it? After all the Government does not believe in talkfests. It cancelled the talkfest for doctors and nurses. It cancelled a little conference that the Families Commission was going to hold. But the Government is going to hold a talkfest at the end of February. Nobody knows the cost. It will do nothing and the Government has done nothing.