Wong Pansy: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Wong Pansy: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:623;Page:18331] 
PANSY WONG (National) 
: 
 Obviously that member has read and taken an exact sentence from the Prime Minister’s statement. Mothers in New Zealand are offended by the way in which the Prime Minister of New Zealand the Rt Hon Helen Clark in her first and most important speech in Parliament this year has put down the contributions and values of mothers who stay home to do a thankless task and undertake a never-ending commitment to their children. That should not come as a surprise because the Rt Hon Helen Clark and the Labour Party do not see New Zealanders as citizens of equal value. 
In order to fit New Zealanders into Labour’s polling-mechanism and focus-group structures it divides New Zealanders neatly into groups of Maori Pacific Islanders Asians working women students and senior citizens. Aspirations and policies are articulated delivered and packaged specifically towards those different groups. They are tailor-made one would say. Oops! Mothers at home obviously have not yet come into the frame of the Labour spin machine. But I am sure that from now on the Prime Minister’s speeches and statements will be full of references to mothers at home because a focus group will be immediately set up and mothers at home will feature in the Prime Minister’s statements. 
The Prime Minister who dismisses the importance of the economy but benefits from the fruits of the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s has no idea of what drives economic growth and productivity. That is why she lectures on about getting mothers into work. Well productivity is not just about body counts. It is about skills as well. It is about fixing the mess that the Labour Government has made of our schools. 
Quite interestingly the new Associate Minister of Education the Hon David Benson-Pope who is responsible for compulsory education and State sector schools was obviously misled by Trevor Mallard and talked into taking up that portfolio. He was told that there were no issues and nothing to worry about in that portfolio and that is why he has said so. Well a few days later he suddenly realised that there is a funding issue in our schools—donations are no longer voluntary. And what happened to the scholarship results? Nobody actually knows what happened but what was the answer given by the Minister? There is to be a report a review another plan. It has been 5 years. This country our education system and our children cannot afford this Labour Government continuing to mess up our school funding and our school standards. 
The Prime Minister talks about building national identity and about shared aspirations for our country. It will not happen because she and the Labour Government see New Zealanders as voting blocs to target rather than as people living in the same country. Labour’s policies and speeches are tailor-made towards specific groups and are full of contradictions because of their knee-jerk reactions to the findings of focus groups. 
I am very pleased to share a few specific examples that demonstrate the contradictions and divisiveness that the Government’s approach has brought to our nation. The Hon Chris Carter the Minister for Ethnic Affairs talked about the apology made by the Prime Minister to the Chinese community for the poll tax. What he failed to remind people of was why the poll tax was imposed in the first place. It was imposed to stop the Chinese and Asians from coming here. Together with the English language test it was designed to stop the “Asian invasion”. In the Prime Minister’s statement to the House in the year 2000 she complained that the National Government’s English language test for potential migrants was set at too high a level and she promised that Labour would bring the level down. Guess what? In the year 2002 there was a sudden announcement from the Minister of Immigration that the level for the English language test which National had set at 5 was to be lifted to 6.5 for skilled migrants and to 5 for business migrants. 
Let me share the reason why Labour suddenly raised the level of the English language test and changed its immigration policy. The Asian migration figure has been increasing since 1997 and it peaked in the year 2001 under National’s policy at about 20000 approvals for people from China India and South Korea. Guess what happened when Labour announced the policy change the next year? The figure went down to 9700. This year we expect it to reach a low of 6000. So Asian migration has been cut by more than half. I think New Zealand First should congratulate the Labour Government on that. I really plead with the Prime Minister and the Ministers of the Labour Government not to just go along to Asian community functions continue to tell them how wonderful they are and say they want more Asian people to come here. The Asian communities are not silly. They understand. I am embarrassed and they are embarrassed so the Government should do us all a favour and stop making those sorts of statements. The facts are very clear. The Labour Government has cut the number of Asian migrants by half. 
Last night I went along to the launch of the police’s ethnic responsiveness strategy. I am concerned about whether it will work because this Labour Government has deprived the police starved them of funding and made sure that their priority is to issue speeding tickets. Anyway then I thought: “Well good on the police. I will support them. Our police are trying to do a good job but they are really handicapped by this Labour Government which does not give them the proper funding and the tools to do their job.” I looked at the outcomes the ethnic community want from the police. Surprise surprise! That community wants to feel safe under the protection given by the police force. Do we think that response is different from that of any other community? 
All New Zealanders want to feel safe. All New Zealanders want to know that they do not have to scream down the telephone line to get the police to come out. I do not think that any New Zealanders would whisper down the line to the police: “Don’t come in the next 5 minutes. Come in 2 days’ time.” That was what the Minister of Police basically told us—that New Zealanders would actually say: “Don’t come and help me now; come in 48 hours’ time.” 
I want to say to members that ethnic communities’ aspirations and wishes are no different from those of any other New Zealanders. Under Labour’s continued divisive attentions and its treatment of those communities as voting blocs for the attention of focus groups we will not be able to foster national identity or shared aspirations. Labour should take a page out of the book of National leader Dr Don Brash who advocates one standard of citizenship. All people in New Zealand should be valued respected and given the opportunity to maximise their potential. We definitely cannot afford one more day of this Labour Government.