Coleman Jonathan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Coleman Jonathan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14241] 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (National—Northcote) 
: 
 There is one more fact that I can give the member for Hamilton West and it is that if this bunch of broken-down party hacks tired union officials and failed academics cannot fix the problems of New Zealand after 9 years they never will—and they know that. We have just listened to those thought-disordered ramblings from Martin Gallagher and there was not one thing there that addressed the challenges facing New Zealand today. It is quite clear that those guys are out of answers and are out of time.  
I speak to the motion that our leader of the National Party John Key put to the House yesterday. I think it bears reiterating: “That this House has no confidence in the Helen Clark - led Government because it has failed to make significant improvement in the areas of real importance to New Zealanders because it lacks ambition because it is tired and bereft of ideas because it has lost touch with the people who put it in power and because under its lead our country has become a story of lost opportunities.”  
 I can tell the people who are sitting at home tonight in my electorate of Northcote on Auckland’s North Shore that this Government is completely out of touch with their concerns. The Government does not care that their interest rates are doubling. Government members do not care that when they came into office interest rates were 4.25 percent. If people go out and get a mortgage today the rate is nearly 10 percent. Government members are not interested in real answers to homeownership. They are not interested in the fact that our communities are not safer. They do not care that after 9 years of a Labour Government one in five kids leaves a New Zealand secondary school unable to read or write. Government members do not care that when people really need to call upon the New Zealand health service they cannot get the care they want after paying taxes all their lives. The fact is that those guys have had too much time inside the beltway. They are going because they have lost touch with the concerns of real New Zealanders.  
We counted up the number of times Helen Clark used the word “sustainability” in the speech we heard from her yesterday. It was in there about a dozen times. Basically that speech was just a collection of mock clichés. There was no vision for how we are to go forward into the future. What we will hear from Labour members at this election will be a lot of looking backwards. They will campaign on the basis of looking into the past. They have a leader who is very much tied up with the ideological battles of the 1980s and the 1990s. I can tell them that New Zealand is over that.  
New Zealand is ready for John Key. In John Key we have a man with a vision for the future. He is a man who knows what the problems of ordinary New Zealanders are. John will lead a Government that tackles the problems of economic growth. He will make this country a great place for our kids to stay in build a life and build a business. Every year now 40000 New Zealanders—that is the capacity of Westpac Stadium—leave for Australia. What has Australia sent us? It has sent us two people in a kayak and they are going back there as well.  
We hear from Mr Cullen that Government members will give us a tax cut if it meets four tests. The fact is that there is only one test for a tax cut from this Government: it is behind in the polls and this is an election year. That is all Government members care about because the concerns of those people are solely about retaining power. I look across the Chamber and see five people who are not going to be here after the election. The concerns of those people are solely about retaining power. The Electoral Finance Act is all about the Government retaining power.  
I tell Government members that if they lived in Glenfield in my electorate on the North Shore of Auckland they would be worried about violent crime. Last year this Government amended the Bail Act. Violent criminals can get out of court go out on to the streets and commit more violent crime. About 2 weeks ago we had a very serious violent assault in our area; people will have read about the four young people who were violently beaten on the North Shore of Auckland. [ 
Interruption 
] Do members know what I was told when I talked to our local police chief? He said those guys are going to be back out on the streets in 3 years. Is that not amazing? [ 
Interruption 
] We hear a lot of interjection from Dianne Yates but she will be gone from here. She will not be back. She lost her seat and what is even worse she could not even get back on the Hamilton City Council at the last local body elections. That is what name recognition and meeting the voters actually did for her.  
But the key point is—and listeners at home should remember this—that if after 9 years this mob has not fixed it they never will. They are out of time. They do not have the answers to the health problems in New Zealand. We had the Health and Disability Commissioner with us today and he said that our hospitals in New Zealand are unacceptably unsafe—completely unsafe. He said “unacceptably unsafe”. He said the problem is a failure of leadership. I said to him: “A failure of leadership? You must mean the Minister of Health?”. He said: “Well those are your words.” But I tell members he did not deny that. We have heard many stories. In my area four elderly people died unnecessarily at North Shore Hospital last year and that is bringing the Health and Disability Commissioner to launch an investigation into Waitemata District Health Board. We have three district health boards on intensive watch. The health system is in disarray. The Government has upped its spending on health from $6 billion a year to $12 billion a year yet fewer operations are being done each year. If that is not managerial incompetence then what is?  
The problem is that Government members have been worried only about driving through a social agenda and now are worried only about getting back into power. That is all they care about. That is what the Electoral Finance Act is all about. We have the problems of 40000 people a year leaving for Australia violent crime on the streets hospitals that people cannot get into and spiralling interest rates yet all this Government can focus on is ensuring its own re-election with the Electoral Finance Act. That is an absolute disgrace. People listening and watching at home should just remember that if those guys cannot fix it after 9 years they never will. I can tell them that right now.  
But I will say what National is going to do. We will get this economy growing again. There is no question about that. We have a leader who can drive an economy. We have a leader who will give people their hard-earned cash back into their pockets. He will get us back into the top half of the OECD. People in New Zealand need to have the money in their pockets. I tell Mr Duynhoven—although he might know this; he will be asked about this at the election—it is true that last October the price of milk went up by 27 percent and the price of butter went up by 7 percent and petrol went up by 25c a litre last year. How can people afford to pay for the basics of life? They cannot. They need to have the cash in their hand. In the Finance and Expenditure Committee today Dr Cullen said that people who asked for tax cuts had an  
Oliver Twist 
 mentality. I can tell him that one had to go to Mr Bumble in  
Oliver Twist 
 to get the tax cut.  
I can tell people that the bottom line is that if Government members have not fixed it after 9 years they never will. When we go out on to the streets of New Zealand and talk to people they say they realise that. They know that those guys are not delivering. They know that those guys are going. In my area the reaction against those guys has been absolutely stronger than ever. I have been door-knocking around Birkenhead; I have been to every business there. The language from people was incredible. They were saying: “Get rid of those people.” 
Debate interrupted.