Faafoi Kris: General Debate 
Faafoi Kris: General Debate 
[Volume:677;Page:681] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 I would like to begin my general debate speech by congratulating and acknowledging Bret McKenzie. For those at home who do not know who he is he is one-half of the Flight of the Conchords and earlier this week he made us all proud as Kiwis when in Hollywood he took the stage and took an Academy Award an Oscar home for the best song in a motion picture. Mr McKenzie is a Wellingtonian so he is carrying on the recent tradition of bringing Oscars back to Wellington and we congratulate him.  
The award-winning song was  
Man or Muppet 
 and it served as inspiration for a cartoon in this morning’s  
New Zealand Herald.  
In this instance I think my former colleagues in the media have got it 100 percent right and for those at home who may be watching this is the cartoon that Rod Emmerson put in the  
New Zealand Herald  
this morning. It shows Kermit the frog asking Paula Bennett whether she is a Minister or a Muppet. I think it is a little bit unfair that Mr Emmerson has actually singled out Mrs Bennett because I think there are a number of Ministers on the other side of the House who could be put at that piano. In fact there would be a number in Cabinet who could have a good old singalong around that piano. It does pose a serious question and as I say I think Mr Emerson has hit the nail right on the head around the performance of some of our Ministers that we have in our Government at the moment. They had a swagger about them after the election but as a couple of months have passed that swagger is starting to disappear.  
What is a muppet in this context we say? If we go online to the Urban Dictionary a muppet is “a person who defies explanation with regard to common sense and logic exhubing an air of confidence that is mutually exclusive to that of their accomplishments or ability”. So let us have a look at some of the potential candidates whom we could put in this category for Minister or Muppet 
as Mr Emmerson has pointed out because do not forget— 
Chris Hipkins 
: It’s only a 5-minute speech. 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: It is; I wish it was a 10. Do not forget this is a Government in which John Key said he expected high standards from his Ministers and said if they did not meet the high standards that he set then obviously he would take the necessary action.  
Let us look at Mr McCully the gift who keeps on giving—the gift who keeps on giving. He is the Minister who had his private email account hacked by “Anonymous” and what was in those emails? In those emails was the public revelation that the Government is worried about resisting China and that will cause us as a country severe diplomatic embarrassment as we go forward. As Mr Goff had pointed out in his contribution this is at a time when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is looking at reducing its staff by 350 jobs. This is also a Minister who is presiding over a ministry that is considering spending almost $1 million of taxpayer money on a pool in our embassy in Tokyo. This is a Minister whom John Key is still backing and still has confidence in.  
Can I move to Maurice Williamson and Jonathan Coleman because they are the Ministers who have a duty under the Overseas Investment Act to ensure that overseas purchases of New Zealand farmland amongst other things have to have substantial and identifiable benefits to New Zealand. But that decision was wrong. In any sense they got a smack-down from the High Court told that their decision was wrong and went back to square one. That was very very embarrassing for the Government but these are Ministers whom John Key still says he has confidence in. These are Ministers whom John Key still has confidence in. Again it is an example of the rhetoric of the Government not meeting the reality.  
Let us look at the evidence of the failure of National since it came into office in 2008: 40000 fewer jobs under the National Government since it came to power and 36000 jobs promised in the year to March 2012. How many were delivered? Ten thousand which is 30 percent of what it has promised us—another example of overpromising and under-delivering—and 60000 more jobless Kiwis under National.  
I would like to go back to Bret McKenzie because in his post-Oscar speech backstage he said: New Zealand is “a great place to grow up. You can do whatever you want there. Whereas in America I think everyone’s obsessed with their careers in New Zealand you get to just live your dreams.” Well not everyone’s dream is to win an Oscar. That is a great dream but a lot of Kiwis’ dream is to have a job to have a safe community and to make sure that their kids can grow up in a great country. That will not happen when our Ministers are behaving like muppets.