Jones Shane: General Debate 
Jones Shane: General Debate 
[Volume:646;Page:15728] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Minister for Building and Construction) 
: 
 That speech was made by Mr Power and showed an admirable level of interest in the qualities of the women singers in our party. I am astounded that he does not show a similar level of interest in the ability of his own female colleagues to sing. That no doubt is because they are constantly off-key. They are constantly scrabbling around looking for ideas because they have no plan. The very thing that Mr Power refuses to talk about is the plan that was outlined by the Prime Minister: an acknowledgment that on 1 April a variety of very positive changes were brought in that will boost the economic credentials and prospects of our country. 
That plan was also aided by the trade deal that was recently signed up trumpeted up and down the country and delivered by the quality leadership of Helen Clark aided by Mr Goff overseas. What do we hear? We hear petty ridiculous irrelevant renditions of the activities of our congress which at the end of the day was a balance between heavy policy fraternalism and the ability to have fun. What we are entitled to do is to mix the three unlike Mr English who every time he talks has a thunderous brow and that same mean-spirited look that he uses to disguise the fact that National has not put through one single idea to this House that will go forward as a contest for the election. 
National members act like magpies stealing all the ideas from this side of the House. Let us just tease them out. There is still no commitment from members opposite about KiwiSaver which now has well beyond 500000 subscribers. There is no commitment from those members in relation to supporting the Government on business tax changes. They are constantly carping and exaggerating stories about how badly the economy is going without realising that there is an incredibly innovative package on its way from Dr Cullen that will pass the four tests he has identified as a threshold. Such tax relief will address the concerns that are being exaggerated by members on the other side of the House. Of course those members do not realise that it is not the fault of the Reserve Bank or Dr Cullen that credit is tight. Rather international institutions are pointing out that debt in our economy is at an all-time low in terms of the Crown balance sheet. Only the National members want to ratchet up the balance sheet further. Why? It is in order for them to hand it out in a set of indiscriminate very hurtful tax relief packages that are designed to worsen the prospects of working-class poorer people and to reward those who are deeply disappointed because the Electoral Finance Act prevents them from surreptitiously funding that party and undermining the tenets of a social democracy based on universal participation. That is why those members will not join with us to uphold the underlying principles of that particular legislation. 
Let me come back to the other things that members opposite are not talking about. They did sell assets; they will sell assets again I say to New Zealanders because those spots will not be erased from that particular creature. Whether the creature serves herself up as a pink bat or a leopard we will not scrub those spots off that creature. 
Secondly without a doubt we would see the further deregulation of the labour market if National wins and working New Zealanders will realise that a vote in those members’ direction is a vote that will condemn them to a conduit of poverty.  
Thirdly National members will not put forward any sensible ideas for investing in and enhancing the human capital of our own workers for example. No they are likely to join a crusade to force wages down in the belief that we can create greater productivity in our sensitive industrial sectors by squashing the earning potential further out. 
When those ideas come to the fore closer to the election we will have a real contest. We will not have this phoney war talking about a ditty talking about affairs at a congress to which they will never be invited and we will never have them. No doubt their plants were outside with the protesters advertising free party pills demonstrating based on the material that they were handing out—their Friends of the National Party pamphlets. But there was nothing not a single word said about the recent package to assist the agricultural sector. There was no alternative package. They are sunk.