Rich Katherine: General Debate 
Rich Katherine: General Debate 
[Volume:632;Page:3997] 
KATHERINE RICH (National) 
: 
 The previous speaker Ruth Dyson talked about the big celebration going on in the Labour Party but I think she has missed an opportunity. She is the Minister responsible for the Department of Child Youth and Family Services and she has missed a big opportunity to at least acknowledge or comment on the concerns of a lot of Kiwis at the moment about the plight of the Kahui family. It is a real shame that she did not take the opportunity to at least make some comment—not to politicise of course but some comment would have been appropriate. 
Trevor Mallard wants to be New Zealand’s next State planner. He has lost faith in New Zealand business and in the private sector and he wants to fix things by having more control than Michael Cullen. That is why he is promoting the rapid expansion of State-owned enterprises which many say will crowd out private sector investment. Not only that—he wants Michael Cullen’s job. 
Members will recall seeing the  
Agenda 
 interview in which Trevor Mallard confirmed that he wanted the job. He described Michael Cullen in such a way as to leave us with the impression of him as Methuselah-like character who has trouble chewing his food and is about to go off to Hawke’s Bay with a Zimmer frame at any moment. Trevor Mallard kept mentioning that Michael Cullen is in his sixties and that some Asian leaders keep going for many years but really he was just planting the seed of the idea that Dr Cullen is aged and hinting to him that it is time to move on. 
It is interesting that Trevor Mallard used exactly the same language to describe Michael Cullen that the Prime Minister used in her  
Listener 
 interview some weeks ago so one can perhaps conclude that some collusion is going on there. I do not think the use of the same language is any coincidence at all. I actually think Dr Cullen wishes Jim Anderton were back in the role of Minister for Economic Development because at least all Jim Anderton did was travel the country handing out cheques— 
John Key 
: Or a camera. 
KATHERINE RICH 
: With a camera—and getting his photo in the local papers. He did not dive into areas that are Michael Cullen’s domain. 
Ever since Trevor Mallard expressed his interest in becoming the Minister of Finance he has made a wide range of dopey comments and statements. The first members will recall is that it is OK if Government businesses fall over because at least the Government owns the assets. Well we on this side of the House hate to tell Trevor Mallard this but if Air New Zealand fell over the people with the first call on the planes would be that airline’s creditors not the Government as the owner. The same goes for his arguments about the dams and windmills that he thinks are so special. 
He went on to say that one of the reasons for reorganising State-owned enterprises is to make them less boring and predictable. I imagine that a lot of Kiwis up and down the country would say they quite like their postal services to be reliable and they quite like the idea of having a reliable electricity system so that at least when they flick a switch they know they will get some power. He went on to say that no cronyism exists on State-owned enterprise boards. It was a shame for him that Victoria University research confirmed that State-owned enterprise directors themselves felt that a problem existed with a lot of his appointments and had concerns about some of the political processes that put people around those board tables who were not in a position to make good commercial decisions. They might have been good at delivering Labour Party pamphlets but that did not mean they had the commercial nous to make decisions about multimillion-dollar deals. 
He went on to say—and this is one of my favourite musings—“We cannot expect private individuals … to commit long term to this country’s prosperity if they are at risk of having their assets stranded or devalued by Government intervention.” Hello? A lot of Telecom shareholders and other business investors are shaking their heads at the moment and wondering how the Minister can sleep at night given the obvious concerns in that area. At the last election Trevor Mallard campaigned on not selling State assets but he was the one to muse openly about partially floating subsidiary companies of State-owned enterprises. So it seems that although he is keen on not selling off the family silver he thinks it is OK to put the silver in another drawer and sell it off from there. 
He then talked about tax deductions instead of grants which is something that I do not think he has discussed with Michael Cullen who oversees the Inland Revenue Department. Quite clearly Trevor Mallard is not fit to be the next Minister of Finance.