Jones Shane: General Debate 
Jones Shane: General Debate 
[Volume:633;Page:4992] 
SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 We have two very different pathways forward one of which is driven by stigmatisation victimisation and mistruth a la the Opposition. Rather than focus on the big issues—where those members cannot match members on this side of the House—and rather than provide a vision and a long-term view that will actually lift and add to the buoyancy of the country they are going further into the gutter. Not only have we had investigations and followed processes but those members still continue aided and abetted by underworked and rather foolish members of the media to look for an agenda. What a concoction—what a mixture! 
But they cannot deter us from the big picture. Number one is that we are addressing those issues and matters that have hobbled us economically. What members of the Opposition do not like about it is that we do have the power and the authority to put our programme into place because at the end of the day that is what will count. That is not only the legacy that the next election will be fought on but also the legacy that many years out we will look back to with fantastically fond memories. 
Let us just deal firstly with the question of thinking about those who need to be taken care of in retirement. Fortunately for the entirety of the country later on this afternoon we will go to the third reading of the KiwiSaver Bill—I will say more on that very shortly. The Cullen fund KiwiSaver and a variety of changes to the tax system bed down a legacy that will outstrip the very venal short-sighted and incredibly negative rhetoric we have heard in this House from those diminished members on the Opposition benches. 
In addition to that there is identity. Well if any New Zealander ever had a doubt as to where National members stand on the question of identity then Tony Ryall spelt it out today. He is completely uninterested in seeking outcomes that give parity and equity for people such as Maori families in rural New Zealand. Perish the thought that any of them would be so misconceived to ever vote for him! No there was a small issue that he brought to this House—in fact he ran the risk of bringing this House into disrepute—and he proved that the day our friends from the Maori Party ever go anywhere near Tony Ryall will be the day that the entirety of the Maori seats are back in our kete for a long long time. I look forward to that. 
Tony Ryall continued what Don Brash sought to do through the entirety of the last election campaign and he will continue to do so save for the fact that my whanaunga Tau Henare challenges him. One cannot run the country on the basis of stigmatisation and of constantly marginalising members of the Maori community as Mr Ryall sought to do today. But Mr Ryall has actually been bettered by Mr Clarkson. Mr Clarkson is somewhat confused as to whether he has a habit whether a nun wears a habit or whether a special habitat has been created for him. I have no doubt in my mind based on what I am hearing as feedback from his colleagues that they have a very very peculiar habitat that they hope to consign Mr Clarkson to in the very near future. But of course he will not go. He intends to stand again and he intends to be a loose unit. He believes he has number one the wealth to fund his looseness and number two the ideas to distinguish himself amidst the very grey anonymous collection of figures who surround him. So not only do we have Mr Ryall raising levels of intolerance in the area of the Bay of Plenty not very far from the township known as Whakatane we also have Mr Clarkson from Tauranga. 
Let me continue with a host of other fantastic things the Government is doing which is why we will not be deterred and why the very venal and thoughtless things that have been said about one of our colleagues will not eclipse the great deeds that characterise this Government. In the area of old people not only are we thinking ahead in terms of retirement savings but we have a programme that has been taken up with great gusto up and down the country to help people alleviate the burdens they face in relation to their rates bills. How did those bills arise? They arose through long-term deficits from the other side of the House.