Mackey Moana: General Debate 
Mackey Moana: General Debate 
[Volume:648;Page:17129] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
:  
It was a very interesting question time today in the House. From all the barracking and from all the yelling and screaming from the National Party about what a terrible idea it is for the Government to have bought back rail and how it is the worst thing we possibly could have done since the last worst thing we possibly could have done—which National has now adopted as its own policy—one would be excused for thinking that National had said that it was not going to sell it. One would be excused for thinking that the National Party was going to hock off KiwiRail the first chance it got because clearly National hates it. National members were frothing at the mouth at the very thought of the Government owning a national rail system just as Governments all around the world own national rail systems because privatisation is in their blood. If it is not for profit they do not get it. If it is not for profit why would one do it? Even if it is good for the country and it is geared towards responding to the needs of communities why would one do it if it does not make money all the time? They do not get it. 
I think it is completely unreasonable for any New Zealander on hearing question time today to think for a second that a National Government would not sell off KiwiRail as quick as it could because that was clear from question time today. Of course we will never know because as Crosby/Textor has told the National Party: “Don’t release any policies.” The problem is when one releases policies one goes down in the polls because people do not like them. That is a real political problem. So the political solution is to just not tell anyone what one is going to do—[ 
Interruption 
] well Katrina Shanks does not know what National is going to do anyway—and then one will be fine. We are 4 months at the most out from an election and we have a National Party whose members arrogantly think that they are going to easily wander into Government. They are not going to have to do anything; it is theirs because after all they are born to rule. It is their natural place to be over here. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Not lately. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: That is quite right. Four months out from an election National members think that they can get away with releasing one A4-size two-sided piece of paper that they say is their policies. Well I say one thing to the National Party members: saying one is not going to do something is not a policy; saying “Me too!” is not a policy; and when one has absolutely no detail about how one is going to fund it that is not policy. 
The people of New Zealand deserve to know what the National Party would do with Working for Families. Can Dr Hutchison tell us? No apparently not—[ 
Interruption 
] National members are all yelling now but they will not answer the question. New Zealanders deserve to know what National would do with the KiwiSaver contributions and National members will not tell us that either. New Zealanders deserve to know which public servants would be fired and which provincial offices of Government departments would close because the National Party would be firing public servants. Maybe Mr McCully can tell us that now? No nothing. 
In fact any policy would be nice from the National Party because let us not forget this is the second election in a row that we have not had any policy from the National Party. At the last election National’s health policy was: “We’re going to review the health sector.” Well given that it would fire all the public servants in the Ministry of Health I do not know who National thinks would do that review. I think they think the pixies would go out and do all those reviews after the election. But it is absolutely unacceptable that a party that wants to be in Government and that wants to lead this country can go through two election campaigns with no policy. We can conclude two things from that. One National has policies and its members do not want to tell us what they are because they are really unpopular or two 4 months out from an election they actually have no policies. They actually do not know what they will do if they become the Government. 
John Key is sitting in his office thinking: “How can I please everyone?” because we know that he formulates all his discussions on his conversation with the last person to whom he spoke. It is very hard to come up with a stand on things when one does not want to offend a single person. But the fact is that that voters of New Zealand deserve to know what they will get with a National Government. If the National Party would follow Crosby/Textor’s advice and not tell New Zealanders what they deserve to know because they do not trust them or because they know that New Zealanders will not like their policies—which are exactly the same as their policies in the 1990s—New Zealanders will not trust them and we will see the Employment Contracts Act come back. They will probably give it a better name; Crosby/Textor will probably tell them to call it the “We Love Workers Act” or something like that— 
Hon Judith Tizard 
: Like they did in Australia—workplace reforms! 
MOANA MACKEY 
: That is right—“Work Choices”. What a great name for something that is terrible for workers. Now maybe Mr Hutchison will give us some policy. He is a man of substance. I ask him to give us some policy.