Kaye Nikki: General Debate 
Kaye Nikki: General Debate 
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NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) 
: 
 I am pleased to speak in this general debate. Over the last week many people have emailed me about the situation in the United States. I think that shows the grave situation we are seeing right around the world. In fact I had the opportunity recently to hear a former Labour Prime Minister speak. That was Mr Blair. What became very clear from his speech was that the world has changed. He made the point that around the world and particularly within the European Union 21 out of 27 countries now have elected centre-right Governments. Why is that? It is because the policies of the past the borrowing the spend the debt-ridden policies of the past have not worked. The public are smart. They understand that that is not the direction that will take us out of this current crisis. That is why when I have been doorknocking what has been amazing is that people are not even talking about Labour policies any more. A number of people have said to me: “We have stopped listening to Labour because they have lost touch. They do not understand the reality of the situation.” Many people are saying to me that they do not listen to the Labour Party any more because there has been a basic failure to understand the gravity of the situation in this country and around the world. 
I am very proud that at a time when we have had the largest global recession within a generation and when we have been hit by one of the largest natural disasters in developed countries around the world we have managed to turn round this decade of deficits to see public debt go under 30 percent and to see us come out of deficit within several years. Many people whom I know overseas have emailed me to say how lucky we are to be in this situation when we look at countries like the United States. We have done that because we have had a very clear plan and that plan has been about good fiscal economic management. It has been about good tax reform. It has been about investment in infrastructure investment in transport investment in our education system and in terms of capital infrastructure and investment in broadband. It has been about a reduction in regulation. That has arisen from the reform of the Resource Management Act the reform of the Building Act and the reform of local government within Auckland. It might be boring to some people but it has been successful. It has been successful in turning round a decade of deficit. 
As I said before when we look at what Labour is proposing people have stopped listening. The reason they have stopped listening is when we look at the capital gains tax package. It suggests going from four to six tax rates for income tax different differentials around GST for different types of food and a gap of 11 percent between the company tax rate and the top personal tax rate. The capital gains tax package is riddled with exemptions that are not about good economic management. They are about politics. The fact is that Labour’s package is an absolute dog’s breakfast and everybody knows it. People are saying to me that they have stopped listening to Labour because the policies of the past which are to borrow more get the country into more debt have higher spending and crippling debt for this country are not what they want. That is why right around the world we are seeing centre-right Governments being elected. People understand that Labour policies are not the solution to this current crisis. New Zealanders are saying to me that they want good economic management they want to continue the plan that sees investment in our infrastructure including our schools our broadband and our transport—yes including over a billion dollars for the electrification of rail in Auckland and including billions of dollars of investment in our roads of national significance. 
People are realising that during the “noughties” where Labour is still stuck in this time warp there was a real lack of investment in this country. Investment is not necessarily sexy and members might consider it to be boring but it is working. A process and a plan that sees a reduction in regulation through building reform through Resource Management Act reform and through low tax rates is actually seeing our country one of only several countries in the OECD to come out of deficit. That is something we are very proud of and it is something we will be campaigning on. We will be going to the New Zealand public to say that during the largest global recession and at a time when a massive event occurred in Christchurch we will be taking this country into surplus and that is something we are very proud of. We look forward to 26 November.