Cunliffe David: Appropriation (2010/11 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cunliffe David: Appropriation (2010/11 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Sitting date: 03 August 2010. Volume:665;Page:12911. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 It is truly a privilege to follow Judith Collins the most humble and modest Minister of Police and Minister of Corrections in the entire Western World. We have of course the most uncorrupted police force in the whole world and that is all the Minister’s own work! I am gratified that the Minister has got Tasers for the police. Next she will want lasers then she will want bazookas and then she will want Sherman tanks for our bobbies on the beat. I am thrilled that the Minister has managed to lock up an extra 50000 prisoners. 
Soon she will be personally locking up the whole of Wellington—ka pai kia ora te Minita. It is almost as embarrassing as Nick Smith lecturing our departed former colleague about mental health issues. That would be funny if it were not so sad. He was the man who was the deputy leader of the National Party for about a day and then had to have 3 weeks’ stress leave. So let us not hear from members on that side of the House about stress in politics. 
We all know why Nick Smith was stressed do we not? It was because there was a little vote for the leadership and the majority of one changed at the last minute. Let us just recall who that one was. Who was to be Bill English’s right-hand man then mysteriously became Don Brash’s right-hand man? It was none other than the “Prince of Darkness” the Svengali of the National caucus: John Key. That is why “Honourable English” and “Right Honourable Key” do not take tea to this very day. It is why “Honourable English” says: “We will loosen foreign investment.” and “Right Honourable Key” says: “We will tighten foreign investment rules.” and it is why “Honourable Key” says: “It will be an aggressive recovery.” and “Honourable English” says: “It will be a bumpy ride.” They do not take tea. 
The lingering stresses of that time are with us still and that is one reason why this Government has no plan: its top two Ministers cannot agree on one. Therefore they lurch from polling and focus group to focus group and polling. I had to pinch myself in this debate because I thought I was in a parallel universe. I found myself agreeing with Sir Roger Douglas for about 4 minutes of his speech when he was talking about the importance of principle of getting one’s bearings of doing what one thinks is right and of making a difference for the sake of the country. I agree with him on all of that. I also agree with him that polling is helpful to teach one how to sell it and market it when one knows what to do. That is not what this Government is doing and he is absolutely right about that. 
What this country needs is a strategy. It needs an economic plan because every New Zealander knows that we are not making it. New Zealanders know that something is seriously wrong in the State of New Zealand to quote from  
Hamlet 
. They know when they are standing in the cold winds of winter outside boarded-up shops—and 30 percent of the premises in downtown Auckland are empty—that this is no kind of recovery. The families in Kelston and New Lynn in my electorate know when dad loses his job and they are living in a caravan that it is no kind of recovery. 
When this Government is talking about the brighter future and turbocharging the economy I say that it should tell that to the people who do not have their own home who do not have a roof over their heads and who cannot afford to pay for the groceries while this Government is borrowing to give a third of the tax cut money to the top 5 percent. A third will go to the top 5 percent and the Government is borrowing to do that—and it lectures us about economic strategy! 
The New Zealand people are sick of Government by focus group. They are sick of poll-driven stop-start flip-flops. They are sick of mining schedule 4 conservation land firing workers at will cycleways to nowhere that have created no jobs and a 2025 taskforce that did not see the light of day. We can always tell when a Government is on the back foot because to explain is to lose. Somebody should have told the National research unit when it was writing the key lines for this debate that to explain is to lose. 
That is why it is embarrassing for those members that Bill English in John Key’s absence had to reiterate what their so-called strategy was. We took notes because no New Zealander can work it out. Here is what those members said. They talked about tax reform infrastructure deregulation attacking workers’ rights and slashing public services. Let us go through them one by one starting with tax reform. Rebalancing failed. Property depreciation was underdone on private residences overdone on business assets and overdone on short-life depreciation. The Government missed $2 billion worth of avoidance rorts on loss attributing qualifying companies and it lectures us about tax reform! 
With regard to infrastructure it was the previous Labour Government that trebled the investment in infrastructure. It was multimodal for our roads our railways and our ports. It is this Government that has merely continued the level of spending but it has diverted it 12 times to the Kopu Bridge and now the election plan for the new member for Rodney Mr Joyce is based on the “holiday highway” to Wellsford. Fantastic! And those members lecture us about infrastructure! 
Mr Nick Smith talked about deregulation. Deregulation is like having a hedge and giving it a clip once a year. Of course we clip the hedge to keep it back and at bay because otherwise it tends to grow but clipping the hedge is not ploughing a field or landscaping one’s garden. It is just a hedge. Deregulation has its place. It is something that happens every year to keep the public sector in good order but it is not a growth strategy. Someone needs to tell the Government that deregulation is not a growth strategy. 
Then there is the issue of attacking workers’ rights. If the Government could not mine conservation land then it will mine the well-being of New Zealand workers by giving the right to any boss from the biggest Fletcher Challenge or Fonterra to the littlest corner dairy to sack their workers without notice without cause without the right to take a personal grievance and without explanation in the first 90 days of employment. 
I predict that there will be a lot of 89-day wonders in the workforce—a lot of 89-day wonders wondering why they got the boot. It is a plan to drive down wage rates. What is that strategy about? Will we get rich by trying to catch up with China on low wages—$1 a day or $1 a week? How low is low in the National Government’s limbo dance for worker degradation? That is not a strategy. I am looking at those members opposite with their heads hung down. Where is the—[ 
Interruption 
] Oh “The Maestro” is awake. “The Maestro” in the back row the brilliant architect of the Mt Albert campaign and the motorway to Mount Eden Prison is awake. Thank God somebody is. 
It behoves every responsible Opposition to say what it would do if it had the chance and the Labour Opposition is up for it. Labour has been working hard in the background. We have had policy working groups for Africa and this Government is in trouble because when our plan hits town the New Zealand people will see the difference between poll-driven panic and proper policy. 
Here is a foretaste in the economic area. No. 1 is a proper growth strategy and that includes investment in research and development not cutting research and development tax credits; fixing the innovation pipeline; and developing a productivity framework that covers capital skills and technology. Rolling out ultra-fast broadband would be a change. What an oxymoron! There is nothing ultra-fast about that roll-out; it has been 2 years and they have not put an inch in the ground. It is time for a reshuffle for Steven Joyce. 
Labour will invest in clean technology. We will leverage our clean green brand to create jobs build market opening and encourage exports with a proper economic development strategy which the Hon David Parker will lead. We will have a proper rebalancing of the economy. We will invest to close the savings gap build our domestic savings industry not cut KiwiSaver pre-fund New Zealand superannuation push harder on the tax system and stop the rorts. It is obvious—stop the rorts and remove distortions. 
We will walk the talk on fiscal responsibility including intergenerational equity. We will not put the cost of superannuation on our kids because we cannot tell the truth to their parents. We will close the external account gap which is partly exports partly savings and is a lot about owning our own future. Otherwise the one thing that John Key will get right—honourable—is that we will become tenants in our own country. We need Labour’s plan.