Ardern Jacinda: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeArdern Jacinda: General Debate[Sitting date: 02 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8476. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JACINDA ARDERN (Labour): Last month marked 7 years of this Government and I say with no irony “7 long years” because if you asked any member of the public what it is that this Government has achieved as I have done in recent times you will be met with a certain degree of silence before they might come up something like “Well they’re trying to change the flag.” What if you reflect then on Government members’ achievements around the area that they campaigned on most clearly? If you were to try to pick out something that they tried to campaign on it was just simply this mantra of the economy—no particular goals around the economy just the economy. Well look if they want to put that up as their measure of success I am happy to use it because if we look closely at what they have achieved in that regard we have got markers like the fact the debt under this Government has increased by $60 billion. I will say that again: debt under this Government has increased by $60 billion.Tim Macindoe: Thanks to the Labour Party. What happened to public spending under Labour? Tell us about Government spending under Labour.JACINDA ARDERN: I will tell you Tim Macindoe if you want to hear about Labour: net Crown debt went down to zero—down to zero. Now there is an increase of $60 billion of debt. If we pick another measure perhaps unemployment well that has got to 6 percent and it is potentially going to hit 7 percent by the end of this year. A third measure—because I want to be fair to this Government let us pick a third—is this: exports. Exports as a percentage of GDP are at their lowest point since 1997—since 1997—and it is probably not a coincidence that 1997 was the last time that we handed the keys as Mr Robertson said to Bill English to manage the economy. So on any measure that the Government set out for itself we have seen absolute failure from this Government in terms of leadership on the economy.And I would add a fourth measure child poverty because under this Government a Labour Government you will see every single Budget a report on child poverty because what is GDP—trade and debt levels—if we are not factoring in the impact that all of Government policy is having on children. There are 305000 children living in poverty under this Government up from 260000. That is dire on anyone’s measure and on any account.I do not blame the general public if they do not know about all of those dire statistics. I do not—and why? Well not actually because there is any kind of fabulous spin machine in the Government. That has always existed. What is new in this situation is that we have an increasingly gutted fourth estate. They are the ones that we rely on—not just the Opposition; not just the Opposition—to tell the story about this Government. But we rely on a decent fourth estate and what have we got in that regard in recent times? Well we could reflect simply on what has been hitting the headlines. MediaWorks is about to enter a phase where TV3 has no current affairs—none; no investigative journalism for one of the most prominent television stations in our country.Hon Maggie Barry: Take it up with them.JACINDA ARDERN: Should I take it up with Mark Weldon the Prime Minister’s very dear and loyal friend perhaps? I will let the public draw their conspiracy theories about that. But putting that aside—the Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage does not seem to think that this is a problem—perhaps we should look at the areas where Ms Barry has some control: public broadcasting. Under this Government the Television New Zealand charter has gone TVNZ 7 has gone TVNZ 6 has gone and Radio New Zealand and NZ On Air are in dire straits in terms of the static funding that they have received.In fact public broadcasting is at the lowest level of any modern budget in this country. Compared internationally with any comparable democracy we spend some of the smallest amounts on public broadcasting. Why am I raising this? Yes this Government’s record is dire but the problem is much worse than that. The public deserve to know what is happening in their democracy and the voices we rely on tell that story are being gutted by the Government as well. The combination is a threat to our democracy and is a threat to the future of this country.