Barker Rick: General Debate 
Barker Rick: General Debate 
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Hon RICK BARKER (Labour) 
: 
 I will pick up on the point made by the Green MP Kevin Hague about mine safety. I thought it was an indictment on the Government that the royal commission was told that they have pay and provisions for four mine safety inspectors yet they have only one inspector employed. That means there are three vacancies. I think the current regime of mine safety is inadequate anyway but to have an inadequate system of mine safety understaffed—to be at 25 percent of capacity when men are working underground in an incredibly dangerous environment—is wrong; it is utterly wrong. I think the Minister of Labour who currently says she will not be doing anything until the royal commissioner reports should act immediately and instruct her department to engage the other mines inspectors and have them on the payroll checking these people. 
I cannot think of a more dangerous environment to work in than to be underground. As the public of New Zealand have learnt the men who perished at Pike River were over 2.5 kilometres from fresh air and sunlight and 2.5 kilometres is a long long way. It is a long way when workers are in the heart of a coalmine underground in stone. Those conditions to put people in are very difficult and dangerous. Mine safety is inadequate and I think the Government has an obligation—a duty—to do something immediately. 
I will also pick up on the comments made by National members in relation to the general debate. We heard Tim Groser talk about deficits. I remind Tim Groser that for every year that the Labour Government was in office we ran a surplus. Every year we ran a surplus and we paid back most of the previous National Government’s credit card bill. When the Labour Government came into office New Zealand was getting close to having 40 percent of debt in relation to GDP but when we left office it was below 20 percent. The Labour Government left New Zealand in a very good space. The OECD report showed that New Zealand was an outlier in terms of having incredibly low Government debt. We had unusually low Government debt—an outlier—that was the state of affairs when Labour left office. Every year we had surplus after surplus after surplus. The only people who decried that surplus were over there. Bill English was constantly saying we should have tax cuts and give it all away—“Give it all away!” he said. 
Now that National is in office New Zealand has nothing but debt. We have gone from a $7 billion surplus to a $15 billion deficit. What is ambiguous about that? We have gone from a $7 billion surplus under Labour to a $15 billion debt under National. I would say that that is very poor management. What is the plan to get us out of it? What we have had is a tax switch. A tax switch excuse me is a switch in taxes between the poor and the wealthy. Let us get this clear: GST is a regressive tax in anybody’s measure. It affects the poor more than the rich because when poor people go and get 10 litres of fuel for their cars they pay exactly the same amount of tax on that as rich people. There is no difference except that poor people have less money. National uses percentages for everything but let us get this clear: 10 percent of an elephant is more than 10 percent of a mouse. When it comes to working people they get the mouse’s salary. When the Government increases GST on working people’s costs to 15 percent the costs for those people go up dramatically. But a 15 percent GST increase on fuel makes little or no difference at all for rich people; they cannot see the effect of it. The fact is that poor people in New Zealand are now much poorer. 
National does not want to talk about the poor but let us talk about the real poor the unemployed. Unemployment in this country has gone up under National and the biggest shame that National has is the amount of youth unemployment. The youth of this day are being left high and dry dispirited and with no hope of a job under National. The National Government has no plans. National members talk loud and long about increasing the amount of trade training but the fact is that the amount that National is spending on trade training is less than it was when Labour left office. It is less that it was when Labour left office. We have a huge amount of work to be done in rebuilding Christchurch and fixing leaky homes but the number of young people we are training in apprenticeships for the building industry is fewer than it was 3 years ago. That is an appalling state of affairs. We could be giving our young people skills and job opportunities but we are not because this National Government is devoid of vision and devoid of commitment to helping young people. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.