Barker Rick: Financial Review Debate 
Barker Rick: Financial Review Debate 
[Volume:607;Page:4145] 
Hon RICK BARKER (Minister of Customs) 
: 
 In this debate we will hear a lot of whinging whining carping snivelling and grizzling from the Opposition. I cannot believe that the Opposition members are going to be so negative when all around them there is so much good news to be celebrated. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Tell us about the NCEA fees. Is that good news? 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: Brian Donnelly is normally a very positive person until he comes to the House to speak against the Government in a debate when he suddenly becomes the epitome of negativity. He is normally a person with a very positive outlook. Brian Donnelly should be celebrating this Government. The only thing that Brian Donnelly should be grizzling about is the fact that he is not a member of this Government. That should be the only sadness in his life. 
If Brian Donnelly looks at the situation in Northland where he comes from—he goes there occasionally—what can he see in the far north and in Northland? He can see growth of 3.9 percent in regional economic activity for the year ended December 2002. Brian Donnelly could tell everybody in this House that unemployment levels in Northland have dropped dramatically. At the time when he was a member of the previous Government—and I think he was a good member who did his honest best and tried very hard—the unemployment levels in Northland were going up there was depression around New Zealand and the rising cost of State house rents was driving the unemployed and beneficiaries into poverty. Brian Donnelly did not do anything about that. 
Brian Donnelly wants New Zealand to be a place where people have hope and opportunity and where there is progress. He should celebrate this Government instead of grizzling about some of the things we have not got right—and I will acknowledge that there are a few of those. But on the whole— 
Rodney Hide 
: List them. 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: I have only two hands. I would have to take my shoes off to get to about 15 in order to list the failures. But we should also look at our successes. 
Maybe Mr Rodney Hide will get up and tell the House that he knows the difference between being in Parliament and out of Parliament. It would be very interesting to hear his position on that. Mr Hide comes from Auckland. He is also a member who should celebrate the success of this Government. Mr Hide will be able to tell people that in the regional economic activity for Auckland last year at the end of December 2002 there was a growth rate of 4.6 percent. Mr Hide should say that that is a fantastic result. He should say that 4.6 percent growth in the largest city in New Zealand is a fantastic result and he should congratulate the Government on its excellent stewardship of the economy. 
Mr Hide will also know and he will agree with Mr Donnelly and me that unemployment is one of the great scourges of this country. When this Government took office unemployment was touching 10 percent in the area I come from and on average around the country it was about 8.5 percent. What is unemployment today? It is 4.9 percent. I think that both the ACT members and the New Zealand First members should get up and do what they did earlier this day and recommend motions congratulating the Government on its outstanding achievements. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Ha ha! 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: Mr Donnelly does not think he will do that. I suppose he is simply keeping faith with his purpose in life here as a member of the Opposition which is to oppose. However if he wants to put some more integrity into politics he should say that a job well done deserves to be credited. This Government has done a fantastic job. We have brought unemployment down to a 15-year low; it has not been as low as that in 15 years. That has been the result of a mixture of things. I do not think the Government can take all the credit for it but it can take credit for providing good stable sensible leadership. People know the direction of this Government because it is clearly articulated and we are doing things in areas where those things should have been done a long time ago. 
A previous speaker Tony Ryall also spoke in a very negative fashion. He did not tell us where the National Party’s prescription went wrong in the 9 long hard suffering years that it was in power. What did the previous National Government do when unemployment rose? [ 
Interruption 
] What does Lindsay Tisch say? He just barks and interjects like an empty vessel. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: He squeaks. 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: He squeaks but there is no real sense coming from him at all. Mr Tisch also should be saying that it is fantastic progress for this country that we now have 15500 fewer people on the unemployment benefit than we had a year ago. In 1 year there are 15500 more people off the unemployment benefit than before. We have done a lot of things that represent great progress for this country. I think that the Opposition should look positively at this Government and say that it has done a good job. 
Instead what do we have from the Opposition parties? We have the clanger of all time—the leap back into the past by the intellectual leader of the National Party Don Brash. Don Brash says that the unemployed should line up on a daily basis outside the central post office to be paid a daily allowance for being unemployed. The thing that Don Brash forgot or overlooked was that Richard Prebble sold off all the post offices. They are gone; there is no such thing as a central post office any more. But that is the sort of intellectual rigour we have from the National Party. 
The second thing that Don Brash forgot to mention was that if one is to solve the problem of unemployment simply having a stick to beat people with will not achieve that. People are unemployed for a reason and very often the reason is that they do not have the skills necessary to get the available jobs. Having people line up outside the central post office on a daily basis will not give them the skills necessary to be successful applicants for the vacant positions. That very important fact has escaped Don Brash—the intellectual leader of the National Party—but it has not escaped this Government. We have invested a substantial amount of money into developing case management for each individual unemployed person in order to look at the needs of that person. We are looking at where the gaps are in the skills and at where the job vacancies are and we are investing a substantial amount of money into training and into skills so that we can help people to make the transition from unemployment to employment—to being constructive members of our public. [ 
Interruption 
] The Government is being successful I say to Lindsay Tisch who barks on the Opposition side of the House. I say to him yet again that unemployment is at a 15-year low at 4.9 percent. Last year 15500 people made the transition from unemployment to employment. Members should compare that with the previous National Government’s record. Every year that National was in office unemployment went up. We have reversed that trend and I say that there has been fantastic leadership by this Government and by the Prime Minister Helen Clark. 
We have a vision of where this country needs to go. We need to develop and harness the talents and skills of our people. We are investing more in education and in research and development. We are addressing the problem of the social ills in our society. Although members of other parties talked long and hard about victims and their rights it was not until Phil Goff got on the case that we passed the legislation on victims’ rights. The National Party and other parties—ACT supported the National Party in that Government—beat their gums mercilessly about tougher sentences but it was not until this Labour Government came to power with Phil Goff that we changed the law. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: What about accident compensation? 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: Lindsay Tisch rabbits on about accident compensation. I say to Lindsay Tisch that the average cost of accident compensation across New Zealand has gone down by over 20 percent since this Government changed the system. There have been savings of over 20 percent across this country. That member is simply wedded to ideology. The mouth moves like a dunny door in a nor’west wind and that is why the National Party is in the position that it is in. National is all noise. It has no substance no vision and no leadership. 
When we go to the next election this Government will stand on its record. We will still have record low levels of unemployment. We will have record levels of job creation and of investment and we will be addressing piece by piece all the social issues that need to be addressed in this country. We will do so with kind policies that the public will support. We will do that because we are passionate about New Zealand. We are passionate about the people we seek to represent and we enjoy record levels of support for that and for the quality of the leadership of this Labour Government. I am very proud to be a member of this Government. I think that it has done a fantastic job and I think that if the Opposition had any shred of integrity it would move a resolution praising this Labour-led Government.