Rich Katherine: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Rich Katherine: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1162] 
KATHERINE RICH (National) 
: 
 If we needed any evidence of just how desperate the Government is we just needed to listen to the speech of that member Annette King. The Government’s way of explaining away the use of $450000 of taxpayers’ money is to be found in three arguments: firstly by mentioning the Exclusive Brethren apparently according to Annette King; secondly by bringing up Donna Awatere Huata a total red herring; and thirdly by talking about a letter that I sent on 29 August. How desperate is that! 
But I think Labour has walked into a bit of a trap there because one of its own members has been less than honest about what he was doing in the lead-up to the election. Members can call me old-fashioned but I thought the sending out of letters by MPs in the course of their daily duties was small beer. That member Annette King is totally unaware of a letter that was sent out on 12 September 2005 by her colleague David Benson-Pope leading up to the election. The member is nodding but she does not know that this is a different letter. It is not that scandalous piece of pap sent out as a flier to State house tenants but a letter with a parliamentary letterhead to those tenants. That one short letter mentions the word “vote” not once not twice but six times in its course. I would like to read from David Benson-Pope’s letter so the member can understand: “But I need your help so I can continue to help you. Your two votes for the labour party and for me as the local Labour MP are vital at this election. And the votes of everyone in your household who is over 18 and a permanent resident.” Then he goes on to tell them that if they are not enrolled they can get on to the roll: “Please ring my office …” if you are having trouble getting on the roll. “Please make sure that everyone in your home who is eligible to vote is on the roll and does go out to vote on election day.” The letter mentions the word “vote” six times. 
Annette King is sitting on the other side of the House looking smug but if she looks at this letter she will see the parliamentary crest. The letter is written with the Labour Party letterhead and it asks for votes. Every member in this House knows that any material that goes out with that crest on it is not allowed to ask for a vote. We can have an esoteric debate about whether an MP is doing his or her work but it is quite clear that if a letter asks for a vote and mentions the word “vote” not once not twice but six times in one letter then that is totally out of order and totally not allowed. I have had this letter for quite some time but I thought that that sort of stuff was small beer compared to $450000—or well over $1 million if one tallies up the other credit card pledges that that Government— 
Hon Annette King 
: And $1 million from the Exclusive Brethren. 
KATHERINE RICH 
: Now she is changing tack. I think Mr Benson-Pope will be in for a bit of trouble. Somebody did not tell Helen Clark that he had sent out a letter on Labour Party letterhead with the parliamentary crest. Somebody did not tell Helen Clark before she went into the House today. No one said: “Oops we shouldn’t let her mention a letter that was sent out in the course of another MP’s duty some 3 weeks ago because oops there is a letter here that was sent out in the week before the election with a parliamentary letterhead.” 
Today I want to talk about economic development because that is an area of huge embarrassment for the Government. It is quite clear that the “jobs machine” is a hoax and that Jim Anderton has left the economic development portfolio in an absolute shambles. Why else would the Prime Minister change Ministers and send in Trevor Mallard if there were not a mess? In the last week or so Minister Mallard has announced a review of all schemes. That is all very well but one of the things the Minister failed to mention was that he will be reviewing schemes that have not even been in existence for more than 3 years. Labour has found that its schemes are an absolute mishmash of dual objectives project overlaps and mistakes made. If the member on the opposite side of the House does not agree with me she need only look as far as the Auditor-General’s report in 2004 and an extremely damning review from officials in 2005 which clearly point out that the Government has huge problems when it comes to those grants schemes. 
The Government is failing to understand that most businesses do not actually see many of those schemes as being a good thing; in fact some see them as being cluttered unfair and not something they want to support if there is a trade-off between having those schemes and having lower taxes fairer regulations better employment laws and an environment that allows them to do business. I want to read out a letter that I received last week from a businesswoman: “I am the owner of a furniture design firm struggling to stay New Zealand - made. My husband and I pay high taxes on his income and have to watch Trade New Zealand give enormous amounts of money to my opposition in the form of grants. The grants scheme has become an industry in itself. There are experts in getting grants who take a fee to move your business on to the gravy train. There are many examples of money being given to prop up businesses that are not feasible or shift offshore deliberately to close their doors as soon as they have taken all the grants they can.” 
One of the things the Labour Government fails to see is that it is not sound economic policy to set up schemes that are designed more to get Jim Anderton and Helen Clark in photos than to assist businesses to do their work around the country. We have seen this Government turn the creation of photo opportunities into a high art. Jim Anderton in particular travelled around the country handing out cheques as if they were his own money. Today we have a full understanding of why. The Labour Party in particular does think the money is its own and that is why it will not pay back those taxpayers’ funds that have been scandalously used to fund its own propaganda. 
 Good economic development policy is more than creating photo opportunities for Ministers. Good economic policy looks at some of the macroeconomic factors such as the good economic conditions for creating an environment where there are lower taxes where people can hire people and where people are able to ensure they can do business well without having the heavy-handed approach of the Labour Government. I think Lianne Dalziel the Minister for Small Business accepts that. That is why she said that one of the main reasons unfortunately why many very small businesses—ones with no employees—will not take on staff is that they are frightened of employment issues and have been subjected to professional grievance claims. That is true but I question her as to what she will do about it. If anything we know that employment law changes are not on the agenda for this Government. In fact they will make it tougher for a number of businesses in New Zealand when those businesses make changes to their vulnerable workers legislation this year. They will make it more difficult for the firms that Helen Clark has had her photo taken with—for example CleanTastic winner of the franchise of the year—to be in business. Those businesses are the mum and dad operations that keep this country going. 
The whole economic development area is in a total shambles and that is of Labour’s making. The jury is out about whether the merger has been a good one but one of the things that has not been highlighted is the fact that Trevor Mallard is actually reviewing and trying to tidy up what has been Labour’s mess. Labour members rushed together their plans and programmes and thought more about photo opportunities for themselves than they did about the businesses they intended to help. They made companies like Jack Link’s the poster companies for their failed initiatives and I think they did the business community a disservice by tying it up with something that is actually a propaganda scheme for the Labour Party. 
We would like to see the economic area tidied up. We think that if Government members want to help all businesses they should lower taxes change employment laws stop handing out small cheques and do something that assists all businesses in this country not just Labour’s favourites. Government members have focused on the chosen few glamour companies rather than looked at the whole economic package.