Brownlee Gerry: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Brownlee Gerry: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:623;Page:18185] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 I agree with two statements in the Prime Minister’s state of the nation speech today. The first is that this is a nation with huge potential and the second is that to build a strong New Zealand requires leadership commitment and good policies. Those are the only two statements in the speech that I agree with; the rest is just platitudinous claptrap of the worst kind. Michael Cullen stands there and starts to use the rhetoric of centre-right talk but his policies will not let him engage in centre-right action to make a difference for New Zealanders. 
I want to go through the Prime Minister’s speech bit by bit just to make it clear how difficult it is for the Labour Government to pretend that it is in any way visionary or has a concern about New Zealanders. First the attack on Dr Brash suggested that beneficiary numbers are too big. We then had the admission from Helen Clark that benefit numbers have apparently tumbled and that under Labour those numbers have fallen by 100000. If we dig just a little bit further into the speech we see that the Working for Families package will create 82000 new beneficiary families. Michael Cullen said that he cannot give them their taxes back or give them a lower taxation rate but that a Government handout is OK. So Labour thinks that making hard-working New Zealanders beneficiaries of the State is better than allowing them to keep the money they earn in the workplace. 
Let us be very clear that one party in this country sets the agenda these days. It is the National Party not the Labour Party. Let us just think of the last year. Dr Brash went to Orewa and exposed some of the inequities in our society when it comes to the way we deal with race issues. Labour went into an absolute panic and created a position for the Hon Trevor Mallard as the Coordinating Minister Race Relations. He went out and promised to do all sorts of things to salve the concerns of ordinary New Zealanders but what Labour has done is nothing. If one reads the newspaper today and looks in the employment section one finds Government jobs advertised where the criteria for the acceptance of those jobs is that the applicant has an understanding of and a concern for the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. It is still there 12 months after Trevor Mallard was supposed to get rid of all that stuff because Labour talks about it but never does it. 
Dr Brash then talked during the year about law and order. The truth in sentencing conference exposed some of the more ridiculous situations that exist in this country with regard to violent crime. What did the Government do? It went straight into a get-tough mode promising all sorts of things but doing nothing again. Michael Cullen stood in the House today and said Labour had got the number of burglaries down. Well the fact is that people do not report burglaries any more. 
Pansy Wong 
: They have given up. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: They have given up on the police because this Government has accepted a police commissioner coming to Parliament and saying that if people want to receive an answer to a 111 call they should make sure they scream. People know that if they ring up about a burglary 5 or 6 days later the police will amble around to see whether they can do something. The only reason that figure has fallen is that people have lost confidence in the police because the Government has confidence in an incompetent Minister of Police. That agenda is set by Don Brash. 
It is the same with regard to transport. Don Brash saw the problem in Auckland. He saw that there were some simple solutions that would get progress. He made some commitments about the Resource Management Act and about the funding track for roading in Auckland. Suddenly the Minister with responsibility for Auckland Issues was up there the Minister of Transport was up there and Helen Clark went home to Auckland. They wrapped their arms around the mayors patted them on the back and put together big packages. And what has happened? Nothing. The rest of country though is paying an extra 10c per litre on petrol in order to get those flash roads put in place. That money is accumulating in Michael Cullen’s huge surplus which apparently the Government is better at spending than any individual would be. 
We come to the issue of taxation. Here we have quite a dilemma because the Government knows that hard-working New Zealanders want tax relief. They do not want to be made into beneficiaries; they do not want to receive a cheque from the Government. They just want to keep the money that they earn week in week out from the jobs that they do throughout the economy. Michael Cullen will not allow that. But knowing that is a problem Labour thinks it will be clever by sending John Tamihere out to give a tax cut speech and getting Jim Anderton to take out nationwide newspaper advertisements that state the Progressive Party wants to reduce taxation. Well no one is going to believe that. No one will hold his or her breath and wait for tax cuts under this Government and no one will be impressed with the rapid growth in the Government’s surplus while the taxation rates remain so high. 
Then we come to the issue of welfare. Don Brash rightly raised in Orewa the difficulties that this country will face if beneficiary numbers continue to grow at the rate they are growing at the present time. The Government of course initially wanted to say that that was benefit bashing. Far from it that speech had some aspiration in it for a better quality of life for those that Labour is quite happy to see dependent on benefits. No doubt the people who get the rawest deal in the benefit world are solo parents. Let us be very clear that most of them are women. They do a very good job over a large number of years of bringing up their children on the very low disposable funds available to them—the benefit. Then when their children get to 18 they take off by and large and there are young women in their late 30s or early 40s capable competent people lacking in confidence and uncertain about what the world is going to offer them from that point on. All that we are saying to them is that we will have a regime that gets alongside them when their youngest child is 5 and there will be 11 years in which to do some part-time work do some approved community work or train for another job. What is wrong with that? Well the Labour Party it seems thinks there is nothing wrong with that because it is now out there proclaiming that as its own policy. Dr Brash has set the agenda again. But if anyone believes that Labour will reduce beneficiary numbers seriously and if anyone believes that Labour will create opportunities for those New Zealanders who are caught on a benefit then he or she is sadly deluded. 
I want to leave my final comments for the issue that Dr Brash seems to have enjoyed so much today: the decision mutually agreed between Dr Brash and Katherine Rich that she should take on some other responsibilities on our behalf. Katherine Rich is an extremely capable member and will do a good job in those areas. But let me be very clear that in this party if someone happens to disagree with the leader he or she does not get the John Tamihere treatment the Ruth Dyson treatment the Lianne Dalziel treatment the Dover Samuels treatment nor the Tariana Turia treatment. Is it not amazing that Dr Cullen can see a real problem in Katherine Rich moving back just a few seats when he cannot see the problem that he and Helen Clark created in forcing Tariana Turia to take the extraordinary step of forming the Maori Party—a party that I predict will do enormous damage to Labour because of the patronising attitude it has to Maori in this country? I have seen in recent days at various functions Labour Ministers talking to groups of Maori. I tell members that if I were on the listening end if I were part of the organising groups and I were Maori myself I would be absolutely appalled that anyone could think that they could get away with talking in such Uncle Tom Cobbleigh ways to me or to others. 
Don Brash has set the agenda Don Brash will lead the agenda and Don Brash will lead the country after the next election.