Collins Judith: Appropriation (2007/08 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Collins Judith: Appropriation (2007/08 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:641;Page:11081] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 That Minister who has just finished speaking has just shown why he was chosen to be on the front bench of the Labour Party. What a stunning speech! I think that over here we are all gasping and wondering just how bad someone has to be to be promoted in the Labour Party. And we have just seen it. 
Today in the House we have seen a whole lot of people with little red boxes on their desks. It was very well pointed out by one of the other members in the House today that one of the stunning things about those little red boxes—which are obviously there to tell Labour members where they belong and to help get themselves noticed on television—is that they are all paid for by the New Zealand taxpayer. On those boxes they have their little parliamentary crests signifying that unlike the Maori Party and even unlike New Zealand First on this occasion they cannot buy their own little red boxes so that they can prove who has paid for them. Well the taxpayers have paid for them and that is where some of their money is going from this Budget. 
One of the things I would like to talk about today—and it may not have escaped everybody’s notice—is the fact that we do have a new Minister responsible for social development. By the way he is also the old Minister who was responsible for social development because social development is of course the trendy name he gave it when he first came in as Minister of Social Welfare. He did not like that term and called it social development. We have Steve Maharey back on the boards and it is fantastic to have the architect of the single core benefit here in the House ready to answer some questions about what really ever did happen to the single core benefit. That of course was the main plank of Labour’s welfare policy in the 2005 election. 
During electioneering we were promised on television—and I remember an interview that Steve Maharey and I myself had with Larry Williams on Sky television all those years ago back in the 2005 election campaign—that the single core benefit would be rolled out in 2007 and that all the major benefits all those working-age benefits would be rolled into one and have multiple add-ons. I think there were about seven different add-ons to that single core benefit. Somehow taking seven or eight benefits and turning them into one benefit and having seven or eight different add-ons was going to save a huge amount of administration costs. What has happened? 
Chris Auchinvole 
: What has happened? 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: Well they have become phases now—a phase one and a phase two. Phase one is about asking people who can work if they would like to—work that is—just in case they would possibly like to work. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: It is a pleasure to be able to speak again on this matter for the National Party. Before the dinner break we were talking about the single core benefit—and I note that the Minister over there Clayton Cosgrove who is obviously down here on duty— 
Hon Member 
: Is he a Minister? 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: Apparently he is currently a Minister but not for long. He wants to know how to get hold of Helen Clark and to see her in the House. I tell members of the House who want to find the current Prime Minister of New Zealand that they should go to www.youtube.com and search for “lonely girl 57”. That is where they will find the current Prime Minister of New Zealand. 
Anne Tolley 
: You’ve been watching  
Facelift 
. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: Mrs Tolley says I have been watching  
Facelift 
. I have also been looking at www.youtube.com and that is where the Prime Minister can be found. She is out there trying to beat that young buck John Key age 45 in getting the youth vote. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Speaking of face lifts! 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: I am sorry to tell Mr Cosgrove this but the young vote is deserting Helen Clark and the Labour Party. Basically those people do not want to know about them any more. The reason is that they want to believe in and be part of a country where people want to do positive things. 
One of the things we saw tonight on the television news was the news item that the number of people leaving New Zealand to move permanently to Australia has gone up by 25 percent just in the last year. That is a shocking statistic—25 percent. So 25000 people are now moving to live in Australia permanently in the period surveyed. That is a shocking statistic and a shocking situation for New Zealand. I love this country New Zealand. I am a very proud New Zealander. I have to say that if I were a young person I also would wonder—after enduring 8 years of a nanny State Helen Clark Government—what it was we were doing here. That is because people want to be around positive people—people who are not always pulling others down to the lowest common denominator people who are not always into social engineering people who are not fighting battles of the 1970s and constantly going on about life 30 or 40 years ago when they were a child. Nobody cares any more I say to Mr Cosgrove. Nobody cares about that any more. 
It has been very interesting seeing the Government’s reaction to John Key. It has been “Attack John Key”. Every single question time has been about “Attack John Key”. And what has happened? Actually the public do not want to listen. The reason they do not want to listen is that they see in John Key an aspirational leader. They see a visionary a person who is positive and a person who has come back to New Zealand to help this country move ahead. They do not want to see John Key being attacked by the hysterical Michael Cullen who apparently in his off time is the Minister of Finance. They want to know what this Government will do about interest rates. They want to know— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Did the Minister make the top four on that one? 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: And I was right was I not Mr Cosgrove. They want to find out what this Government will do about interest rates. They want to know why this Government is trying to shut down any comment in the media that is not pro them during the election year. They want to know what it is about the Littlies Lobby that the Government has such a complaint about. They want to know why the Government wants to stop organisations like Plunket from campaigning during election year without first registering as some sort of political entity and being able to spend only $60000. That is what they want to know. They wonder why this Government is so tetchy so bad-tempered about other people having a say when they know that every day they are bombarded with political advertising from the current Government all of which talks about whatever its policies are. They wonder why we have a double standard. 
The taxpayer as we have seen today and as we can see right now in the House is paying for Labour’s political advertising. We have the taxpayer paying for those red boxes that all the Labour members have in front of them—boxes that say “Labour” and have the parliamentary crest on them showing that they are paid for by the taxpayer. So any people out there in taxpayer land who are wondering why they cannot have a tax cut should come and ask Labour members because they have been taking $20 billion extra out of tax every year out of taxpayers’ pockets and they have not been spending it where they should. In other words they have not been giving it back to the taxpayers. They have been spending it on that sort of nonsense and on buying votes. 
We saw it with the lolly example. We now have lolly politics—lolly elections. That is what it is all about. Helen Clark has made it very clear. She calls it “putting the money in the kitty” which is code for “buying elections”. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Kitty? 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: Yes kitty. Labour members did it last time. They brought out their policies a couple of weeks before the election. They are always after us to put out our policies. Well hang on where are theirs? The fact is that they put out their policies a few weeks before the election except of course their major welfare policy the single core benefit. That has gone now—just gone. It is gone because we had a change of Minister. Oh we had another change of Minister—back to the previous one because the other one could not really tell the truth and that was a bit of a problem. Finally after three goes the Government has worked out that yes some of us were right and some on the other side were wrong. 
Basically people want to know what is in it for them. They want to know that their children will want to live in New Zealand and that if they go away they will want to come back and raise their own children here. They want a leader who is positive who wants to move ahead and who never refers back 30 years and asks: “What were you doing?”. Frankly who cares? Actually what people do want is a leader who believes in his country who is positive and who is totally dedicated to getting every New Zealander to be absolutely part of our society. People want a positive contributing person and that person is John Key. 
Frankly they are not interested in the current Budget from the current Government because that Government will not be around for long. People want a John Key - led Budget. They want a Budget that is there for them. They want a Budget that is there for their future and they want a Budget that deals with the issues they care about. I tell you what Mr Assistant Speaker they want a Government that pays more than lip-service to the people who are the most vulnerable in this country. They want a leader who will deal with the issues relating to those people whom we term as being the underclass. They also want people who will deal with child abuse and we are going to deal with that.