Smith Nick: General Debate 
Smith Nick: General Debate 
[Volume:629;Page:1811] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 There are two ways in which we can tell that a Government is in its dying phases and this Government is in rigor mortis. The first is that it starts crying foul about parliamentary accountability. I am proud to have Judith Collins as my bench mate. She had Lianne Dalziel sacked because she had misled the media—and the Prime Minister said so. We also had David Benson-Pope held to account because he misled this Parliament—and that fact too has been confirmed by the Prime Minister. That also came about because of the diligent work of my excellent bench mate Judith Collins. 
But there is a second way in which we can tell a Government is in its dying stages—that is it is reviewing everything. In any area of Government policy where there is any sort of problem we have Ministers saying they will have a review. We have added them up. There are 69 reviews— 
Paula Bennett 
: How many? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: —69 reviews going on in the Government right now. Some of the reviews are occurring because Ministers have got themselves in a pickle and they want a diversion. Some of the reviews are occurring because of the Government’s boomerang policies. The chickens are coming home to roost on bad policy decisions that have been made previously. And the third area of reviews are occurring because this Government is so bereft of ideas and so lacking in direction that it has rushed off to the public service to try to come up with some fresh new ideas that might explain where it is going. 
Let us take the Whangamata marina decision made by Chris Carter which was pretty dodgy given that he had had a wee chat to his mate Bob Harvey as was confirmed in the House today. To divert attention away from that decision on Tuesday he announced that a review of coastal policy would be held. The problem was that he forgot to tell Dr Cullen. We asked whether there were terms of reference for the review. The answer was “No”. We asked whether there was a timetable for the review. The answer was “No”. Well that announcement was nothing more than a diversion and it is not the only one. Steve Maharey is on the back foot over text message bullying. What did Steve Maharey announce as the great new initiative to save kids? He said: “Let us have a review.” 
Then we come to the whole mess over the Kyoto Protocol. In fact the billion-dollar bungle there is so big that we will not have one two or three reviews—we are to have five reviews. There will be a review on forestry policy and a review on electricity policy and a review is going on over the way the numbers are done. The Government has an absolute policy vacuum and the problem I tell the ladies and gentlemen of this House is that all those reviews just create uncertainty in the electricity sector at the very time we need new investment. 
And there is another mess-up from Chris Carter. Do people remember when we had that knee-jerk reaction to that dear little girl who was hurt by dogs? Suddenly we were to have the microchipping of all dogs—and now we are having a review of the policy of dog microchipping to fix up that mess that Chris Carter has on that front. 
There is another one. We all as members of Parliament are aware of the trauma of families that are caught up with the problems of leaky homes—thousands and thousands of them. They were told by the Government 3 years ago that it had set up the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service and the problem would all be solved. Well in July last year Chris Carter announced there would be a review and that those carrying out the review would report back in October. Well it is now March of the next year. Are there any results from the review? No there are not and in fact we have no idea of what the Government will do. 
Then we could take areas like tax and my colleague John Key will talk about all the reviews that are going on in that area. If we take my colleague Judith Collins’ area there are many reviews going on in social welfare because the Government does not know what it is doing. Equally my colleague Paul Hutchison will be speaking on reviews with regard to health. If we take an area like immigration the Government has three separate reviews going on. 
Hon Member 
: No surprise. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: That is no surprise. Tens of thousands of people are abandoning New Zealand and there is a reduction in the number of people who are choosing to migrate to New Zealand. We even have a review which was meant to report in November in respect of immigration and Phillip Field.