Anderton Jim: Budget Debate 
Anderton Jim: Budget Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3349] 
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Leader—Progressive) 
: 
 Why does the National Party not tell Don Brash to go now? If it is so interested in telling everyone else what they should do it should tell Don what the honest thing to do would be. 
Let us think about a child who was born in this country 20 years ago. What future does the National Opposition offer that young adult today? Does National offer more investment in education and skills training? No because it voted against every single dollar in skills training and investment in education in the last seven Budgets. Does National offer a growing economy with first-class infrastructure telecommunications and connections to the world? No because it voted against every Budget that included those priorities in the last 7 years. National even said it was opposed to making telecommunications in New Zealand more competitive—and it did nothing about that issue in the 9 years it was in office during the 1990s. When this Government invested billions of dollars into transforming the economy of New Zealand for the benefit of the people of New Zealand the National Party voted against every single clause in every single bill that opened up regional development industry development and economic development. 
National the same party that when in Government gutted this country in the early 1980s and all through the 1990s dares to compare New Zealand with Australia now. Before that 20-year-old adult whom I was talking about was born New Zealand had income levels comparable with Australia’s. That is true. But we fell behind in the 1980s and who cheered that along? Dr Brash when he was Governor of the Reserve Bank. We fell further behind when that young person was a teenager in the 1990s. National was responsible for those policies. When the people of New Zealand chose a new direction at the dawn of this century we started to catch up with Australia again. But of course the National Party has not caught up with that either. Now the same party that sabotaged New Zealand while it was in Government in those times compares us with Australia. 
It seems to me National Opposition members would do us all a favour if they headed to Australia themselves as Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen did. Dr Brash in my view is the modern Sir Joh. He runs down this country. Dr Brash seems to be ashamed of New Zealand and he offers nothing but the vision of a banana republic. Every single day the National Party talks about doing more for this that and the other thing and the only prescription it has for doing so is to lower tax and revenue so that it cannot be done. That is simply ludicrous. Dr Brash should take his policies and cringing about New Zealand to Queensland as Sir Joh did. 
Unemployment in New Zealand is under 4 percent for the first time since the mid-1980s. Dr Brash used to write forecasts which I used to rail against that suggested unemployment in New Zealand should be steady at 7 percent and that that should be the level of unemployment forever. That is what Dr Brash’s policies were. Now unemployment is at half that rate and what does he say to that? He says we should all go to Australia where of course unemployment is higher than it is here! Now that unemployment is at half the rate we had under National he dares to question the competence of this Government. 
Dr Brash wants to take away the jobs of young New Zealanders and to give tax cuts to affluent elderly middle-aged people like himself and me. Well how does that work? That is the National Party’s entire economic policy. I could hear the panic this afternoon from John Key at the only policy the National Party actually has which is tax cuts. What will happen if the Government actually gives some tax cuts sooner or later? What will happen to National’s policy then? It does not have any other policy. There is no other vision for New Zealand except for tax cuts and what happens if it loses that policy? It will be interesting to watch as National’s panic increases. 
Do National Party members speak with any pride about our culture and uniqueness? We never hear them do so. We heard a question in the House today about the spiritual qualities of the tangata whenua in New Zealand. I sat over there in the House while Doug Graham introduced the Treaty settlements for Tainui. He was in tears about the role of the tangata whenua in this country. Now the National Party continually sneers at that. I suggest to National members that they should get their priorities and their values right. They run down deride and belittle New Zealand in every speech they make. 
A week before the election Dr Brash the leader of the National Party said the haka is just a half-naked person jumping up and down. Is that the kind of spiritual dimension the National Party brings to our multiracial community? Dr Brash is a walking example of cultural cringe. He is ashamed of New Zealand and his colleagues are becoming ashamed of him. I am just waiting for the next election day with all the support we are getting to see what will happen. That is why National members are already saying they will dump Dr Brash later this year. They know they need someone better than him to offer to young New Zealanders and they know going back to the failed policies of the past offers those young New Zealanders nothing. 
What does Don Brash actually offer New Zealanders? He offers them a ticket to Australia; he says they should go to Australia. Well let us look at some of the elements of Australia. Do we want race riots like those that occurred in Cronulla to happen in New Zealand? Do we want the kind of treatment that Australian Aboriginals have had over the years to be dealt out to our tangata whenua? We should be very proud of what we have established in New Zealand not cringe about how good the Australians are no matter how good they may be in some of their more successful areas of activity. 
The Progressive party supports this Budget because it continues to lead us along a path to a better fairer and stronger New Zealand. We want to see a vital and thriving small nation here that is proud to stand as a leader in international forums—as we do—and punch miles above our weight all over the world. Everyone knows we do that and we should say it more often. I remember that last year when a World Bank survey stated New Zealand was the best place in the world to do business in there was sneering from the Opposition. If one said that in the Australian Parliament there would be cheering because Australians support their own country. This Budget of course continues to transform our economy. It invests in our priorities skills and infrastructure. It invests in our own identity as New Zealanders. Those are the ingredients that will create a future where young New Zealanders can realise their potential. 
I have been talking at primary industry sector conferences throughout New Zealand and everywhere I go there is confidence and optimism about the future. People are creative and innovative. They are not whingeing moaning and cringing about how good Australia is; they are getting on with developing their opportunities in this country. We should be supporting that and talking those opportunities up because New Zealand has great opportunities for its young people. The National Party which claims to have support from the primary industries and rural New Zealand should be telling our best and brightest young people to join in as scientists managers marketers and so on in the primary sector industries which of course are the engine room of this economy. All that those young people are told by the leader of the National Party is to get a ticket to Australia. 
The last decade has been one of productivity for New Zealand and this Government has been right at the centre of doing something about it. We are pouring money into protecting the biodiversity and biosecurity of New Zealand— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: It was cut. 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: I was waiting for someone on the Opposition side of the House which is illiterate in terms of its understanding of New Zealand Government and departmental budgets to say something like that. That was Mr Ardern’s statement but he does not have a clue. The baselines for biosecurity have gone up by 89 percent since this Government came in. What Mr Ardern discovers is that occasionally we do not spend the money on one-off incursions because we have fixed the problem. We have spent $80 million on eradicating the painted apple moth so I say to Dr Smith that we do not have to spend money on it again. We can spend less on incursions because we have eradicated the painted apple moth. Mr Ardern cannot count but I would have thought that Dr Smith would be a little bit better than him. Dr Smith has been a Minister of the Crown so members might think he would understand Government accounts a little better than that. I notice Dr Smith is silent now. He should check out the facts and engage his brain before he engages his tongue. 
We should celebrate the country we live in. None of us should fail to be proud to be New Zealanders. None of us should fail to be proud of the way our country conducts itself in world and international affairs. We have magnificent achievements in this country. We have a lot to be proud of and I wish the National members in Opposition would stop cringing in front of our Australian cousins and start celebrating the country that they aspire to lead one day. One does not lead a country by running it down.