Sepuloni Carmel: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSepuloni Carmel: General Debate[Sitting date: 24 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4719. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston): Referring to the fact that Mr Williamson said Labour cannot do it I just want to say: “Watch this space Mr Williamson. Watch this space.” We can and we will Mr Williamson. Let us see what happens in 2017. We have listened to a few National Party speeches today. We had Tim Macindoe telling us that the Government is sticking to a plan that works—the Government is sticking to a plan that works. Well if the plan is to sell out New Zealand then it is doing a good job of it. If the plan is to sell out the most vulnerable New Zealanders then the Government is doing a good job of it. Mr Macindoe said that good public services do not necessarily mean expensive public services. Well actually $140000 for a TV screen at the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment Mr Macindoe is expensive in our minds. At least Mr Macindoe on this side of the House we want to put taxpayers’ money into people not into $140000 TV screens not into $74000 reception desks and not into $1000 seats for people to sit on. We want to put our public money into the New Zealand public.We listened to Scott Simpson saying that Labour likes to talk about “no”—that the word on this side of the House is “no”. They think that we are “no no no” to good ideas. But let us reflect on what National has said no to over the 7 years that it has been Government. When National first got in it said no to apprenticeships: “We can take money out of that. We don’t need that.” Then what happened? We had an earthquake and we did not have the expertise here. The Government had to ship it in. The Government said no to things like healthy food in our schools. One of the first things that the Government did was cut the policy of healthy food in our schools and now we see the Government struggling with the issue that we have with obesity and our children. Why did the Government remove that policy? We see the Government saying no to building houses in Auckland. There is a demand for housing in Auckland and that Government says no to new houses.That side of the House has said no to healthy homes. We put up a healthy homes bill and the Government said no to it. The Government does not care about the health and well-being of New Zealanders even when we have instances like the one we had recently where a small child died because of the fact that she was living in an unhealthy home.The Government said no to extending paid parental leave. The Government said no to the paid parental leave bill that my colleague Sue Moroney put up.A few years ago the Government said no to adult community education. It cut all the funding to adult community education which for many people was their first step back into the education system.The Government said no to the training incentive allowance not wanting to support sole parents to be able to increase their earning capacity—to increase their chances of getting a better-qualified higher-paying job.The Government recently said no to KiwiSaver thereby denying children who enter into the scheme the $1000 incentive. The Government says that we are the party of “no” but its track record says that it is the party of “no”.I think the whole country should be concerned aboutthe things that the Government has said yes to. It has said yes to foreign property speculators being able to buy our houses. Here we are with a housing market that it is difficult for New Zealand families to get into and the Government still allows non-residents non-citizens to come here and buy our New Zealand houses thereby driving the prices up and making it impossible for families to be able to get into their own home. The Government said yes to experimenting with our most vulnerable New Zealanders. The Government is now looking at introducing social impact bonds when there has been no research done here that qualifies or justifies the Government being able to implement them. The Government said yes to selling out our social services to big multinational corporations. On Sunday we had the Minister for Social Development on Q+A confirming that she would contemplate the idea of selling out our social services to a company like Serco which has an international reputation such that no New Zealander would be happy about handing their social services over to it.What else has the Government said yes to? It has said yes to the Conservative Party despite the fact that the whole board walked out on that party. The Government has said yes to asset sales. That was not a very good economic strategy. The Government has said yes to Rio Tinto. The Government has said yes to Nick Smith even. We have got all the evidence in the world to suggest that he is not doing a good job. The Government still says yes and we have the Prime Minister saying that Nick Smith is outstanding. We might be saying no to some of what the National Party is suggesting but we are justified in saying no to what it is doing. The Government is not justified in what it has said no to over the past 7 years.