Horomia Parekura: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Horomia Parekura: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:670;Page:16533] 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA (Labour—Ikaroa-Rawhiti) 
: 
 That was a very interesting speech from the previous speaker Tim Groser. There were some very interesting points in there about shoring up the votes. He takes the flip side of the pain and poverty that is being felt by a lot of families in this country and decries more tax or whatever else. When one has ideologies that mean that 82 percent of the tax cuts recently given went to 3 percent of the people in this country one has to ask what that is about. What is that about when we are talking about balancing the books and whatever else? That is about looking after a certain clique and making sure that it travels through. 
It was very interesting that he talked about power prices. There has been a haphazard return to the 9 years of Labour—the problem supposedly is the 9 years of Labour. Let us talk about the power prices that he talked about in relation to the figure of 9 percent. Is it not funny that Genesis Energy recently increased its prices to consumers in Gisborne by 10 percent? That came on top of the 2.5 percent rise in GST. Genesis Energy is about to raise the price again by 2.7 percent. Doing the maths quickly in a very short time the price will be nearly double the increases that the previous speaker purported had happened under the last Labour Government. That is not counting all the other times it has happened. At the moment it is a bit like cuckoo-land and like the king with no clothes. National members are saying that everything is great that all these jobs are going to manifest out of space and out of the fog that we will all be happy chappies and that we should just trust the Government. 
There was so much talk about the national cycleway. I say that the only bike that will be parked up around here in November is the one that the previous speaker Mr Groser will get on and leave that building. Then he will be back here sitting on this side of the Chamber. 
What are the costs and what are the realities for people? With these sorts of rises in power prices the old people will not turn on their heaters over winter. They will snuggle up in the blankets to get warm. We heard a lapdog speech from that member opposite in the sense of sucking up to the Prime Minister along with that lot over there knowing full well that they have achieved the 90-day employment legislation that is stymying people’s rights. It has cost a lot of our people their jobs. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Oh rubbish! 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: Tau Henare knows that. In my electorate the average wage is $15000. It does not even come close to the $24000 figure. National members want to huff and puff about the unemployment rate. When the previous National Government moved off the Treasury benches it left behind a 28 percent unemployment rate. In some places around this country like Wairoa and parts of Hastings unemployment is 50 percent. Members should ask Craig Foss and Mr Tremain about that rate. It is high and Craig Foss knows that. Members should then ask Mr Foss—because I know it pains him and I respect him for that—about the closure of the small businesses in Hastings and Napier at the moment. They total nearly 32.  
If the Prime Minister’s statement is supposed to be a platform of policy that gives surety to small and medium sized business then something is going chronically wrong in Napier and Hastings I tell Mr Foss. Even the good old latte drinkers are suffering from a 3 percent rise. Coffee has gone up 15 percent. Poor people do not even have the chance to have a go at that. 
One of the most fascinating debates out there is about the great Public Service. National members create all this doom and gloom. They slip out of the framework of proper budgeting and decent fiscals and instead make people poorer make people suffer and make them miss out. If we go to the chemist in Camberley at the moment or the chemist in Kaiti and have a look at all the bloody medication that people— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: Order! 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: I am sorry Mr Assistant Speaker. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: Your speech will be terminated if you are going to use that language. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: The Assistant Speaker should have a look at the bottles of medication that are piled up there that people cannot afford to collect. It is a disgrace. Members should go to Wairoa and go to the chemist. That is what they will see. That is how we can measure things. 
Simon Bridges 
: Why aren’t you sitting over here? 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: That is how we can measure things. That is why I am sitting in this seat and that member is still sitting on the backbenches on the other side. He will learn these things as he goes along as I did in Government for 9 years. That is why I am sitting here and the member is sitting there. 
At the end of the day that is the sort of pain the Government has been inflicting on our people. It is a shocker. The fact that the Maori Party signed up to the 90-day legislation which punishes the freezing workers and all of those other people is quite dippy. The previous National Government left us with 28 percent unemployment. Labour brought it down to 4 percent. National members should put that in their pipe and smoke it. Labour brought it down to 4 percent and generated skills. When this Government came in it cut in half the money for skills and training. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Rubbish! 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: Oh yes it did. Rents have increased by 9.5 percent. Rates have increased by 9.3 percent. Doctors’ fees are up by 6.5 percent. Early childhood education costs have risen. The price of petrol has risen. I filled up the car the other day and it cost $141. Boo hoo hoo! How is the average family going to manage that? That is success? This economic adjustment is causing most people to be scared about their jobs.  
The previous speaker in a mean-spirited way said we should not Mondayise public holidays. Let us not care about the people. Why was every embassy in this city representing other countries closed yesterday? They gave their staff a holiday. Do members know why? It is because we have a mean-spirited Government that believes that the people do not deserve an extra break. It would not hurt the majority of companies. We have the highest price being paid at the moment for stock in this country. We have the highest return on logs for 16 years in this country. The milk butterfat price is up higher than it has ever been. It is nearly double. That is good but what is happening with the wealth? Who is sharing it? 
A lot of parents have been through agony and pain. The ones I talked to over the last 2 weeks cannot afford their kids’ school uniforms. What is that about? That is real stuff. That is also about people wondering about what they should eat. They buy more spuds than anything else. It is an indictment on this Government. 
The tertiary institutions are announcing an increase of 4 percent. The universities have capped the entries. Guess who suffers? Guess who misses out? It is the Maoris and Pacific Islanders. It is all right for the balding eagles who sit around whose policies pervade this country and who believe they are helping people. Early childhood education costs are going up. A lot of the kids are not getting the early childhood education support. The Minister of Labour said a very interesting thing about the labour market. She said the 90-day bill was the principal platform that would help. So we have all the skill sets being cut. Labour is clear on developing skills on training and on ensuring that our economy is much like the Australian economy and that our people stop jumping over the ditch to live there. 
Why are they leaving? One of the things we often heard in this Chamber when the current Prime Minister was in Opposition was that everybody was leaving to go to Australia. He has forgotten that tune. More people have moved to Australia in the last 2 years than moved in any of the last 18 years. What does that tell us? 
Hon Dr Wayne Mapp 
: Rubbish! 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: The member who interjects wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on putting skyrockets on ships and planes. That is what he wants to do. He wants to waste taxpayers’ money on bombarding other people. He is in cuckoo-land. He wants to go to war. At the moment the Government is warring on the people in this country. It is making them poorer. He does not want the Government to give money to support the social services; he wants to put skyrockets on warships and on tanks and to play “boys’ army” with them. That is a disgrace; it really is. The member should reconsider that stuff. 
I know that Mr Foss is dying to get up and explain why small and medium sized businesses in Hawke’s Bay and Napier are closing down. He can explain why the unemployment rate in Wairoa is between 40 and 50 percent and why in those areas the people do not know how they are going to pay the bills over the next week. 
National members think they can use their old trick of gutting the Public Service. Good old Public Service we do not need it! But if the Government inflicts more bills on people and puts more people into the poverty trap then it will need the services of those professionals and everybody else to help those people along the way. 
National has a policy for saving money: put skyrockets on the blinking frigates and close down the Public Service. What a mess!