Street Maryan: General Debate 
Street Maryan: General Debate 
[Volume:673;Page:19383] 
Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 I too would like to add my words of concern and express the fact that my heart goes out to the people of Christchurch as they wrestle yet again with more damage and disruption. I would also like to pay a tribute to Kevin Hague for his speech a few moments ago which I endorse completely. I thank him for bringing that subject to the House. 
Today I want to talk about the fact that families are cracking under the strain of increasing prices and the increasing cost of living in New Zealand. The cost of fresh fruit and vegetables has gone up by 17 percent between May 2010 and May of this year—17 percent. It is 16.9 percent to be accurate as I do not wish to exaggerate. People are not getting ahead under this Government. They are falling behind. I am doing a cost of living survey in Nelson at the moment. People are quick to fill it out. They want the Government to know how hard they are finding things. They want the Government to say what its plans are for relief from these incessant increases in everything that people require to provide for their families from food to fuel. Let me give the House some of the results to date out of the returns on my cost of living survey. In Nelson 88 percent say that their household income is more stretched than it was 3 years ago 60 percent have put off visiting a doctor because of the cost 82 percent expect stronger action by the Government on rising power prices 79 percent worry about whether they can save anything for their retirement and 93 percent think the Government is out of touch on cost of living issues. 
Let me quote a Nelson resident who responded to a Facebook entry of mine recently—and there is a place for Facebook despite Mr Finlayson’s condescension. She said “I haven’t been to the doctor for over a year as my husband has to go a lot. We cannot afford for both and I should be going every 3 to 6 months. It’s funny because people say we must spend our money on junk and going out all time. I don’t remember the last time we went out. My hubby and I talk a lot about how things used to be before the Nats got their way. We had sort of a life. You know when the costs get bad when your kids are asking to buy the things we used to buy. Why don’t we do the things we used to do?”. The Government is certainly out of touch with this Nelson family’s situation and there are plenty more people where they come from. 
Let us look at the distribution of food parcels in Nelson which is a place most people associate with sunshine and an abundance of good primary food products. In March of last year 168 food parcels were distributed; in March of this year 247 were distributed. In April of last year it was 148 food parcels; in April of this year it was 213. In May of last year it was 181 food parcels; in May of this year it was 223. Families are going backwards under this Government. This is nothing short of scandalous. The Government thinks Labour’s policy promise to take the full 15 percent of GST off fresh fruit and vegetables is comical. I tell this House that that will make a difference to the family I have just quoted. It will make a difference to families like them. This Government is in fact making no effort for hard-working families who are struggling to get by. It has given the lion’s share of the tax cuts to the wealthy while constantly cutting away at middle and low-income Kiwis. There is no point in Government members saying they gave tax cuts to low and middle income earners beneficiaries and superannuitants. All of those people know that their tax cuts were gobbled up by the increase in GST. 
There is no plan to contain power prices. The Government simply wants to sell off power companies so that we have no levers to use to get power prices down. There is no plan to create jobs. There is simply the repetition of a number in the Budget. There is no plan and no demonstration about which sectors of the economy will be used to provide these jobs. There is no plan to improve New Zealanders’ standards of living. There is no vision for a better New Zealand. The Government is working for its wealthy friends and for foreign interests not for hard-working Kiwi families. That is why this Government has to go in November.