Fairbrother Russell: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Fairbrother Russell: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14287] 
RUSSELL FAIRBROTHER (Labour) 
: 
 That is a joke—to say that we lack ambition for the future. Murray McCully clearly is a member who failed to listen to the Prime Minister’s address on Tuesday of this week. What an amazing address that was. It laid out—chapter and verse—the plan for the future and concentrated on just two things that I want to talk about today. Those two things are demonstrated by an area that I will be seeking to represent after the next election—the area of Wairoa. One of the key things that the Prime Minister announced on Tuesday was the support for community-based groups. There are five such groups in Wairoa that at present are subject to contract-based funding but they will be moving to grant-based funding whereby they can receive their money without the bureaucracy and the tedious accountability that is the lifeblood of the member opposite. These community groups from Wairoa will be able to contribute to the growth and resurgence we see in that town—a growth and resurgence that is reflected in the political leaders of the town: the mayor the council and the recently developed Wairoa Community Development Trust. 
The trust is the brainchild of the Mayor of Wairoa Les Probert who when he became mayor 6 years ago thought Wairoa was in the news for all the wrong reasons. He brought out some initiatives and was the driving force to bring around him eight or nine other very competent well-qualified people who have given their time freely to form the Wairoa Community Development Trust. Where is this leading to? It is leading to 21 and 22November this year when Wairoa will host a multi-sport challenge that New Zealand will be proud of: the Lake to Lighthouse Challenge. It is a distance of 177.5 kilometres involving running biking and kayaking through some of the most picturesque parts of the country—around the beautiful Lake Waikaremoana and biking through the hills to Ardkeen where they will get their kayaks down to the river to Wairoa then a final sprint to the lighthouse. The very fit international competitors may do it in 1 day. Most of the averagely fit people will take 2 days. The significance of this event is twofold. First Wairoa now has the confidence to launch such an international enterprise. The 21st and 22nd of November were chosen because they fit into the international sporting calendar. The organisers are confident that overseas athletes will attend. What will it achieve? It reflects the efforts of this Government being put into communities such as Wairoa which have reduced unemployment down to about 4 percent funded community-based organisations and turned Wairoa into a prosperous law-abiding town. 
The Wairoa Community Development Trust wants to lift the profile of Wairoa so that everybody in this country can see what a beautiful town it is so that the youth that go to a very good college in Wairoa will want to stay and so that employment is generated. Unemployment in the town will reduce even further under this very very good Government. That is the sort of plan that was outlined by our Prime Minister on Tuesday. Of all the subsequent speakers from the Opposition not one person has come forward with any policy that would suggest that Wairoa could do any better under any Government other than a Helen Clark - led Labour Government. I look forward to the future of Wairoa and to my continuing involvement with the town I have been closely associated with now for the past 25 years. 
Speaking about Wairoa takes me further south to the area of Napier and to its health problems. As I refer to Napier I congratulate Mr Chris Tremain on his elevation to the position of junior whip of the National Party. But surely it is a bitter-sweet accomplishment for him—and an accomplishment it certainly is. As he no doubt noticed when the elevation was announced and as Katherine Rich found out when one feels a knife in one’s back one knows the National Party caucus is right behind. Katherine Rich was the liberal spokesperson on social policy. She was the person who stood against bulk funding. Allan Peachey smiles that knowing grin because he knows he is pulling the strings that were predicted in the book he published—that scatological approach to educational development. The book deals with this adherence to bulk funding which is ripping off the taxpayer to build an empire in the education system. Allan Peachey came down to Napier before the 2005 election with his acolyte Chris Tremain who is now the junior whip and preached bulk funding to a hall full of about 15 people. They did not understand what he was saying but bulk funding was the message he wanted to introduce. Chris Tremain went round the various school unions and tried to sell bulk funding to the teachers. He was at one meeting that was a dismal failure because they just could not gain any enthusiasm for a scheme that came in under the National Party and was dispensed with in 1999 because it was an absolute dismal educational failure. 
Schools such as those in Wairoa will suffer from bulk funding. Decile 2 and 3 schools in Napier will suffer because of bulk funding. Bulk funding is the enemy of National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). This is the real secret that the National Party is refusing to discuss. They have brought in the legions of soldiers headed by Anne Tolley a previous spokesperson on education who said that decile funding for low-decile schools was a waste of money. She is on the record as saying that lower-decile schools in the area she now represents—unfortunately there are too many now and they will never improve their decile rating under a National Government—are receiving too much money and that pouring money into them is a waste of time. That is the secret behind the bulk funding agenda of Mr Peachey as he puts up his puppet Anne Tolley to become the temporary spokesperson on education for the National Party. Bulk funding is a failure and will undermine NCEA which is lifting the educational achievement of students in our community throughout this country. 
The other thing we heard about in the Prime Minister’s statement on Tuesday was the move to affordable housing. Wairoa is a good example of the need for affordable housing. One can buy houses in Wairoa for under $100000. One can buy houses in Wairoa for under $90000. One can buy houses in Wairoa for under $70000. One can house one’s family in Wairoa for $60000. That is not because the houses are inferior the town is not one of the prettiest in the country or the opportunities for fishing hunting sport and a good lifestyle do not exist but because the low economic development of the East Coast under the National Party drove people away and there are now too many houses in Wairoa for the people seeking to buy them. Wairoa is a classic example of what the Government will achieve with its housing policy of increasing the supply of housing. Of course we know that those people who make money out of rising house prices sit on the other side of this Chamber. The property speculators property developers and people who for a profession sell houses make money out of rising prices. They need a scarce house supply. They need plenty of mortgage money. They need overseas money coming into our banks to lend out to people to over-commit themselves on buying houses in order to keep up those prices. We will put an end to that by bringing back affordable housing to New Zealand. We are doing that in innovative ways. I notice that not one of the speakers on the other side whom I have heard has dared attack the detail of the policy outlined by the Prime Minister on Tuesday—and a very good policy it is. 
The other thing I will speak about on the bitter-sweet ascension of the junior whip to his present position is the way he criticises his own. In the paper this week he has been leading a campaign along with his colleague the Hong Kong investment banker—the carpetbagger into Hastings and MP for Tukituki Craig Foss—criticising the chairman and board of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board for misappropriating money. They are claiming that against all statutory demands and letters and instruction from the Minister of Health the district health board chaired by one of their own is spending— 
Chris Tremain 
: Authorised by your Minister. 
RUSSELL FAIRBROTHER 
: Yes indeed. A document prepared and signed off by that very man. That is my whole point. The document was signed off by Kevin Atkinson and the district health board wants to spend the proceeds from the sale of the Napier Hospital for the deficit. There should not be a deficit. The Hawke’s Bay District Health Board has the same amount of funding on a population basis as all district health boards in the country. But of course they want to develop the private sector health and they want to ruin public health in Hawke’s Bay. They want to breed discontent. They want people in Hawke’s Bay to feel insecure and uncertain about the health services. 
If one speaks to a person who goes to the Hawke’s Bay Hospital one learns that he or she leaves that hospital in glowing terms. The nursing staff is excitingly competent. The doctors are specialists. The services patients receive are first class. Those who travel from Napier spend just 12 minutes doing that. Where in Auckland can one travel from one extreme to the hospital in 12 minutes during peak hours? One can in Hawke’s Bay so what do members grizzle about that for? What that man is doing is spreading the fear that that money will be used against the law to prop up a deficit run up by his cronies. [ 
Interruption 
] Of course it is because that is a document prepared by that member’s own board cronies. That is exactly right and that is against the statute; he is exactly right on that. That is money the board should not have spent and money it will have to account for. One cannot siphon off for deficit funding money meant for capital expenditure. So Chris Tremain is criticising his own team—the people who back him. He is running them down for their incompetence in running a district health board. We need good administrators at our district health board in Hawke’s Bay. We need a district health board that is run by visionaries who are dedicated to public health not those who want to make profit out of misery.