Dalziel Lianne: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Dalziel Lianne: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:670;Page:16563] 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Labour—Christchurch East) 
: 
 I was very disappointed in the Prime Minister’s statement because it confirmed to me that the pre-2005 election promise about being ambitious for New Zealand had really turned out to be the empty slogan I thought it was. I always thought they were empty words that he never was ambitious for New Zealand—he was certainly ambitious for John Key but he was not ambitious for New Zealand. 
I should be grateful because of course this makes our task easier as an Opposition determined to win back the confidence of New Zealand and to restore the principles of fairness that underpin our way of life. The New Zealand way of life is actually about those principles of fairness. That is what we believe in as a nation and that is what we need to have restored. I am not grateful however because I see the consequences for so many people that I am privileged to represent in this House of the betrayal that this National Government has represented to those who put trust in it. I see the people in the supermarket struggling with the reality of the tax switch that was not a switch for them at all. They are paying more and they are getting no more than they were getting before in their hands. John Key told them that not one person would be worse off as a result of the tax switch. That is why we can say it was a tax swindle because it was not capable of delivering what he said. 
I have to say that a lot of people in Christchurch East when they hear that nobody will be worse off after this tax switch have the riposte yeah right! They are not only the people we would expect me to be talking about—the lower socioeconomic group. I am talking right to middle New Zealand when I say that they are feeling the pain at the till the pain at the pump and the pain when they pay for their power. I am talking about those people who do not feel better off since 15 percent became the new GST rate and when National decided to squander over 40 percent of the tax cuts on only 10 percent of New Zealand’s highest-income earners. 
I ask members to talk to homeowners in one of the five particularly damaged suburbs in my electorate and to ask them what they think of the Prime Minister’s reassuring words now 5 months after the earthquake has occurred. He and all the Ministers who were so happy to parade through the streets of my electorate when there were photo opportunities to be had are now nowhere to be seen. 
Gerry Brownlee will make a statement tomorrow or the next day about what the Government will do for those whose alternative accommodation funding has run out. Guess what has brought on this sudden burst of energy from the Minister of Energy? Guess what has done that? The first group of people to run out of money will run out of money in 3 weeks’ time. Three weeks’ time! It is absolutely disgraceful that he has kept all of those people on tenterhooks for month after month after month knowing that the first ones would run out when their 6 months’ period after the earthquake was up. It is absolutely outrageous. 
I have been asked by many constituents to lobby the Government for choices to be made available. What does one say to the 80-year-old who stands up at a public meeting and asks whether they will still be alive when their house is rebuilt in 3 to 4 years’ time? What does one say to somebody in that situation? What about the couples who have split up and their mutual ownership of a wrecked property is holding them back from getting on with their lives? These are cases I have written to the Minister about. One knows that something needs to be done when people need to move to another job and to another town. What do they do with the equity in their land when they have to walk away from their land in the meantime? It is clear that those circumstances require some form of intervention. 
I have said to the Government that it does not have to be funded by the taxpayer or the ratepayer or by either of them alone. Maybe there is a private sector solution that could be facilitated or maybe even a public-private partnership. We hear the Government talking about it so here is a classic example of where we could get everyone working together and singing off the same song sheet. But I am very fearful that nothing will happen and we will see something that is evidenced internationally in situations like that which is called desertification. The house is bowled the cash settlement is taken from the insurer and then the empty section is sold later on. What does that look like for the people remaining in their houses in the meantime while the suburb is being rebuilt? 
I arranged for a local group called Project Employment and Environmental Enhancement to come and tidy up some of the frontages of the abandoned properties in Seabreeze Close and Pacific Park but it is a major task and it needs ongoing attention. I wonder whether the Prime Minister has been back to look at the mess in Seabreeze Close. He was certainly happy to front up with the television cameras but I wonder whether he is willing to front up now. In fact I challenge the Prime Minister of New Zealand to come back without the cameras and see how the people are feeling now 5 months on after the earthquake. But if he has to bring the cameras then maybe that would be a good thing. There are a few things those constituents would like to say to the Prime Minister who is happy to be there at the time of the event but not happy to front up when times are getting tougher. 
The trouble with the Prime Minister is simply this: during his first few weeks as Prime Minister he earned himself the nickname “Mr Smile and Wave”. No matter what the circumstances he just smiles and waves. He seems to think that everything can be managed with comforting words a reassuring hug a warm handshake and a smile that never quite makes it to the eyes. But that is not leadership. That is not how one delivers an ambitious agenda for the country and it certainly does not do anything for my constituents in Christchurch East. 
I wrote a book review on Red Alert about a book I had read over the break called  
The Gods that Failed: How the Financial Elite Have Gambled Away Our Futures 
. The original version of the book was called  
The Gods that Failed: 
How Blind Faith in Markets Has Cost Us Our Future 
. The metaphor within the narrative of that book is inspired by the 12 gods of ancient Greece who lived on Mount Olympus. Elliot and Atkinson have styled the super-financiers and the international organisations—the central banks the International Monetary Fund the World Bank—the “New Olympians” and the 12 gods of the modern Mount Olympus are globalisation communication liberalisation privatisation competition “financialisation” speculation recklessness greed arrogance oligarchy and excess. 
One of the last chapters in that book is called “Last Tango on Wall Street” which has a very simple explanation of how the “New Olympians”—and that is the Prime Minister’s background—found ways to make money out of nothing creating securitised financial products like collateralised debt obligations out of the subprime market and then hiding the risk behind triple A rated institutions. The “New Olympians” made personal fortunes as we know with bonuses they never had to repay when it all turned to custard and they were happy to see the taxpayers of the world pick up the tab for their multitrillion-dollar insanity. The financial elite referred to in this book do not create wealth; they amass wealth for themselves personally and their mates. 
The book reminded me of a comment I made about John Key when he was Leader of the Opposition. The only difference between a gambler and a money market trader is that a gambler is a money market trader who has lost his or her edge. I guess that is why he has retired from that chapter in his life but the instinct is still there. It is no wonder he wants New Zealand to be the Wall Street of the Asia-Pacific. He wants to sell our country’s assets to the financial elite he left behind—and make no mistake that that is exactly whose hands it will end up in. I do not know about members but I do not know any mums and dads who sit around the kitchen table wondering when the Government will allow them to invest in assets they already own. The mum and dads I know are sitting around the kitchen table trying to work out how to make their budget stretch to the end of the week. There is an old saying that to make real money one needs to make real things and that is what New Zealand need to be doing as a nation.