Goff Phil: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Goff Phil: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:670;Page:16499] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 In my time I have sat through a few Prime Ministers’ speeches on their statements but that would be the worst. That would be the worst. That was a do-nothing speech from a do-nothing Government that has sat on the sidelines while New Zealand has gone backwards. Do members know that the Prime Minister’s big claim to fame was when he began that speech? It was the Rugby World Cup 2011—all his own work! Helen Clark and Trevor Mallard got the Rugby World Cup for New Zealand. We will win that cup—and Labour was responsible for getting it. 
I remember when a year ago the Prime Minister came into the House for the same occasion. He promised us something. He said that New Zealand would come aggressively out of recession—aggressively out of recession. I was watching the Prime Minister on television yesterday morning. Do members know what he said? He said that he could not rule out that New Zealand was slipping back into recession. Mr Key and his Government have been in office for 2¼ years and Mr Key and his Government are responsible for this country going backwards. He came up with all sorts of figures. They say there are lies damn lies and statistics. Let us have a look at them. 
The Prime Minister said that the rate of participation in early childhood education under Labour had hardly moved forward. Well in due course I will seek to table the document I am holding. It shows that the rate of Pasifika participation in early childhood education went up nearly 10 percent. During the last few months I have been going around the early childhood centres for our Maori Pasifika and Pakeha kids and people there are saying that Mr Key’s Government is forcing up costs while dropping the quality. In the last week mums and dads were paying $25 a week more for their little ones to have quality early childhood education—and that is Mr Key’s work. Every year under Labour participation went up. 
Mr Key tried to tell us that everyone was better off. The figures on wages came out last week. There was a 1.7 percent increase in wages in the last calendar year 2010. The figures on inflation came out before that and they show a 4 percent increase in prices last year. What is it that the Prime Minister does not understand about the fact that prices went up at twice the rate of wages last year? Then he came out yesterday with a big increase for people on the minimum wage—the vulnerable he said. He said he would stand up for the vulnerable. Do members know what he gave the vulnerable yesterday? He gave them 25c an hour—25c an hour from the man who took $1000 a week from his own tax cuts. He says he stands up for the vulnerable and he gave them 25c an hour. 
I wonder about those vulnerable people in McGehan Close and the vulnerable little girl whom he exploited by taking her up to Waitangi. Where is she where is her family and why did Mr Key not front up on television on Friday night to explain to the people of McGehan Close why their power prices were up why their petrol prices were up why their food prices were up and why they were worse off? He would not front up to answer their challenges. He exploited the little girl for Waitangi Day 3 years ago but he will not front up just as he did not front up to the Pike River families and give them the news that he was not going to see the recovery of the bodies. That is what the families told me. They said the Government would spend $400000 on Television New Zealand so it could cover the great man’s speech but that when the hard decisions had to be made no one from the Government was to be seen. Those decisions were passed off to the coal company to the receivers of the company and to the police— 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: Making it up again. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: —and Mr Brownlee knows it. 
The economy of New Zealand has stalled. Unemployment figures I say to Mr Key are up 8000. Mr Key and Ms Bennett told us that they had peaked a year ago but they were up 8000. Seven hundred New Zealanders—700 Kiwi breadwinners—joined the unemployment scrap heap each week over the last 3 months. What does Mr Key say? He said they were old figures. I say to Mr Key that they were the latest figures to 31 December 2010. Then he said it was just a survey. Well New Zealand has relied on that survey for 25 years as the most accurate portrayal of what is happening in terms of unemployment. 
Let us look at those figures. He talks about the weak and the vulnerable. I ask Mr Key why it is satisfactory that one school-leaver in four goes out of school and on to the unemployment scrap heap—one school-leaver in four. The Prime Minister talks about the vulnerable but what about teenage Maori girls? One in two goes out of school and on to the unemployment scrap heap. What about the Youth Guarantee? What was the Youth Guarantee about? Our young people should be either learning or earning I say to Mr Key. One in four of them should not be going on to the unemployment scrap heap. 
I listened to the stuff about welfare reform; Mr Key wants them to work. Mr Key should look at the front page of the  
Waikato Times 
 from Saturday. The headline states: “Where are the jobs?”. I believe in welfare reform I say to Mr Key. The best type of welfare reform is to have jobs that people can go to. He is chasing around after the people whom he and his Minister for Social Development and Employment would like to call bludgers but what about Petarina Slater? She is on the front page of that paper. She has had 150 job interviews and she has been turned down every time. People in my electorate understand that. There were 150 jobs available in a supermarket with 2500 people chasing them. 
I want to know why Australia could create 1000 jobs a day last year when New Zealand went backwards. Was it not the boast of the Prime Minister that we would catch up with Australia? Was that not the boast of the Prime Minister? The Prime Minister will say: “But they have minerals.” Mr Key knows that our dairy prices our lamb prices our beef prices our forestry prices and our wool prices have never been higher than they are today. That money is rolling into New Zealand but where is the plan for employment? We have had enough of the gimmicks: the Job Summit and the cycleway. In the last quarter 7000 or 8000 people joined the unemployment queues and Mr Key’s cycleway created 200 jobs—200 jobs. 
We want a plan from this Government that would see people back at work. Why does the Government not listen to Sir Paul Callaghan New Zealander of the Year? Paul stood up and asked why with our “clean green” brand for New Zealand we would follow a plan to mine our national parks. Why did National waste 2 years on a plan that would have destroyed and undermined our image when it should have been talking about using brain power—high-skill high-tech and high-wage? 
I say to Mr Key that I go to the cleantech industries and they ask what this Government is doing. It is the fastest-growing area in the world. PricewaterhouseCoopers says we could earn at least $8 billion a year from cleantech. And what is this Government doing? In 2 years it has set up a committee. It is a little bit like savings is it not? We know we need to save in order to invest in our future. National had 9 years in Opposition to work out a plan for saving. It has had 2 years in Government. After 9 years in Opposition and 2 years in Government it has set up a committee. It is not good enough I say to Mr Key. It is not good enough by a long run to have 158000 of our fellow New Zealanders out of work. There is no plan from the Government to do anything about it. 
Then there is the question of prices and wages. How can people possibly be better off I ask Mr Key when prices have gone up by 4 percent and wages have gone up by 1.7 percent? Mr Key said in his speech that incomes had gone up. Well I listened to Statistics New Zealand representatives and what did they say? They said that median income fell last year. Median income fell last year I tell Mr Key. New Zealanders are not better off. The Government has ignored the middle-income earners of New Zealand. At best middle-income earners stood still. Most of them went backwards. 
The Government has forced low-income people below the poverty line. The only people who benefited from the National Government’s tax swindle were the top 10 percent who got most of the money. That is the truth. [ 
Interruption 
] That is the truth and Mr Key knows it. The people who go through the supermarket checkouts know it and they will not listen to the National Government’s spin on this issue. They know when they are not better off because of the policies of this Government. 
Mr Key talked about the block of cheese. Do members remember the block of cheese? I ask Mr Key how much that costs now. Does the Prime Minister have any idea? 
Rt Hon John Key 
: Less. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: “Less.” he said. It has gone up 20 percent in the last year—20 percent in the last year. What about food prices? They have gone up 5 percent in the last year. What about power prices? I have constituents who have come to me and said they have had two letters from their power company in the last 4 months: one on 1 October when Mr Key’s Government pushed up the price with GST and the emissions trading scheme and another one last week to say that the power prices are going up again. 
The great plan of the Government to solve our problems is to slash spending on health and education and to sell off our assets. I wonder what the private sector investors will do when they have bought up our power companies. [ 
Interruption 
] The National members say they are going to the mums and dads. What about the mums and dads who cannot put money together to save because of the rising cost of living? They will lose ownership of our assets. They will gain nothing. 
Do members know what happened to the Contact Energy shares that National promised for the mums and dads? Those shares went to the big corporates. They have ended up with the big corporates. And not only that I tell Mr Key they have ended up in the hands of foreigners. Most of the $1.5 billion in dividends from Contact Energy does not go back to New Zealanders who once owned it; it goes overseas. That money is going overseas. It makes our country worse off. 
Recently I read a newspaper article by an economist. He was asking where Mr Key is at in thinking it makes sense to sell the assets. Where is he at? The economist says we pay 5.5 percent on the debt and we get a 7.3 percent return on the investment. How does it make business sense to sell off our assets? What is the Prime Minister’s next trick when he has sold them? And he can sell them only once and we will not get them back. Oh hang on! We might get them back. I recall being a member of a Labour Government that had to buy back Air New Zealand and New Zealand Rail. Do members remember the National members talking about selling Air New Zealand and the private sector— 
Hon Simon Power 
: You sold Air New Zealand. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: Yes but we learnt. We learnt but this National Government has learnt nothing. Labour did not sell a single asset in the fifth Labour Government. For 9 years we did not sell those assets. We had to buy them back. When National sold New Zealand Rail to Mr Fay and Mr Richwhite they asset stripped it. They ran it into the ground. It was sold at bargain-basement prices by a National Government and we had to buy it back. I say to this Government: “Go to the electorate in November this year and talk about selling assets—because you will listen to what New Zealanders are saying.” 
Last week Mr Key arrogantly said that he did not care what New Zealanders thought. Is that not what the member said? 
Rt Hon John Key 
: No. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: Well maybe we will table the transcript. He said that he did not care what New Zealanders thought. But New Zealanders care deeply about a Government selling assets that New Zealanders own. They care about the assets and the benefits that come back to us. Then there was that other issue: farmland. I heard something that Mr Key said that I agreed with. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: What? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: Well that is not totally surprising. He said that New Zealanders should not be tenants in their own land. I wonder why German interests bought up in the last couple of weeks $100 million worth of dairy farms—more than that country had spent in the 5 years previously. We are losing those assets. I wonder whether the National Government will stop the Chinese consortium from buying up the Crafar farms. I wonder whether it will do that. 
I say to Mr Key that yesterday I went to Rotorua and met with a big forestry company. Does he know what they said to me? They said that what they were really worried about was whether the American interests that own the cutting rights to the forests would think it was more profitable to sell the logs overseas without processing them in New Zealand rather than keep the 290 jobs that the company provides for people in Rotorua. That is what New Zealand enterprise is worried about. This Government has mouthed the words and the rhetoric but it has done nothing about the sell-off of New Zealand to overseas interests. 
This Government has failed. It has failed to create growth it has failed to bring unemployment down it has failed to keep people’s incomes ahead of the cost of living and it has failed to make New Zealand a more equal and a fairer place. For 9 years a Labour Government reversed the trend to a more unequal country and we treated New Zealanders inclusively. We brought in the Working for Families package and there were decent rises in the minimum wage. But Mr Key has turned the clock back to make this country less fair less equal with fewer opportunities for every New Zealander to make the most of what he or she can contribute to this country. 
After 2¼ years this is Mr Key’s responsibility and this election will be about restoring to New Zealanders a fair go making sure that people pay a fair share and get a fair share in return and making sure we do not attack the vulnerable—our children at early childhood education whose parents are paying higher fees; adults who want second-chance education in adult and community education; and the old people from whom Mr Key has taken the home care that enabled them to live in dignity in their own homes. There will be a Labour-led Government and we will return fairness to New Zealand. We will return growth living standards and jobs to this country.