Parker David: General Debate 
Parker David: General Debate 
[Volume:667;Page:14647] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 The Labour-led Opposition makes no apology for bringing forward policies that are in the interests of New Zealanders and we make that promise to New Zealanders. That is what Phil Goff did in the weekend. He showed New Zealanders that he is willing to take decisions that are in the interests of all New Zealanders and New Zealanders are starting to see that. They are contrasting that with this Government’s income tax cuts which the previous speaker was trying to defend 40 percent of which go to the top 10 percent of income earners and 70 percent of which go to the top one-third. That is the sort of unfairness that Labour stands against. 
I want to talk about what has changed. What has changed is the substantial change in the world since the global financial crisis. What has changed in response from National to those major changes in the world since the global financial crisis? 
Hon Annette King 
: Nothing. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: As Annette King says nothing or virtually nothing—nothing of substance. One thing that has become abundantly clear since the global financial crisis is that we have huge trade imbalances in the world. China Germany and a few other countries are running enormous trade surpluses there are countries that have an enormous amount of spare cash and other Western countries like New Zealand various countries in Europe and the United States are running big deficits. Our assets if they are not properly controlled for the interests of New Zealanders are at risk of being sold to overseas interests in a way that would undermine New Zealand’s productive base. That is why Labour says that the current paradigm is wrong. 
The existing discretions for the Minister for Land Information to turn down land purchases are very large. I know because I was the prior Minister and I admit that I had the discretion to turn down more than I did. I was the Minister and I admit that I had wide discretion to turn down those sales and by and large I did not. By and large I did not and we were wrong; the discretions are too wide. The ministerial discretion needs to be narrowed so that land assets can be owned by New Zealanders for New Zealanders so that those land assets are kept at prices that New Zealanders can afford and so that there is a reason for young New Zealanders to stay in New Zealand to work hard and to save hard in the knowledge that if they do so successfully they will be able to move from being a sharemilker to a farmer. They will be able to save and have a stake in the New Zealand economy. We do not want to live in the kind of country that National is happy to see develop where New Zealanders increasingly have to inherit wealth or be overseas owners in order to buy our productive assets. This is partly an economic argument but is also an argument about the sort of country we want to live in. 
I ask why the Government would want to have the right to sell infrastructure assets. We do not think that is in the interests of New Zealand; we say that the Minister should not have the discretion to sell infrastructure with monopoly characteristics to overseas buyers. 
Government members do not know where they are. They said that Labour is Stalinist but there has been no change. They said that they could not understand the strategic asset sense but they have kept it. They were going to liberalise rules but 18 months after taking office they have neither liberalised them nor as they also said they would do simplified them. The Government is on the wrong side of this debate. Labour will govern for the interests of all New Zealanders—the many not the few. We do not want a country where only people who inherit wealth can afford to buy our productive assets; we want a country where those assets are priced for the benefit of New Zealanders not for the interests of banks selling at mortgagee sale and not for the interests of overseas owners. 
This Government inherited a good financial position. It had some of the lowest Government debt in the world. Its income tax cuts have been so over the top that not only has it had to borrow for them but it has Government debt going up to high levels. The Government inherited that good position but its debt position is getting substantially worse. The changes Labour proposes—and this is why the Government is so rattled—are ones that New Zealanders know are right.