Williams Andrew: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williams Andrew: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Sitting date: 26 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3370. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First) 
: 
 I take a call on behalf of New Zealand First on the Appropriation (2011/12 Supplementary Estimates) Bill and the Imprest Supply (First for 2012/13) Bill. We heard from the member from Dipton otherwise known as the “Double-dipper from Dipton” and what a disappointing speech—what a disappointing speech. New Zealanders are increasingly feeling that this Government seems to be just rearranging the deckchairs on the  
Titanic 
. Basically it is just playing around on the fringes playing around on the edges but at the end of the day really not making a quantum change for New Zealand to take New Zealand forward to grow the pie to grow the economy to grow jobs to grow opportunities in New Zealand and to grow business in New Zealand. The Government is just rearranging the deckchairs on the  
Titanic 
. 
The National Government inherited 7 or 8 years of surpluses and immediately—immediately—took this country into deficit. It started with an $8 billion debt—it started with an $8 billion debt—and today we are in excess of $52 billion some 3½ years later. How does anyone run a company how does anyone run a household how does anyone run anything where you take the debt from $8 billion to $52 billion - plus in 3½ years? The Government is not even saying that that is the end of it. The Government is saying that there is worse to come—in another 2 or 3 years we will be over $70 billion in debt. It is no wonder New Zealanders are increasingly saying: “What have we let loose here—what have we let loose here? A Government that basically really is inept.” 
The Government keeps promising that front-line services will not be cut and there is all this rhetoric about front-line services not being cut. And yet week by week all we hear about is more 0800 numbers being started up by the various Government departments and ministries and more and more call centres being set up half of which I do not think are even in New Zealand to service the needs of New Zealanders. I have constituents who say that now they wait on the telephone for 45 minutes to try to get a response from a department and that is what this Government has provided for New Zealanders. If they have a problem with the Housing New Zealand Corporation if they have a problem with Work and Income if they have a problem with ACC they sit and they wait and they wait and they wait on the 0800 number and if they are lucky they will get somebody on the end of the line. 
That is what this Government is doing. Does this Government care about that—does this Government care about that? I do not think so. The Government says that it is changing the way that the economy is run and it is changing the way the figures are controlled but most of it is just moving things into things like 0800 call centres so basically the services of New Zealand are in decline. It also seems to be very hypocritical because on the one hand it says that everyone must tighten their belts everyone must take cuts— 
Mike Sabin 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member made reference to the word “hypocritical”. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: No no. He did not. He said that it was hypocritical. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS 
: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. As I was saying quite rightly it is hypocritical of this Government to ask for everyday good New Zealanders to tighten their belts and make cuts and sacrifice services whilst for instance the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet just balloons out in terms of the costs. From a relatively small staff under the former administration look at the huge swell in numbers in the Prime Minister’s department. I understand that there are now floors and floors of people there servicing the Prime Minister. Hundreds of people are servicing the Prime Minister basically when in former administrations there was a fraction of that number. Large numbers of security guards and spooks follow around behind the Prime Minister even going to Hawaii on holiday with him—even going to Hawaii. Who would even know who John Key is in Hawaii? Nobody would even know the man. Nobody would even recognise the man—he would not even be known. But no he has to take his private spooks along paid for by the New Zealand taxpayer so that while he is lying around a swimming pool with his wife and children while he is having a lovely time in Hawaii he looks important. When he goes down to the cafe and the coffee shop he has these guys with all these wires hanging out of their ears so that he can look important when he walks into the restaurant so that if he just happens to meet his mate Obama down at some restaurant he can walk in with all his guys with the curly wires hanging out of their ears. 
That is what this Government has come to. It is all about face. It is all about putting on this big front. It is all about the smiley happy-clappy stuff and looking good. It is all about “Mr Spray and Walk Away” wanting to make a Government look good. Meanwhile the very same person who holidays in Hawaii—he does not holiday in New Zealand; he holidays in Hawaii—is a major shareholder in ski fields in the United States. Not ski fields in New Zealand—he is a major shareholder in ski fields in the United States not New Zealand. 
Meanwhile we watch our tourism in decline. We read this weekend that New Zealand is falling off the radar that New Zealand is no longer seen as an attractive destination in many of our major tourism resource markets. Is that not appalling? Yet that same gentleman our Prime Minister is the Minister of Tourism. Goodness knows why because he said at the beginning when he became the Minister of Tourism that he would use the influence of his office of Prime Minister to help improve tourism in this country. Well it has been a failure. It has been a failure. Why should we have the Prime Minister as the Minister of Tourism with the results he has achieved? 
And again we were promised that this Government would grow the pie and increase jobs and it started off in the first year with a Job Summit in Auckland at the TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre. That Job Summit was going to bring all the chief executive officers and top brains from around New Zealand and grow the New Zealand economy and grow the jobs. This Job Summit was going to grow—well what has it done? It has done nothing. There are more people now queuing up on unemployment than when that Job Summit was held. There are more people travelling across to Australia—50000 a year—than when that Job Summit was held. And just a short time before that when John Key was the Leader of the Opposition he stood in the Westpac Stadium in Wellington and he said—and we all remember this—“I am standing here in the Westpac Stadium which holds 35000 people and this is the number of people who are leaving every year to go to Australia. And when I become Prime Minister I am going to put a halt to that. I am going to put a halt to that. We will reduce those numbers.” Well what has happened? 
Iain Lees-Galloway 
: It’s Eden Park. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS 
: Eden Park—dead right. Eden Park holds 55000 people and now John Key can stand in the middle of Eden Park and say that under his watch under his administration 55000 people a year are now going to Australia. He can rightfully now stand in Eden Park and say that. 
 It is appalling. We are seeing lip-service from this Government. We are seeing lip-service from a failed administration that basically is not really doing things. It is attacking good aspects of New Zealand left right and centre. It is attacking for instance local government—something very dear to my heart. It is taking local government apart. It is really really putting the boot into local government. Again a quote from John Key when he was Leader of the Opposition: he said in a speech to local government “We have to work in cooperation because if this country is going to succeed and grow our infrastructure and grow our economy we as central government have to work with local government.” And what does this Prime Minister and this Government do? They just continue to put the boot into local government put the boot into the regions put the boot into things like the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs and put the boot into our education sector by dividing the education sector and trying to tear it apart. 
Left right and centre this Government is not doing well by this economy. We have seen the failure in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and how the Government tried to decimate our front-line services around the world. Our front-line services around the world it has tried to decimate and it is not good enough. New Zealand First will continue to oppose many of these measures of this Government because they are not good and they are not in the interests of everyday New Zealanders. New Zealanders are waking up to this. They are seeing the Government selling out our country. They are seeing it selling the silverware: the power stations the dams on the Waikato River the dams in the Tongariro the dams in the South Island and the geothermal stations around Taupo. They are seeing all these being sold out from under them and New Zealanders are increasingly saying: “We don’t trust this Government.” There will be changes and they will be coming in 2014.