Ryall Tony: General Debate 
Ryall Tony: General Debate 
[Volume:648;Page:16903] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 After 9 long years we are now hearing from the Labour Party what it will do for Maori for land settlements and what it will do for Maori for Treaty of Waitangi settlements. But what we have not heard this afternoon is what Labour will do for job security for Maori who are trying to support their families as the cost of living in this country is rocketing. What Labour did not tell Maori is that there was the biggest drop in employment in this country in the last quarter—the biggest drop since Labour culled the forestry industry during the 1980s. What the previous speaker Nanaia Mahuta did not want to tell Maori was that Ruth Dyson said that it was actually quite good that people have been losing their jobs. That is what Labour members did not talk about. 
How come Labour members do not talk about what this Government will do to help Maori to feel safe in their homes and on the streets? What will it do to help Maori and other New Zealanders feel safe in their homes and on the streets? What the member did not tell the people was that under this Government violent crime is going through the roof. And what does Annette King say is to blame? She says that the sun the moon—and now urban design—are responsible for the crime in this country. What she did not want to tell Maori is that her Government’s soft bigotry of low expectations is seeing appalling standards in our education system whereby the best it can do for young Maori is to say “Wassup?”. How patronising it is to think that some young Maori person at the age of 15 will be inspired by the likes of Professor Des Gorman or inspired by the likes of Papaarangi Reid with a badge that says “Wassup?”. That will not encourage one young Maori person to look at their leaders in this country. There is a need to show role models and a badge that says “Wassup?” does nothing anywhere near that. 
What about Maori in the hospital system and in the New Zealand public health system? What about the thousands of Maori who were culled off the hospital waiting lists 2 years ago—the old people who were told that they could not get their operation because they were guilty of being on the waiting list for more than 6 months? What about the Maori in Auckland where we have now discovered there is a code purple in our hospitals? It used to be called code red and people had to sit in the emergency department at Waitemata for 36 hours. Now we discover in Auckland that there is a higher level called code purple. North Shore Hospital has been in code purple for some time and it is not able to provide the emergency department care that New Zealanders want. Neither have we heard a word about what the huge ballooning bureaucracy in health is doing to Maori and other patients in this country. How can it be that the health budget has doubled yet fewer people get to see a hospital specialist and fewer people get elective surgery? How can it be that the health budget has doubled yet more people are waiting longer and longer to see a general practitioner? They are waiting longer and longer even to get on a general practitioner’s books. How bad is that? 
We have not heard one word heard from the Labour Party about the problems facing the country in this area because this Labour Government has squandered the opportunity of the last 9 years. Families—Maori Pakeha Asian and others—would have been much better able to weather the storm of the economic consequences befalling our country if this Labour Party had rewarded hard work and effort and cut taxes for hard-working New Zealanders. Instead this Government has wasted those good years on a storm of social engineering. The latest example was revealed by Mrs Jo Goodhew yesterday. Hairdressers will now be required to prepare public health risk management plans as well as apply for a consent from the city council. How ridiculous is that? But it is what this Government has spent its whole time doing. 
In relation to the Government’s social engineering on the smacking bill Helen Clark will not let New Zealanders have even a say. That tells us about the arrogance of the Labour Government. As we travel around this country we meet a lot of people who say they are voting National for the first time because of Labour’s arrogance.