Yates Dianne: General Debates 
Yates Dianne: General Debates 
[Volume:610;Page:7921] 
DIANNE YATES (NZ Labour—Hamilton East) 
: 
 It really was very interesting to listen to the Opposition member because the one thing the Prime Minister does is to show leadership. We know that the Leader of the Opposition who is now third in the polls is showing very little leadership. 
I received a little postcard in my letterbox this week with a picture of Bill English on it which I understand cost the taxpayer $15000— 
Jill Pettis 
: How much? 
DIANNE YATES 
: It cost $15000 to send postcards out all over New Zealand and that did not include the postage to get them back again. Those postcards were sent out and I was quite upset at receiving one because I believe the postcard pits New Zealander against New Zealander. I am surprised that the Leader of the Opposition has put his photograph let alone his name on that postcard. Given the things that I have heard him say in other contexts I was ashamed to receive it—ashamed that a New Zealander should put out that kind of postcard containing shall I say such brief information as to be unfactual. I was ashamed that it should have come in my letterbox and that the Leader of the Opposition should be pitting New Zealander against New Zealander. I found it entirely embarrassing. 
We had another example of that last week with the attack on Mr Duynhoven. I have a lot of people in and around my electorate whose surname begins with Van Der. There are an awful lot of “Van Der This” “Van Der That” and Van DerHeydens and so on in the Waikato. Those people came to New Zealand in the 1950s and happen to be the leading lights in our dairy industry. They were embarrassed at what some of the people in the Opposition were saying around Mr Duynhoven’s attempt to claim his Dutch citizenship. I think that should be very embarrassing for the Leader of the Opposition as well—pitting New Zealander against New Zealander once again. 
Then we had the whole issue of the agricultural gas emissions levy. I hear that some people demonstrated outside Parliament today. I understand that the ACT party organised a demonstration and that there were more media present than demonstrators— 
Jill Pettis 
: Not a gumboot in sight! 
DIANNE YATES 
: There was not a gumboot or a farmer in sight as far as I could tell. One could count the number of people on both hands. They were all the people who are supposed to be terribly terribly upset about the agricultural gas emissions levy which let us face it will cost the average farmer about $300 a year. 
Anybody who read Mr Oram’s article in the Sunday paper the week before last would have seen that there has been a great deal of consultation about that levy. The recommendation came from the Primary Industries Council which represents farmers. The recommendation regarding the research money came from its consultation whereby it hired scientists who recommended that $8.4 million could come from that levy. That is why so few people were demonstrating outside Parliament today. 
Mr Smith asked what the point was in attacking Mr English. He said that we should talk about some good things and asked what Labour stands for. There are four main things—health education housing and jobs. We have talked about the primary health organisations and we know they are making good progress in New Zealand. On the subject of education I am glad that Mr Mallard has spoken in this debate. I have visited a number of schools and have found the schools have never been happier. They say that Mr Mallard is doing an excellent job and they are very pleased with their 10-year plans. I have seen some wonderful building going on some new classrooms and some great developments and the schools are saying that they have never had a better Minister. So I thank Mr Mallard for the work that he is doing. 
Would members believe that we have also had some criticism of the fact that Mr Maharey wants to get the long-term unemployed off the dole? We know that we have got unemployment down to 4.9 percent and I am glad that Mr Maharey is not sitting back on his laurels. He is not satisfied with that and he is working on getting people who have been unemployed long term off the dole because those people are still there. 
Housing is the fourth thing I want to talk about. We brought in income-related rents and that was a great thing. The previous National Government sold off 13000 State houses and the people in my electorate who are on a waiting list for a State house ask me why on earth it did that. The present Government is working with local government on housing issues and is coming up with plans. Last week Mr Maharey brought in the mortgage insurance pilot scheme to help low-income families and families with young children into homes. That scheme will give stability in our community.