Lee Melissa: General Debate 
Lee Melissa: General Debate 
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MELISSA LEE (National) 
: 
 As a new member in this House I look at the older members—I say “older” because they have been here longer than I have—and want to be inspired. I have no idea what the member who spoke before me Trevor Mallard was talking about apart from the fact that I agree in some way with what he said about owning up to what members have actually been saying. Perhaps he should look to the leader of his party who was once the Minister of Justice. Let me quote the Minister: “As Justice Minister I promoted tough sentencing and parole legislation which imposed much longer sentences …”. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: What? 
MELISSA LEE 
: Let me repeat: “As Justice Minister I promoted tough sentencing and parole legislation which imposed much longer sentences on the worst offenders and for parole required the safety of the community to be the paramount consideration.” That was Labour’s leader Phil Goff in November 2007. 
I will quote to members some of the headlines taken from the period under Labour’s watch: “Burton a ‘walking nightmare’ inquest told” and “Survivor of RSA murders can sue Corrections”. Further headlines included: “Alarm ignored for nine minutes during inmate’s escape” “… Corrections dossier found on street” “Many offenders fail to finish work-term sentences” and “Millionaire prisoner involved in drug ring”. I will read members some more headlines: “Three prisoners escape in Hamilton” “National grills Govt after axe killer on garden work escapes” and “ ‘High risk’ violent criminal escaped from home detention”. 
Labour had 9 years to fix these problems yet it did nothing. Nothing was done about them so we had to introduce legislation. It has been a very very busy 3 months since the new National Government took power in New Zealand with the biggest majority in the history of MMP. Did I say the “biggest majority”? 
Paul Quinn 
: The biggest? Absolutely. 
MELISSA LEE 
: That is right—the biggest. The people of New Zealand have said that National needs to do something about these problems. Our Prime Minister John Key formed working relationships very quickly and very effectively with parties that had worked with the previous Government. I wonder why that is—perhaps those parties saw the light and moved from the dark side to the light. 
These are difficult times. We are facing the most serious economic crisis that I have seen in 21 years in New Zealand. All I can say is that the response from the Opposition has been moaning whingeing— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: That’s all. 
MELISSA LEE 
: That is all. Do members know what that response is doing? It is eroding the confidence of the public in the Government’s response to the economic crisis. 
Iain Lees-Galloway 
: Indecision erodes the confidence of the public. 
MELISSA LEE 
: Members opposite can throw a couple of lines in my direction but I say that they did nothing—absolutely nothing—for 9 years. 
This Government unlike the previous Labour Government has moved very swiftly—yes swiftly. I will tell members how swifty this Government has moved. The previous Government took 9 years to give New Zealanders a tax cut—New Zealanders had to be very very patient. This Government however introduced a tax package before Christmas only a few days after National became Government—only days. That is how swift we were. Mind you the previous Government was pretty swift too. When it took office 9 years ago it also did something within days—it was very swift. But what it did was to raise taxes. That is the difference. 
I tell members that one of my passions is law and order. We want to make New Zealand a safe place; I mentioned that in my maiden speech. A raft of legislation has been introduced in this House. We have introduced legislation to remove the right of the worst repeat violent offenders to be released on parole. We have introduced legislation to clamp down on criminal gangs and their drug trade. We have introduced legislation to toughen the bail laws and I can give members anecdotal information on the workings of this because I was recently on the North Shore of Auckland talking to the police. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.