Dyson Ruth: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDyson Ruth: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 14 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10638. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon RUTH DYSON (Chairperson of the Government Administration Committee): For a moment there I did think that I was going to be mistaken for the Hon Gerry Brownlee and I am very pleased that we avoided that coincidence. It is a pleasure for me to take a call in this debate but it is not a pleasure in terms of the content that I have been considering in relation to this presentation. This is because for the first time in the history of New Zealand the next generation is going to be worse off than the generation that came before it and I think that is something that all New Zealanders should be ashamed of and they should be looking to the Government to see what measures it is considering implementing to address this. So our children and our grandchildren are going to be worse off than we were and our parents were.That is not something that I want as a New Zealander who grew up thinking that we had a fair society that we were better than pretty well any other country because in New Zealand it did not matter where you were born—if you worked hard and did your best you could get ahead in the world. We were very proud of so many things about New Zealand and that pride is seeping away. What we used to call the Kiwi Dream—that you could have a job and a home and you could have something to look forward to; Norman Kirk’s vision—is still as relevant today as it was when Norman Kirk first talked about having a job a home someone to love and something to look forward to. But now what we are seeing is that dream just slipping away. Young people in our country now do not have that to look forward to in the way that we had.So the National Government members are creating an economy that gives less to our children and grandchildren than they had themselves. How can they be proud of that? How can members of Parliament and Ministers be proud of that as their contribution to New Zealand society? Most of us came to this House so that we could improve things for New Zealanders—we all have different ways of thinking we can achieve that and we all have different beliefs—but it is hard to imagine how members of the National Party can be proud of their contribution to making New Zealand a worse society than it was when they came into office. We have got an economy now that is stacked in favour of the people at the highest income level rather than middle New Zealanders and middle New Zealanders are finding it harder each week to get ahead. We have got a housing market that is not for New Zealanders not for New Zealanders who work hard save up get a deposit and are able to own their own home. It is now a place where speculators make big money. That is not the New Zealand that I grew up in and the New Zealand that I want my children and grandchildren to grow up in.We have got a health system where not only the food is rubbish but people who need operations cannot get an assessment let alone get into the hospital for their operation. And the Minister of Health’s response to that is: “Well they might not need an operation; they just think they need an operation.” I do not know a single New Zealander who gets up in the morning and says: “What shall I do today? Shall I go to the beach shall I go to the movies shall I go to work or shall I have a knee replacement?”. That is not the sort of thinking that I am familiar with but clearly the Minister of Health is.We have got a growing gap between people who have got lots of money and people who just cannot get by week after week. Again that is not the sort of society that I grew up in. We always had richer people and poorer people but the growing gap—the growing inequality—is being driven by Government policies and it is not taking any responsibility for that.As we look at this particular review—the review of the Finance and Government Administration Sector—I want to point out to the Committee that I am taking the first call in this debate because I am the chair of the Government Administration Committee. Clearly a lot that comes into this sector is in the mandate of our select committee—not all but a lot of it. As the speeches go on I am sure we will hear more about the specific votes. Before I conclude I want to acknowledge a member of that select committee who was unfortunately deposed from her position as deputy chair. Sarah Dowie was very unceremoniously sacked and I welcome the new member Paul Foster-Bell to that position.