Joyce Steven: General Debate 
Joyce Steven: General Debate 
[Volume:655;Page:4841] 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 It is pretty sad to hear the Labour members spend most of their time in the House this afternoon talking this country down. This is a country that is currently surviving the global recession better than just about any other country in the world yet Labour members persist in talking it down. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Except Australia. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: I say to Mr Hughes that we can compare our unemployment rate with Australia’s. Labour members are talking the country down but we know that their leader does not believe it. We know that Phil Goff does not believe it. We have heard all the stuff that Phil Goff used to say when he was in Government so we can probably excuse the way he behaves now as cynical politicking. We can probably excuse him for that sort of behaviour but it is hard to excuse the rest of them because they show no understanding of economics which I would have thought was reasonably unforgivable in a recession. Labour members do not understand interest rates and they do not understand the importance of keeping up our credit rating. Instead they say that we should put up the wage rates for I think pretty much everybody except of course that would be making them a lot higher than they managed to do in the last 9 years—in the teeth of a global recession. 
Let us look at the Labour Party guide to politically spinning the current recession. The first point is to pretend there is no global recession. It is a very important first step. We have to pretend that there is no global recession. If we are able to do that then we can pretend that we should have full employment which of course we should have because there is no global recession and it is outrageous that the Government should act as if there is a global recession just because there is one. So that is the first thing. The second point in the Labour Party guide to politically spinning the recession is to pretend that money is limitless. The important second point is to pretend that money is absolutely limitless. We should pretend that money is absolutely limitless when it comes to the Superannuation Fund and we should be building the $3 billion tunnel for the Waterview Connection and all of those things because let us remember money is limitless. That is the second point in the Labour Party guide to spinning the recession. The third point is to pretend that we can create jobs—that we can magic jobs out of thin air. The third point in the political spin guide from Labour in a recession is that we should just say “we should have jobs” and they will happen; we should pretend that jobs will just happen. 
The fourth point in the Labour Party guide to political spin is to pretend that we worry about interest rates and that we should pretend to do so by calling for a select inquiry as that would sort out interest rates no trouble at all. There would be no problems then because the select committee is coming and that will sort out interest rates. Of course we would be arguing for lots of spending which would cause a credit downgrade and which would push up interest rates. So on one hand we are pretending that a committee of parliamentarians can solve the problem but on the other hand we are saying that we should just spend away and forget interest rates. That is the fourth point. The fifth point is to pretend that the Government is not doing anything. We should pretend that the Government is not investing in productive infrastructure that it is not providing $323 million for insulation and heating for 180000 Kiwi homes. We should pretend that the Government is not undertaking record spending on front-line services in health education and law and order. We should pretend that the Government is not providing nearly half a billion dollars in assistance to small and medium enterprises. We should pretend that it is not keeping up our credit rating and keeping down interest rates. And we should pretend that it is not maintaining welfare entitlements. So the fifth point is that we should pretend the Government is not doing anything. 
The sixth point is to pretend that we do not have to prioritise Government spending. We can pretend that it is possible just to keep spending more and more money. We can pretend that if we have a programme but we want to add another programme we do not have to trim a programme we can just go out there and add another programme then another programme again. They are all good programmes so we can then add another spending programme again. Actually that is how Labour spent the last 9 years. That is why public spending increased by about 50 percent in the last 5 years because rather than take any tough decisions all Labour did was just add another programme. Labour members would say “Well that programme is probably not working but let’s not say so let’s just add another programme again and another programme one more time.” The last point in the Labour Party guide to politically spinning the recession is to pretend that one knows everything—to pretend that everything the Labour Party did was perfect and any subsequent Government that has the temerity to change anything is outrageously bad. One needs to have a lot of ego to do that to rock up to Parliament after taking a hiding at the election and to say that it is outrageous to change a damn thing. That is the Labour Party guide to politically spinning a global recession.