Brownlee Gerry: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Brownlee Gerry: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1086] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 What a dreadful speech that was from the Prime Minister this afternoon. It was 12 pages of clichés looking for a slogan—utter garbage. It was said earlier that Shane Jones went to sleep during that speech and Rodney Hide said that it was only an attempt at applause that woke him up. Well let me tell members that those back-benchers were not applauding at the end of her speech; they were slapping their faces to try to stay awake. 
We thought that the Prime Minister might have addressed the pressing issue of the corruption allegation that now lies at the feet of her Government. Mr Anderton can try to dismiss it as being unimportant but when a Government becomes so arrogant that it thinks taxpayer funds are there for its own benefit—a slush fund to get it re-elected—then this country is in trouble. Today we heard nothing in that speech that looks to the future of this country at all. We heard a rehash of the last 6 years of Prime Minister’s statements in this House—a cut and paste and nothing more. When Mr Maharey stands there and says that they are going to transform this country and the economy of this country I tell him that we have heard that for 6 long years. Now after all those 6 long years of fantastic and unexpectedly good times in our economy Labour members know we are facing a bit of a glitch and they are holding the seats of their pants and hoping they can talk their way through it. 
The Prime Minister cannot stand here today and say that we want a high-skill high-wage economy when very highly skilled engineers at Air New Zealand a substantially Government-owned company are expected to take rather large pay cuts in order to keep their jobs. That will become the pattern in the economy in the next short while—people taking pay cuts to stay in work. How will that help the growing gulf between us and Australia? Those members over there will not want to say—as Mr Maharey did—that “We are New Zealanders 100 percent Kiwi. We don’t want to keep looking at Australia.” But young people will because there is not a family in this country that does not have somebody who has crossed the ditch for better opportunities. As we become part of a smaller world the opportunity for young people to seek their fortune elsewhere and turn this country into a holiday destination is growing by the day because of that Government’s inattention to the economy. 
I want to turn back to the pledge card—the disgraceful pledge card paid for by the taxpayers of New Zealand. We have a picture on the front of it. I am not sure who it is—a missing person I suspect. One of the interesting things on the back is a pledge about 250 extra community police. We heard today from Mr Peters—he used to be called Luigi; he is now known as “Perks Peters”—the man who said that New Zealand First will deliver an extra 1000 police to this country. Has he not heard that Damien O’Connor is just going to let the crims out anyway? The really bad ones—the really violent ones and the really nasty ones—will be accommodated in new prisons where the cost of their cells will be a fantastic $600000 per cell. Well the taxpayers of this country need to know that two five-star hotel rooms could be built for $600000. That is the attitude that this Government takes to law and order and to locking up crims. 
We also heard today a rehash of all the freebies and give-aways that were in the last election round and were spoken of by the Government prior to Parliament finishing at the end of the year. One of the key things the Prime Minister is hanging her hat on is interest-free loans for students. Well that might be good while people are studying. But if those people stay in this country—and that is the only way the loan is interest-free—there is effectively a compulsory 10 percent demand on their incomes the moment they start working. That is not freeing up young people to make good choices; it is forcing them into whatever job they have to take and requiring them to stay in this country by compulsion. 
Why does the Government not have a more aspirational approach to young people making their lives in this country? We would agree with the Government that there is a need to do some work on the identity of New Zealand and I would applaud it for having a go. But the identity of this country is not found in more welfare dependency; it is not found in bigger bureaucracies; it is not found in compelling people to do things; and it is not found in big Government. The Prime Minister goes on and on and says “Aren’t we marvellous. Look what we have done for our identity.” and points to the film  
The World’s Fastest Indian 
. Well we should be very clear that if Burt Munro tried to do today what he did in those times he would face such a huge bureaucratic nightmare he would never get off the ground. 
We used to be a country where the saying was “you can do”; we are now a country where the saying is “you can’t do—unless Helen and the troops say you can”. And the Prime Minister has a whole back bench over there who are ready any day of the week to do exactly what they are told. There is no free thinking on that side of the House at all and nowhere is that seen to worse display than among the Maori members on that side. They went into the last election with the pledge card saying they would introduce legislation to close off Treaty claims by 1 September 2008. That is not far away but where is the legislation? Where was talk of it in the Prime Minister’s speech today? There has been just a quiet sweeping of it under the floor because Labour has no interest in ridding this country of Treaty grievance—no interest in putting right what was wrong. It is much more interested in a process that will see us spending the next 30 to 40 years arguing over a lousy $600 million. 
It is time that the Maori members on that side of the House started talking to the people they represent. The Prime Minister talks about a growing economy and about families having more disposable income. Well in this country Maori families earn on average more than $7000 less than non-Maori families. That is an issue that the National Party is committed to fixing. When we talk about everyone standing as equals before the law we mean it as much about opportunity as about anything else. 
 I return now to the issue of Labour using taxpayer funds for its election purposes. That was the most splendidly arrogant thing that could possibly have happened leading into the last election. The Prime Minister knew that the Auditor-General was unhappy with the way that sort of spending was being pursued by so many. He asked Dr Brash whether they could meet to sort it out. Dr Brash said yes and put out a press release to make it very clear that National wanted to sort it out. The Prime Minister was asked and she said: “No I can’t meet you but I’ll bring in the State Services Commissioner to take a briefing on the briefing.” When the Auditor-General made it very clear that if the Prime Minister went down that track she would have some difficulty she had to say that they would not go down that track because at that time she knew Labour was planning to fund its card and pamphlet with its leader’s office funding. 
Labour looted the leader’s office fund for its own electoral benefit. If people want to know the magnitude of that Labour went over the top with about 25 percent of the allowable funds. So one asks oneself that if corruption does not matter to Labour then what sort of Government is it? What other decisions is Labour making for the lives of New Zealanders that have concern not for those people but only for its own electoral success? I think the Government will have some difficulty in explaining this to New Zealanders. Mr Maharey might want to say that no one is listening but Mr Maharey is a man who has no experience of listening. So there are no worries in that. 
My final comments go to Mr Peters the man who spent most of his time here today attacking the National Party. I say to Mr Peters that he is now in Government and that if he wants to recognise us as the Opposition that is great because this will be one of the most effective Oppositions Parliament has ever seen.