Calder Cam: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCalder Cam: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 11 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15780. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr CAM CALDER (National): It is a huge pleasure to get up and take a call on the Prime Minister’s statement. I cannot believe that the previous speaker Kris Faafoi who is normally a man of some rectitude and who has been known to contribute on the field to the parliamentary rugby team was talking about power bills. Mr Faafoi power bills went up 77 percent under your watch—77 percent. The people in your electorate will be just giving thanks that there is a fine National Government there that is taking control of this situation which was out of control under your watch. They probably enjoy having you there briefly from time to time visiting them but on these matters of power bills Mr Faafoi they are very happy that there is a National-led Government.This is a National-led Government that is producing results. These are results for our most vulnerable results for our newborn results for our young people results for our families results for our seniors and results for Māori Pasifika and our recent immigrants. These are results for all New Zealanders. I will come back to this in more detail because the Prime Minister’s statement reflects our deep understanding of the global financial situation and our success in navigating our way through it. It is a statement that reflects our steadfast resolve to cushion the most vulnerable from the worst edges of the recession and an appreciation that we as a nation have to work together in a smarter way and formulate intelligent and innovative policies to facilitate this.This is a Government that respects New Zealanders. What a contrast to the recent announcement from the third Labour leader in 3 years David Cunliffe. That was the announcement of a scheme to pay money to virtually any fertile New Zealand family to have a child. It is a poorly targeted spray of dollars loopy largesse and unfocused loose thinking and is giving money to thousands of high-income families who have no need of it. How would this be paid for? Here the Prime Minister has pointed out that the third Labour leader in 3 years has been very tricky. Has Mr Cunliffe been cunning? Perhaps he thought he had been. Who does not like being given money? But New Zealand voters are more insightful that that. Has Mr Cunliffe been conning the electorate with his explanation of how this cadeau would be paid for? Cancellingpolicies that are not in force saves nothing. Has he been conning the electorate? Many believe he has.Labour is living in an economic Middle Earth and the voters of New Zealand are underwhelmed and cynical at an opening salvo in the 2014 campaign that portrays the author as both “Disingenuous David” and “Devious David”. Instead of a Best Start it is a stuttering misfire which underlines the fact that Labour has learnt nothing in the last 5 years in Opposition—nothing nada nil—and has disregarded the global financial crisis completely. It is firmly stuck in the same old mind-set of tax more spend more and hope. The 2014 parliamentary year is just a few weeks old and already the Labour Opposition is promising $750 million in more spending—$750 million. That is three-quarters of a billion dollars in money that it does not have and it has no idea where it is going to get it from.This speech by the third Labour leader in 3 years was an opening pirouette in a dance of the desperate. It is only early February in an election year and Labour is already promising $750 million in the hope of buying voter support. But he was not done there—he was not done there. The very next day he complained that the majority of New Zealand meat exports were frozen carcasses. That is wrong. The fact is that well over 90 percent of our meat products are cut and prepared in New Zealand before export. Anyone who has been overseas and seen our meat products on display will know how well we do—how well we do and how well they have been presented.Where else has the Labour Party been wrong I hear you ask. Labour members would have us believe that income inequality in New Zealand is getting worse. That is wrong wrong wrong. The figures of long-term Ministry of Social Development research statistician Bryan Perry are clear that over the last 10 years or so the numbers have barely changed. Interestingly Australia is less equal than New Zealand. Labour members would have you believe that the wage gap between Australia and New Zealand is widening. That is wrong wrong and wrong again. The fact is that in real after-tax terms the gap between wages in Australia and New Zealand is narrowing under this National-led Government. Labour members constantly complain and claim that more and more New Zealanders are going to live in Australia. That is wrong wrong wrong. We have got the Minister of Immigration saying it is definitely wrong right here in front of us. The fact is that according to Statistics New Zealand the number of New Zealanders moving to Australia has been falling steadily since December 2012.Labour members would have you believe that National ignores older people—wrong wrong wrong. The fact is that under National superannuation for a married couple has increased by well over 25 percent since 2008—25 percent since 2008—which is far more than compensating for the increase in prices from inflation over the same period.There have been well over 40000 more elective surgeries improving the quality of life for over-65-year-olds. Our older people are doing better under National.So far the third Labour leader in 3 years has been caught out in a web of inaccuracy a slew of untruths and a comedy of errors. You can understand why the Labour caucus is so ambivalent about supporting him. You know if this is the Best Start possible it is going to be a long slide to virtual irrelevancy by the time the election comes around—and that is just the leader “Devious David Cunliffe”. What other innovative ideas has the Labour Party developed as it enters its sixth year in Opposition? How many ideas? Well actually not many. Its spokesman on revenue Dr David Clark normally a man of sober thought and mien obviously gave the matter a little bit of thought—a little bit of thought. Possibly he was texting Kim Il Sung of South Korea for inspiration because Dr Clark has been on the record as proposing to ban multinational—Hon Phil Goff: Kim Il Sung is North Korea.Dr CAM CALDER: —of North Korea—corporations like Facebook from the internet. Closing down Facebook is certainly a left-field suggestion even from a party of the left and certainly seemed to take his caucus colleagues by surprise. So Labour members in their first days back after the rejuvenating summer break have proved themselves bereft of new ideas instead serving up ill-conceived poorly costed ill-directed middle-class welfare and plainly risible fantasy—and that is just Labour.The possibility of a Labour-Green coalition would pose a very real clear and present danger. The Labor-Greens have left the economy of Australia a virtual train wreck. After years of Labor-Green misgovernment there Australia is facing huge deficits and rising unemployment. Globally the recovery from the worst recession in decades is still very gradual. I heard my erstwhile colleague here the Hon Maurice Richardson point that out himself. The Greens would have a more dominant role in New Zealand with the Labour Party than they do in Australia and they are philosophically opposed to farming to manufacturing to exportation of oil and mineral resources—the major underpinnings of our economy.This is a Government of fresh ideas that is willing ready and able to provide principled and pragmatic leadership for New Zealand so that all can share in a brighter future and seize the growing opportunity our burgeoning economy provides.