King Annette: General Debate 
King Annette: General Debate 
[Volume:671;Page:17540] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
: 
 “This is the rainy day that Government has been saving up for.” Those were the words of Bill English the Minister of Finance in December 2008 on taking the Treasury benches. He was talking about the ability of New Zealand to handle the global financial crisis. “New Zealand starts from a reasonable position in dealing with the uncertainty of our economic outlook.” he said in December 2008 when taking the Treasury benches. So 2½ years on while the rest of the world comes out of the crisis New Zealand heads back into a double-dip recession. Make no bones about it—the second recession is National’s recession. It is of National’s making. National has been squandering what had been saved for the rainy day. Even before the two earthquakes struck Christchurch New Zealand’s economy had stalled. Now it is all the earthquakes’ fault! In fact National’s response to the growing gloom in New Zealand about our economy and this Government’s lack of a plan about what to do about it is the earthquakes’ fault. 
So what has the Government decided to do? What is the grand plan? It is to slash and burn the programmes that help the most vulnerable in New Zealand. There has been no thought about how to grow this economy and no plan on how we can stimulate exports new businesses innovation or skills training—nothing for those who already have so little. The Government was prepared to give away $22 billion in 4 years in tax cuts; it was prepared to give away $22 billion in tax cuts to the wealthiest people in New Zealand. But the Government has no plan to get us out of the hole we are in right now. There is no suggestion that those who are the wealthiest in this country should give some back when this economy is so sluggish. 
The earthquake is now being dressed up to provide the cover for John Key’s cuts to programmes. He promised when in Opposition that a National Government would keep those programmes. He promised he would not cut Working for Families. Well what is the first off the block when it comes to cutting programmes? It is Working for Families. We were repeatedly told by Bill English as Opposition spokesperson on finance and John Key that they would not touch Working for Families. In fact Bill English said he would not change Working for Families because struggling families needed certainty. He also said that careful analysis of Working for Families showed that taking high-income families out of it saved very little money. He said further that any policy to take higher-income families out of Working for Families would affect only a handful of families and they would be families with four or more children. He said he wanted to give them certainty. 
What promise did the Prime Minister make about Working for Families? He said that National had considered Working for Families very carefully and “the conclusion we’ve reached is”—listen to this—“that there will be no changes at all to Working for Families under an incoming National Government”—no changes at all under an incoming National Government. That is a hollow promise and it will be a broken promise if National changes Working for Families for a handful of people which will not bring much money back to the coffers to address the problems that this economy has. 
Now on the block is Whanau Ora. I will be interested to know what the Maori Party thinks about this. John Key said yesterday that he is looking at scaling back Whanau Ora. What did Government members say about Whanau Ora? Tony Ryall said it was going to be one of the biggest innovations in social services. Paula Bennett said she was excited about the prospects of Whanau Ora and the positive difference it could make. Why is Whanau Ora one of the first programmes on the block under a National Government? 
We know that this Government has no plan that we are going backwards under this Government and that it is time Government members faced up to the fact that the Government is not helping and supporting those who struggle the most in New Zealand.