Smith Lockwood: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Smith Lockwood: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14269] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 Over the years in this place I have heard many Prime Ministers and many Leaders of the Opposition from both sides of the House give statements and Addresses in Reply. What a contrast we saw earlier this week. The Prime Minister’s speech was so boring and so ordinary that her own colleagues were either asleep or nodding off to sleep. It was one of the more tedious boring speeches I have heard a Prime Minister give. What a contrast with my colleague John Key. He gave such an energetic and aspirational speech. 
I support John Key’s motion of no confidence when he moved: “That this House has no confidence in this Helen Clark - led Government because it has failed to make significant improvement in the areas of real importance to New Zealanders because it lacks ambition because it is tired and bereft of ideas”—and my goodness it is—“because it has lost touch with the people who put it in power and because under its lead our country has become a story of lost opportunities.” We have seen that. In the last 2 years all that this Labour Government has been interested in is clinging to power—not in what it can do for New Zealanders but in just hanging on to power. Look at the Electoral Finance Act. It is all about clinging to power. New Zealanders are sick of that. 
Labour has squandered not just in the last 2 years but over the last 8 years the most favourable economic conditions in 20 years in this country and it has failed to build the foundations for a strong economic future for New Zealanders. If Labour had not squandered those conditions if Labour had got things a little bit right then why after 8 years of a Labour Government are we paying the second-highest interest rates in the developed world? Why? If Labour has got it right why do we have the second-highest interest rates in the developed world? When Labour came to power they were at only half of that level. 
Why under Labour is the gap between our after-tax incomes in Australia and New Zealand getting wider and wider? Why does Labour offer a tax cut only in election years and—it should be noted—only when it is way behind in the polls? In previous election years Labour has made maybe a suggestion of tax cuts and then backed out on its promise because it was not behind in the polls. This time Labour is promising tax cuts because it is so far behind in the polls. 
But the public of New Zealand are not silly. They ask why only in election years do they deserve to be treated with more respect. Why can our hard-working youngsters not afford to buy their own house under Labour? Why is one in five Kiwi kids leaving school with grossly inadequate literacy and numeracy skills? Why when Labour claims it aspires to be carbon neutral are our greenhouse gas emissions still growing rapidly? Why has the health system when billions more have been poured into it not actually started to deliver for New Zealanders? Why is violent crime against New Zealanders continuing to soar and why is Labour unable to do anything about it? Why are our best and brightest leaving New Zealand in droves? 
I have the Prime Minister’s statement here. It is such an unmemorable document except for one thing that marks it out. The word “sustainability” is peppered right the way through it. In here the Prime Minister says she wants New Zealand to step up to the sustainability challenge and focus on sustainability. She wants the public sector to lead by example on sustainability. The unifying concept she says in her speech is sustainability. 
At a Business New Zealand function last night one of the key speakers—one of my colleagues remembers this too—said that if members of the public make submissions to the Labour Government these days they have to put the word “sustainability” into every second line. It does not matter if it makes no sense—that is not the issue. One has just to put “sustainability” into every second line. 
Dr Ashraf Choudhary 
: It’s the future. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: I ask the Labour members opposite and Ashraf Choudhary what is sustainable about losing 110 New Zealanders every day to Australia? What is sustainable about 800 New Zealanders every week going to Australia? What is sustainable about that? I ask Ashraf Choudhary what is sustainable about the figures we have this year that show that three times more New Zealanders have left for Australia than just 3 years ago? What is sustainable about that? Each year we see more and more New Zealanders going—just going. How is that sustainable? 
Our greatest asset is our people and they are going because they see no hope under this Labour Government. Hope is the most important aspiration of people. Hope is what keeps people going. Hope for a better future is what drives people and it is what is driving people away from New Zealand under this Labour Government. They do not see hope. How can those members expect a woman on the domestic purposes benefit to see hope in her life if when she works a bit harder and earns a bit more money the Government takes 90 percent of it—92 percent of it in fact? 
Dr Ashraf Choudhary 
: Rubbish! 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: Ashraf Choudhary says that is rubbish but it is a fact. If a woman on the domestic purposes benefit is trying to work her way off it and is earning more money she loses about 92 percent of it. The Government claims it back. What about a middle-income New Zealand family on $70000 and the Working for Families package? If they work a bit harder and get a promotion they lose 60 percent of it in tax to this Government—60 percent of it. Where is the hope in that? 
New Zealanders are leaving in droves. We have not seen the like of it since Labour was last in Government. Back in the late 1980s when Labour was last in Government again New Zealanders saw no hope and they went. They went in the late 1980s because under Labour they saw no hope. During the 1990s when National was in office that exodus came right down even though we had some hard years. We had the difficult years of the major restructuring in the early 1990s and the recession that followed that. We had the difficult years of the Asian financial crisis. Yet during the 1990s the net loss to Australia of New Zealanders was just 9000 people a year on average. 
Under Labour the number has more than doubled. Every year Labour has been in office since 1999 20000 New Zealanders on average have gone to Australia. Why? Why are New Zealanders finding that the country they love the country they were born in the country they grew up in is no longer a country that offers them hope. They see more hope in Australia. This Labour Government should be deeply deeply ashamed of that. 
I have heard Winston Peters say that these are just people who are recent immigrants to New Zealand who are going. That is simply not true. In fact last year the net loss of New Zealand citizens was 32700—in just 1 year. That is the net loss. When we count New Zealand citizens coming back home we see that we lost 32700 more. What is tragic about the net loss especially people going to Australia is that they are not old folk going to retire in Queensland. They are not older folk going to Port Douglas or the Gold Coast or some of those nice places up in eastern Australia. I actually think that some of the places up north in New Zealand—in Rodney and Langs Beach and some of the lovely areas in Mangawhai and south from there—are lovely areas for people to retire to. 
The tragedy of these people going to Australia is that they are young and working New Zealanders. Of those we lost last year 86 percent were under 44 years old. The tragedy is that we are losing some of our best and brightest. I know there is an argument about that. I know that when the Hon David Cunliffe was the Minister of Immigration he used to say we were winning on the brain exchange. I put this figure to him. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: We were—and we are. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: Well the member should listen to this. A recent study by the Australian Department of Immigration has shown that New Zealand is losing the highest proportion of our tertiary-trained people of any country in the OECD. We are losing 32 percent—almost a third—of all our tertiary-trained people. That includes those with apprenticeships degrees or diplomas—you name it. They are going. In fact if we look at New Zealanders living abroad we see that 45 percent—almost half—have university degrees. 
I know that some say we are getting people with degrees coming back to New Zealand. This document I have here is an unpublished study. It will be published very shortly by Massey University. It shows that our new migrants are not remotely replacing those who are leaving. Although they might have degrees they are not being employed in professional areas. In fact this research shows that many of the women coming in under the skilled migrant category are earning no money at all and that 34 percent of the men in the first 2 years were in the lowest employment brackets in New Zealand. This research study shows that we are not replacing the brains and skills we are tragically losing under this Labour Government. It is time for a change.