Cunliffe David: Appropriation (2012/13 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cunliffe David: Appropriation (2012/13 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Sitting date: 21 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4561. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 One of the best things about having spent a couple of weeks in Europe is that I come back and I can actually understand the accent of the member who has just resumed his seat the member apparently for Rotorua. He said he has visited Rotorua recently so we can only take him at his word. He has made two points. The first was to try to demonise our colleagues the Greens and to panic New Zealanders into not supporting the Opposition because of the way he has mis-painted their policies. I think people can see right through that. The second and very telling comment that he made was to say that National’s idea was to leave New Zealanders alone and get out of the road. That is in fact the best that National members can do. The member is nodding. The best that they can do in a historic economic crisis is to leave it alone and get out of the road. 
For the record number of New Zealanders who left permanently for Australia sadly this month—the all-time record for a July—that is not enough. That is not enough. Colin James in today’s  
Otago Daily Times 
 referred to the battle lines being drawn on the economic debate by saying “Voodoo or orthodox—take your pick”. He pointed out that it was actually Mr Joyce who shot himself in the foot by calling others’ policies voodoo economics when actually National members are so fossilised that they do not realise the economic debate has moved on so far past them that they are left looking like relics. It has moved on because New Zealanders have accepted that although we have been through tough times and they have patiently been willing to draw in their belts it is not enough. It is not good enough. It is not enough to provide for their futures to provide hope for their children and to provide good jobs and the security of a roof over their heads. For too many New Zealanders the loss of that hope has meant a queue at the departure gate like this “departure gate Budget” hoping against hope that there would be a way forward. 
There is a mood change on and National knows it. It polls every day. It knows what the numbers are saying. There is a mood change in the wind. New Zealanders are desperately looking for answers. Now National is trying to rush out a series of wafer-thin glossy brochures pretending that they are doing something. Last week there was the export strategy. You know it mentioned science just once and competitive advantage just once. It mentioned branding 21 times and telling stories 25 times. Does that not just say everything? Of the 55 new initiatives 47 of them were already announced. Only eight were new and more than half of those were public relations fluff. That is not what New Zealanders expect it is not what they deserve and it is not what they are going to vote for in 2014. 
So distressed was National at the flop of its export glossy that it rushed out its buff new innovation pamphlet this morning. So desperate was National that it sent out the invitations only on Friday to a captive audience and Business New Zealand jumped the gun by putting its draft on the Business New Zealand website before the Government even released it. Whose document was it? It looks like Phil O’Reilly wrote it and well he might have because the document—the so-called strategy—leaves it largely to the private sector to do all the heavy lifting at a time of national crisis. That is not leadership. That is not vision for the future. That is not even a substantive game plan. Where does that leave New Zealanders who just want a good job and a safe roof over their heads and hope that their kids can still do better than they did—hope that their kids can still do better than they did? 
Well at least they can now see laid bare the two competing views of the economy across the two sides of this House—and I use the phrase a little liberally because I see the Minister of Maori Affairs sagely sitting there wondering which side he and his party are on. They will figure it out before 2014 when the bids are clear. On that side there is an extractive view of the economy. If they cannot cut it and sell it they will mine it or flog it. But it is an extractive view of primary agriculture and mining that they mistakenly believe is going to lift incomes. Well it will not because it is not possible to milk enough cows sell enough raw logs or export enough unprocessed fish from the seas around Nelson. That is nobody’s idea of a smart way to live.  
The 
Global Competitiveness Report 
 by the World Economic Forum canes New Zealand not because we have got a high cost structure but because—just like the rating agencies said—we have under-diversified exports and insufficient knowledge and value content. 
So what is the answer to that? To build that content with a strong economic development and innovation plan. And what did we get? This wafer-thin glossy. It is not worth the glossy little paper it is written on. It is an embarrassment and the Government should put it back in the bottom drawer until it has done some work and it has something worth releasing that Phil O’Reilly did not write. 
Our vision is different. Our vision—I might say quite similar to the Greens’ vision—is a high-value sustainable socially just vision where New Zealanders get good jobs from high-value manufacturing advanced technology high-value services and the primary sector but where we do not just milk it we think it. We add value to the bucket of milk with science nutraceuticals advanced foods and good branding. That is how you make a buck in this world. Labour has the economic policies that will deliver that outcome at the macro level as we have made clear to the public with tax policies that will encourage capital to flow where it does the most good—not to the slick-shoed property developer mates of that Government and not to the slimy bond-traders who are ripping everybody else off and holding the country to account but to real business people building real businesses exporting products and employing New Zealanders. We have a strong universal savings plan that will create the pools of capital for investment while providing the nest eggs New Zealanders need. 
We have a cradle-to-grave view of education being led in the post-school area by my colleague Jacinda Ardern which means that no New Zealander out of school is going to be left on the scrap heap. They will be earning or learning—all of them. We are going to use the unemployment benefit for apprenticeships and get employers employing our young people to give them hope and a real start in the job market. 
Jonathan Young 
: Good idea. Let’s call it Youth Guarantee. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Mr Young we are not going to forget them when they get to your age. We are going to make sure that there are lifelong learning opportunities and I wish you well for your next job. I wish the member well because no New Zealander at that certain age should be left on the scrap heap. There is still life in the old dog as they say. He deserves another chance. When the good people of New Plymouth come to their senses and send him down the road we hope there will be a Labour Government that can help him retrain for something more useful and something more useful than his current employment of propping up this good-for-nothing Government with its vacuous glossies—vacuous glossies. All joking aside— 
Jonathan Young 
: Yeah it is a joke. It’s a joke. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: It would be funny Mr Young—Rev. Young—if it were not for the fact that last month a record number of New Zealanders gave up on their country gave up on their future and left for good. 
We owe them better than that. We owe the guys who earned these wooden plaques around this building and who fought for our country better than that and we remember some tragically today. We owe them all better than that. We owe them every bit of brain power every bit of hard graft every bit of international research every bit of worthwhile investment and every bit of lining up the ducks for a better future. What we do not want is wafer-thin glossy little brochures that talk about branding and spin while New Zealanders are dying on the dole queue or leaving for Australia.