O'Connor Damien: Address in ReplyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Connor Damien: Address in Reply[Sitting date: 29 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:405. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Labour—West Coast - Tasman):It is indeed a privilege to be able to stand and speak in the 51st Parliament. As is tradition I would like to acknowledge the Speakers but also you in particular Mr Assistant Speaker as going from being just another sitting duck to the person holding the shotgun. You have moved up the ranks to being someone now and I just hope you get the right targets in your new role.I would like to acknowledge all the new MPs. There were some spectacular and wonderful maiden speeches here. I would like to acknowledge the retreads and in fact everyone who has had the privilege of being elected to this Parliament but in particular the constituent MPs whom I have a passion for because those people—and I would like to think I myself—have I guess won the trust of a geographical area of the country and have the responsibility to represent all the hopes and aspirations of those people.I would like to acknowledge the team who helped me get back here to Parliament. One volunteer drove 18000 kilometres to put up and service my signs. I alone did 20000 kilometres in about 6 weeks getting around West Coast - Tasman. It is the most spectacular electorate in the country. Eight national parks are in or bound on my electorate. Beat that. I am sure that nowhere else in the world could claim that.Yes there was a reality that we did not do too well in the election and we have a lot to learn from that. I think each and every one of us in Labour will be going away and listening and will be taking on board the lessons of a campaign that did not give us a brilliant outcome. What makes it more frustrating is that we will be sitting here while the National Government continues on its path to destruction for our country.I have found it hard to celebrate since getting elected back in because the National Party is taking this country away from the values and the aspirations that people fought for through two world wars and other conflicts that people worked hard for in order to build this country into what it is—a fair country and a country where any child from any town or city should be able to reach the heights of their talents their aspirations and their wishes. That is no longer true unfortunately and I have seen this country since 2008 head down the wrong path.Indeed some could say that we are moving from social welfare to corporate welfare. We have gone from a caring to a sharing country. The problem is that the sharing is just among the mates of the National Party over there. It is among those who have the wealth and who have the control and who happen to be getting a bigger slice of the pie.Nowhere is this better explained than by having a look at social welfare fraud versus tax evasion. If you look through it in 2011 a study was done—it was a couple of years ago but there has not been much change—where it was estimated there was about $39 million of social welfare fraud across this economy. No one condones fraud in any way. At the same time and in the same year there was $1 billion to $6 billion of tax evasion—$1 billion to $6 billion. We hear lots from the Ministers over there and from all the pious MPs about how we have to clamp down on ACC fraud—we heard figures today—and how we have to clamp down on DPB fraud. We hear occasionally about tax evasion. In fact today the Minister of Revenue made an announcement and said that overseas companies that are evading tax effectively have another 5 years before the Government will clamp down on them.I looked at some of the figures. There is average benefit fraud of $70000. That is quite high I have to say. The chances of going to jail if convicted are 60 percent on a figure of $70000. The average tax fraud on the other hand is $270000. You have got a 22 percent chance of going to jail. That is the seeping mentality driven by the National Government that has allowed judges to impose those quite unfair penalties on New Zealanders. We do not condone any fraud—but just make it fair and get it right and do not look after mates.We have gone from being a country that has tried its best to create real wealth through primary sectors. We have had a couple of people speaking—in fact the Associate Minister for Primary Industries was spouting on before about the wonderful things that the National Government is doing. We have gone to speculation from real wealth creation. The National Party used to be made up of a fair chunk of farmers and there were jokes made about that but at least they were people who understood. Shane Ardern was one of them here who had worked hard to create a farm and worked hard to create real wealth but he has moved on. In his place we have got traders academics lawyers and an influx of public relations spin-doctors into the National Party.So what has that done? It has shifted their heroes. Their heroes are now the people who run NZX the banks the overseas investors the insurance companies and the real estate agents. Those are the heroes of the National Party and those are the people whom the National Party is looking after very very well.Mr Thompson a senior real estate agent in Auckland said the other day that it is pretty hard and pretty tough for those people who do not have a home but that they are just going to have to lower their expectations—lower their expectations. Do you know why? He does not want more homes built. He wants a constrained market to push up prices so that every sale gives a better deal to a real estate agent and a real estate company and so that the banks can lend more money and they can all walk away with record profits as they have been doing. That is the environment that this National Government is creating in this country. It is unfair it is not right and it is not the country that our ancestors fought for and worked hard for.We did not get the capital gains tax right in selling it. We have got to look at it again. But the principle is sound. If someone can make $100000 selling a house in 2 years’ time and pay no tax and someone on $50000 a year working hard pays about one-third of their salary income or wages in tax that is unfair. So somehow we have to show New Zealanders that fairness should underline everything this Government does. We will look again at a capital gains tax as a way of keeping things fair.There are two things that are major problems in this country. The first is the value of houses the cost of houses—Jami-Lee Ross: The Labour Party.Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR: —the affordability of houses and the second one for that trader and speculator over there is the cost of farmland. It is the cost of farmland. We now have farmland going at about $40000 per hectare on average for dairy and people are struggling to make way at that level. What the Government is going to do—Lochinver Station is a classic—is open the doors to foreign investors to ensure that rural property values remain high and the banks do not take a bath and all their mates can walk away with the money in their pocket. The foreign investors who get the money at 1 percent can come in and make it pay maybe just. It is wrong because the value of New Zealand farmland is overvalued. It needs to go through a readjustment so that young New Zealanders can afford to get on to a farm create real wealth and support our rural communities.I will finish on one classic example of corporate welfare Primary Growth Partnerships. A previous speaker mentioned it. There are 17 programmes one completed $350 million of taxpayers’ money without any accountability at all—one completed. I went to the report and it is Stump to Pump. It is forest waste into biofuels. It says “… has the potential … [will] take longer [to establish a] test plant … [because the energy market] has softened … [and] biofuels development more challenging …”. This is a $13 million project $6.75 million of taxpayers’ money and that is all they come up with. The rest of the 16 projects will do no better mark my words. The Auditor-General is investigating and hopefully will expose one of the greatest examples of corporate welfare that this country has seen for a long time.The National Party has insulted the primary sector by forcing it down the throats of a few privileged in the primary sector while the farming sector matches it one to one and the farmers have paid the rest of it. This National Government is taking New Zealand down the gurgler and the sooner we get rid of it the better.