Duynhoven Harry: General Debate 
Duynhoven Harry: General Debate 
[Volume:623;Page:18491] 
Hon HARRY DUYNHOVEN (Minister for Transport Safety) 
: 
 It is really interesting to hear another litany of misery from the National Party because that is what we generally hear from it. We do not hear anything about the positive things that are happening in New Zealand. But we in the Government are proud New Zealanders. We believe the country has every reason to be very confident about the future and proud of what we have achieved as a country and as a Government. In the last 5 years economic growth has been continuous. In the past year to September we had 4.6 percent economic growth. When did we ever hear of that under National? We heard lots of stuff in 1990 about what the wonderful new National Government would do. What a disaster that was for 9 years. We lost jobs in the economy in that 9 years. 
What has happened under Labour? More than 250000 jobs have been added to the economy since the Labour-led Government came to power. The crime rate is at its lowest level for 21 years. That goes against all the horror stories we hear from the National Party. Those are not figures that are just plucked out of the air; they are official police figures used to compile statistics. That is not done by the Government; it is done by independent agencies. It is the lowest crime rate for 21 years. What about the Working for Families package? 
Benefit numbers are down and apprenticeships are up. The Modern Apprenticeships programme has already exceeded the target set for completion in this parliamentary term. We have over 7000 new Modern Apprentices already and we are well ahead of target. I am delighted with that. As one of the very few tradespeople who has ever been in the House—I was originally an electrician by trade—I am absolutely chuffed that we have made a huge turn-round in that sector of the economy. Without those 7000 Modern Apprentices and 126000 people in other industry training initiatives this country would be heading for an economic disaster. Instead we have turned that round. Let us remember it was the National administration in the 1990s that got rid of the Apprenticeship Act. It took away the signal that apprentices and tradespeople were important to the economy. But they are the people who produce and make things for the economy. 
Let us contrast the two approaches of Labour and National. We have had significant boosts in health and education spending. Labour is delivering and New Zealand is succeeding while National is sitting on the sidelines and whingeing. In Taranaki where I come from the fine city of New Plymouth is moving ahead like never before. In the time that I have been a member of Parliament it has been only in the last 5 years that my problem has been to find the extra people we need rather than the problem we had under the previous National-led Government of keeping the people we had in New Plymouth and keeping the jobs to keep them busy. The problem that we now have is to find the extra people we need in order to keep up with the growth in the economy and the demands for new skills and new skilled people for our economy. I think that is a terrific turn-round and I am really proud to be part of a Government that has achieved that. 
I contrast that with what is happening in the National Party. Last month we had the Orewa speech and the fall-out that occurred afterwards from Dr Brash’s speech—[ 
Interruption 
] What fall-out? Where is Katherine Rich? That is the fall-out. She was National’s most popular member—its best front-bench member I guess—and certainly one of the best women that the National Party has had for a long time. Let us not look just at the current members of Parliament. Members should think about Belinda Vernon. She was another good woman whom National got rid of. There has been a whole chain of folk who have been discarded as a result of the myopia of the National Party. I say to National it should get positive about New Zealand start applauding the positive things we have done and start telling us what its policies are instead of whining and whingeing.