General Debate

I move, That the House take note of miscellaneous business. When it was announced that the United Nations Security Council was endorsing a no-fly zone over Libya, many New Zealanders were pleased. They had been cheering the rebel movement as it liberated towns held by the dictator Gaddafi. However, it then seemed that Gaddafi’s counter-offensive might be successful, mainly because he controlled the air and had more tanks and artillery pieces. The subsequent air strikes by French, British, and American planes have weakened Gaddafi’s forces, but there are also fears from several Governments about where this might all be leading to.

Five very important Governments—Germany, India, Brazil, Russia, and China—abstained during the vote on the Security Council resolution, party because it gives such a very broad mandate to any Government taking military action against Libya. Although the resolution talks about a no-fly zone, it also allows Governments “to take all necessary measures to protect civilians” in Libya. Basically, the French and the British are taking this to mean any military action against any targets. Coalition commanders were quoted yesterday in the New Zealand Herald as saying that this could include ground intervention if Gaddafi stays in power. Yesterday the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, refused to rule out assassinating Gaddafi. Our Government was wrong to endorse a UN resolution that is not really about just a no-fly zone but is actually more about regime change. It was a dishonest resolution, it has divided the world community, and it will not necessarily lead to a good outcome for Libya.

On a political level the resolution has been a boon to Gaddafi. The dictator can now sidestep the issue of democracy and present the war as one against foreign invaders from the same countries that back Israel and had previously invaded other Arab countries—most recently, Iraq. Gaddafi will also play up all the civilian casualties that will inevitably result from the strikes.

💬 Hon Steve Chadwick: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. It is very difficult to hear the speaker with conversations in the House.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: I appreciate the point of order raised by the honourable member. Would members please, if they are having private conversations, go into the lobby to have them. It is discourteous to the member speaking for members to hold conversations in the House, and the noise makes it hard for other members to hear. Keith Locke, I apologise.

Politically, the resolution has probably strengthened Gaddafi’s hold on the most important city, Tripoli, and we may be heading to a military and political stalemate in Libya.

The problem with foreign interventions bent on regime change is that the results are unpredictable and can be very bad. As we have seen in Iraq and in Afghanistan, more bloodshed followed when the United States brought about regime change and installed compliant leaders.

There is also cynicism that the motives of the invading powers, previously in relation to Iraq and to Afghanistan, and now to Libya, might have more to do with oil supplies than with democracy. The same Governments bombing Libya give their full backing to the Saudi regime, which is arguably even more oppressive than Gaddafi’s. What criticism did we hear when Saudi troops invaded Bahrain 9 days ago to help crush the democracy movement there? We will not hear any criticism from Obama, Cameron, or Sarkozy as long as the oil keeps flowing from the Saudi fields.

The Greens say yes, we should stand with the democratic forces in Libya confronting the Gaddafi dictatorship. We support our Government implementing international sanctions imposed on the regime, a ban on travel to New Zealand by members of the regime, and the freezing of any assets held by Gaddafi and his cronies. The Greens support the suspension of education exchange programmes now operating between New Zealand and Libya. Unlike Western Governments, including New Zealand’s, the Greens are consistent in their support for the emerging democracy movement in many Middle-Eastern countries, whether it be in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco, Oman, Syria, Iran, or Saudi Arabia.

It was interesting that when hundreds of thousands of Egyptians were out on the streets our Prime Minister and our Minister of Foreign Affairs did not endorse the call for Mubarak to go. Even moral support for regime change was not on the agenda. Instead, they praised Mubarak’s statesmanship and called for restraint from the demonstrators. We will probably be waiting for a while to hear our Government give any moral support to democratic opponents of the Saudi regime.

Step by step the people of Tunisia and Egypt are democratising their political systems. The people themselves own the process and are showing an enthusiasm for democracy that is truly inspiring. It is a better and more effective path to democracy than one brought about by planes or invading forces from Western nations.

I acknowledge the Greens’ principled stance on those issues, alongside its principled stance on proposing an earthquake levy. The Greens create circumstances that embarrass Labour into stating some position on how it would pay for not just the earthquake but also the many other promises that it is now making.

Many of us attended the Christchurch earthquake memorial service last week, and I take this opportunity to acknowledge, particularly, the presence of the Australian Prime Minister, the Australian Leader of the Opposition, and the Australian Governor-General. It was a generous gesture on their part, all three of them, to do something that, I understand, they have not done before, and that is to all leave the country at the same time to come to New Zealand, without seeking, necessarily, the high profile that one would expect overseas leaders to seek.

As the dust clears, literally, from the earthquake, the impact of it on the economy and on the Government is also becoming a bit clearer. The Government is determined to continue with its longer-term programme to rebalance the economy. Although the earthquake is a significant setback, it is not sufficient a knock to push us off course, and at times like these we need to remind ourselves of just what that course is. As we talked about in question time, the Government has set out to rebalance this economy, with the assistance of New Zealand households and businesses, who, after all, make the decisions that actually change the economy. We need to rebalance the economy because it got way out of balance. We had excessive consumption and we had a housing boom—both of which were funded by very rapid growth in debt, particularly in the private sector. So in 2007, for instance, total credit in this economy grew by something like 25 percent. This year it is growing by about 1 percent.

New Zealanders have realised that excessive reliance on debt for a sense of wealth and well-being is not sustainable. The global financial crisis has brought that to a pretty sudden halt. At the same time, we need to beef up the earning capacity of this economy. From 2004 onwards, our export sector shrank by about 10 percent through to 2010, while our domestic and spending sectors grew by about 15 percent. The shrinkage of our export sector had meant that there would be no new jobs in the export sector for 10 years. All the new jobs that were created through the first decade of this century were in the non-tradable, non-competitive sector, dominated by Government and the extravagant management and wasteful spending of the previous Government.

The final part of the tax package, which comes into effect on 1 April this year, is one way of helping to rebalance the economy, and I think the tax package has had some effect. People are being more careful with their spending. They would have been, anyway, but the increase in GST has certainly created more of an incentive for them to be careful. We reduced the tax on income back in October, but have now reduced the taxes on companies and on savings vehicles, and have increased the taxation on housing. All of this is designed, over the longer term, not to put money in people’s pockets straight away, although most New Zealanders are better off as a result of the tax changes, but to push this economy in the direction of more saving, more earning, more exporting, and more investing.

The impact of the earthquake is quite significant and it will somewhat delay that process. But I do not think there is any debate really, even from the Opposition, about the direction of the plan this Government has for the economy. Opposition members may argue about bits and pieces, but we are staying on track. We will absorb the impact of the earthquake, and stick to the plan.

“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 Whānau Ora. I will be interested to know what the Māori Party thinks about this. John Key said yesterday that he is looking at scaling back Whānau Ora. What did Government members say about Whānau 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 Whānau Ora and the positive difference it could make. Why is Whānau 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.

I had the absolute privilege to attend not one but, in fact, two memorial services in Christchurch last week. Along with many other people in this House, I was humbled to be able to attend on Friday, on a beautiful Christchurch day, the national memorial service for the people who lost their lives in the Christchurch earthquake. It was an absolutely wonderful service, and a service that I think was very fitting for the people of Christchurch, and for the families and friends of those who died.

The other service I attended last week was also sad and poignant, yet wonderful. The service was held on the Monday night, at the beginning of the week, and it was particularly for the victims who were either staff or students of King’s Education, who were in the CTV building. Many in the House will know that approximately 80 people have either lost their lives or are missing, as a result of being staff or students of King’s Education. It was a much smaller service but still quite large; several hundred people were there. We were able to get a glimpse of the lives and aspirations of the staff and students at that institution. I take the opportunity to pay tribute to the surviving staff members and the surviving directors of King’s Education for the way they have coped with the tragedy that has befallen their institution.

Two videos were shown at the Friday service. The first one, at the start, was of the damage to Christchurch, particularly to the central business district but also around the city. The second video was shown at the end of the service, and I thought it encapsulated what I have come to know as the indomitable spirit of Christchurch people. It was a marvellous video, which showed people not just surviving in adversity but also having the opportunity to show their spirit, their courage, and sometimes their humour, as they began the very big task of rebuilding their city. Although we are not stopping the grieving process, it is time for us all to turn to look at the rebuild of Christchurch. It will be a very big job—a very big job, not just in the term of this Government but, after the upcoming election, in the next 3 years of the Government of the day, as well.

I turn to the portfolio areas that I am particularly familiar with. In the area of tertiary education, not only has the private sector, which was stationed in the middle of town, been very seriously affected but also affected is the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, the big polytechnic in the city, which is inside the area of the original cordon. I pay tribute to the way the management and staff have that institution up and running again. Canterbury University, of course, is a very, very big institution, and it has been very significantly affected. The university has its students learning under canvas at the moment and for the next several weeks in Christchurch, to show that it can get the show back on the road. There are also other institutions a little less affected, like Lincoln University and Otago University, which have not only looked after their own people but offered help to other institutions.

I have looked at the transport sector, as well. On Thursday I again had the opportunity to go around and see for myself the state of the roading system in Christchurch, and I can tell the House that there is a huge amount of work to be done there, for all of us. The telecommunications sector has been a bit of a sleeping giant in the earthquake, but I pay tribute to the companies that were involved, in terms of how quickly they were able to get the telecommunications system up and kept it going—particularly the cellphone systems in the city—not just at the time of the earthquake but 3 or 4 days later when we were all running around trying to get the right number of generators to cellphone sites to ensure that they kept going.

The rebuild of Christchurch is a very big job, and, as the Minister of Finance has said, the Government will be committing very, very significant sums of money up front. Then we will have to work out how to bring the books back into balance. That is what this Government is focused on right now. We have rejected the idea of an earthquake levy, because it would just add to people’s cost of living as the economy comes out of recession. But, instead, we have said that we will watch very carefully our Government expenditure in the years ahead. That programme was already being worked on. It was signalled in the January state of the nation speech made by the Prime Minister, and it will be accelerated to ensure not just that the Government gets its books back into balance but that international lenders, who lend money to us as a country, can also have confidence in the future of New Zealand and in our ability to recover from this earthquake.

The Opposition joins with the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Transport, who has just spoken, in acknowledging the Christchurch memorial service, the loss of life from the earthquake, and, of course, the presence of the Australian Prime Minister, Opposition leader, and Governor-General, which was deeply appreciated.

But that is where our agreement with the Minister of Finance stops, because his next statement was that National was going to stay the course. Well, that raises the obvious question: which course will National stay? Is it last week’s course, when it was putting the whole cost of the earthquake on “Bill’s bill”—putting it on the plastic, carrying it all as debt? That was too much for the Greens, who came out and said that National was fiscally irresponsible, and the International Monetary Fund agreed. That was too much for John Key; he had to go on nationwide TV, overrule his Minister and say: “No, you’re not, Bill; I’m slashing your Budget to zero.” As Russel Norman has pointed out today, that is a real-terms cut that will hurt New Zealanders deeply.

Then Mr English trotted out the same old furphy about rebalancing. But I say that National’s recession is because of National’s mismanagement. It is not because of rebalancing, because the bad news, which was proved by the Reserve Bank last week, is that rebalancing has not actually started yet. Households and businesses in New Zealand owe more debt today than they did last year and more debt today than they did when National took office, and under National will not actually start turning a corner until 2013. So it is not rebalancing—at least, not yet. The economy is going backwards because the Government has no plan. It is changing and it is lurching all over the road, as we have seen in the last couple of weeks.

But at a time when commodity prices are at all-time highs, and when our biggest trading partners—Australia and Japan—are doing well, we should be moving forward. But we are not, because National has mismanaged the economy. There is no growth, jobs are being lost, families are under pressure, prices are rising, and people are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet.

💬 Su’a William Sio: We’re going backwards.

We are going backwards. It is time that this Government took responsibility. Economic commentators have pointed out the obvious. On 13 March one commentator wrote: “If bombed-out economies like the US and the UK are showing strong signs of investment-led recovery, why can’t we?”, and a further comment was made that “This new recession is the Government’s—it must own up.” We agree. There is no plan. The tax switch did not work. Giving $43 million a week in tax cuts to the top 10 percent of taxpayers was lunacy. It took that money out of circulation, it meant people lost jobs, and it added to debt at a time when New Zealanders could least afford it.

The Minister of Finance said he inherited a reasonably strong position, and he did. Labour left the books in credit to the tune of 4.7 percent of GDP, as he said, for a rainy day. The rainy day came, but, unfortunately, he milked it for tax cuts for people who did not need them. That is why National is having to cut the Budget in 2011 to zero, which is a real-terms cut.

Here is another lurch. Just a month ago National said that the biggest problem facing the country was savings and that this Budget would be about savings. That was pretty ironic then, because it had already cut a billion dollars out of KiwiSaver incentives and had cut—wait for it—$42 billion cumulatively out of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.

H V Ross Robertson: How much?

National took $42 billion out of the Superannuation Fund, according to the Treasury documents put to the Finance and Expenditure Committee by the Retirement Commissioner, taking the level of funding down to only 57 percent of its previous level. That is incredible. National has beggared New Zealand superannuation.

Then National members said that this Budget would be about savings and that they were going to implement the Savings Working Group report. Guess what? The tax sweeteners in the Savings Working Group report all cost around a billion dollars each, like indexation. How will they afford that under John Key’s zero Budget? Where is that billion dollars coming from? It might be coming from KiwiSaver. KiwiSaver has been the single most successful savings plan in New Zealand history and this Government is going to wreck it. Government members will wreck it even more than they have, because they do not know their economic backside from their economic elbow.

I start by acknowledging Christchurch. It is now over a month after the devastation, and I will say exactly where we are on responding to people’s needs and also what a movement there has been to respond quickly and to get help to where it needs to be. There is the earthquake support subsidy. Nearly $146 million has been paid into that subsidy, and I will tell members where that subsidy is going. It is for those businesses that need support. There have been nearly 9,000 applications supporting more than 45,000 employees and 10,600 sole traders and contractors. The list goes on.

I will talk about the way we have had to shift those resources to where they are needed and what that means for the rest of the country, because, as identified, we are still in tough times. We still have people needing the State to lean on. People still need to walk into Work and Income to get that sort of support. We still want to make sure that superannuitants are being paid and are getting the level of service they need. We have had to make sure that that was happening.

We needed to make some changes. We have had to make some changes over the last couple of years, and I stand up quite proudly to talk about those changes. We needed to be more efficient, we needed to be smarter at how we work with people, we needed to put more into the front line, and we needed to look at how we were actually helping people as they came in. In the worst of times, we have shortened waiting times for those who go into Work and Income, and we can be proud of that.

When it comes to this Budget, we will be making changes. We will be making changes, we will be demanding efficiencies, and we will also be looking at what is and is not working. We talk about it a lot, but it is truly evidence-based to say that we are making a difference for those families who genuinely need it.

We heard from Annette King that she has the silver bullet for how she will help under-5-year-olds. Well, I say what a load of rubbish. We need to go through step-by-step incremental changes and make tough decisions to cut and shut down what is not working. It is about stepping up, making a difference, and putting children at the centre of what we do for them. It is not about throwing more money at a problem, standing back, crossing one’s fingers, and hoping and thinking it will be an easy call to make. These are the tough decisions that Labour members, under 9 years of a Labour Government, were not prepared to make. We did not see the tough decisions being made for the families who needed them most. Now those members sit on the Opposition benches, and they think that they can throw out a few sexy headlines for the newspapers and that will make a difference for the children who are truly broken and hurting out there.

Under this Government we have had 12 new initiatives that are evidence-based and that are making a direct difference for those children who need them—a direct difference for those children who truly need them. The initiatives are not in the headlines we see on the front page of the newspapers. They are not the ones that numerous stories will be written about. They are the ones that are fundamentally making a difference on the ground. We are working with the right professionals, the right people, for those children. These initiatives are the ones that will make the most difference.

We will also do some of the other stuff that is hard to do. I will give some examples of what we have done already. We looked at the Training Opportunities Programme. Let us look at what that was. It was run through tertiary education, but we took some of that back under the Ministry of Social Development and looked at what needed to be done for those sorts of programmes in both cities and provinces. We said that we would be focusing that spending on employment where it needs to have an education focus. All the evidence tells us that industry partnerships relating training to the jobs that young people are going into will help not just those young people but anyone else on an unemployment benefit more than any other programme we do. Let us get back to the evidence base. What a difference it will make!

Under the Ministry of Youth Development, which I am also responsible for, the range, reach, and relevance initiative that we have run in the last 12 months has meant that in some cases we have quadrupled the number of young people we are working with. That has meant being smarter, and it has meant getting an evidence base for the number of weeks we should work with a family.

We hear a lot that things do not need more money; we just need to work smarter. Things do not need to have a lot more dollars thrown at them, but tough decisions do need to be made. I am proud to be part of a Government that will stand up and make those decisions. We will hear from the bleeding hearts who say: “Oh my goodness, my favourite programme or my favourite little neighbourhood thing is getting a little shaky.” I say that we should make the tough decisions and put the children at the foremost of what we are doing. We can make a significant difference not just for them but for our economy, as well.

Along with many members of this House I had the privilege of joining tens of thousands of New Zealanders—mostly Cantabrians, one would assume—in Hagley Park last Friday for the memorial service to honour those who died in the tragedy that struck Christchurch, Lyttelton, and surrounding areas on 22 February. In every respect it was a deeply moving and memorable experience. As others have done in earlier debates, I place on record my personal condolences and aroha to the relatives and friends of the deceased, and my sympathy and best wishes to all who are recovering from the terror and pain inflicted by the earthquake, and, in some cases, from horrific injuries.

I also acknowledge and thank the hundreds of wonderful people, many of them volunteers, who have worked tirelessly over the past month, often ignoring their own personal losses and setbacks to support the recovery effort to comfort, heal, and assist those who have suffered bereavement, injury, and loss. Although we all wish that their work had not been necessary and pray that the aftershocks will soon come to an end, the selflessness, stoicism, courage, and commitment of all who have played a part in the rescue and recovery efforts to date have been outstanding.

I too have been very proud to be a New Zealander over the past month. I also thank those who have very generously supported the thousands of earthquake appeal fund-raising activities that have already been held, and that will continue to be held, throughout the country for some time to come. The Lord loves a cheerful giver, and New Zealanders have once again shown themselves to be very generous.

In light of the incomprehensible devastation and misery that has subsequently been inflicted upon so many people in Japan as a consequence of the horrific earthquake and tsunami that struck that country earlier this month, it is also appropriate to acknowledge our friends from many other countries who assisted our work in Christchurch and then went to the aid of the Japanese. We have seen many humbling demonstrations of heroism in recent weeks. I offer my sympathy and best wishes to the Government and the people of Japan at this very sad and challenging time for their country.

The service held in Hagley Park on Friday was an important opportunity for the families of victims to grieve, and for the rest of the country to offer them our comfort and support. It was an honour to have Prince William with us, representing the Queen. I also acknowledge the great compliment that the Governor-General of Australia, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and Opposition leader Tony Abbott paid to New Zealand in attending the service. Responses to a staggering series of disasters in both countries in recent times have revealed that the trans-Tasman relationship is as solid as it has ever been.

For me, the highlight of the service last Friday was Hayley Westenra’s unaccompanied rendition of “Amazing Grace”. It was hauntingly beautiful, and seldom can those lyrics have struck a more poignant chord. Dave Dobbyn, Dame Malvina Major, Patrick Manning—the young chorister with whom Dame Malvina sang “Pie Jesu” so well—and several other artists, speakers, and representatives of many faith communities all contributed to an unforgettable service that was a dignified and fitting tribute with a distinctively Kiwi flavour.

I lived in Christchurch for 3 years in the mid-1980s, and I have fond memories of the beauty of that city’s natural environment and its distinctive architecture. I worshipped in the Anglican cathedral on several occasions, and I attended a friend’s wedding in the Catholic cathedral. To see those historic and beautiful icons of that city so badly damaged is heartbreaking. Those of us who no longer live in Christchurch can only try to imagine the distress of those whose homes, communities, and workplaces have been destroyed or badly damaged. What we can do, and must do, however, is support them in every way we can to rebuild their city and livelihoods. We will do that not, as some have suggested, by way of a burdensome levy but by a combination of responsible borrowing and reallocated capital spending, as was signalled earlier this week by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance.

As earlier Government speakers have already noted, helping to support and rebuild Christchurch is among the most important tasks the Government will undertake this year and for the foreseeable future. We will all share in that burden, and I believe all New Zealanders understand and support that commitment. My constituents in Hamilton certainly do. Cantabrians deserve that undertaking, and we will not let them down.

Friday was the chance for New Zealanders to come together to grieve as a country at the national memorial service. When Prince William, quoting his grandmother, said that grief was the price we pay for love, that sentiment was present not only among those in Christchurch but among the tens of thousands of people who were listening on the radio or watching on the television. I was proud to represent the people of Taupō, but I left that service enormously proud to be a New Zealander, because the people of Christchurch and also those in Taupō and across the rest of New Zealand have demonstrated with their actions their love, as well as their grief. There are nearly 100 evacuees from Christchurch who have gone either temporarily or permanently to the Taupō electorate.

The daily activities of fundraising for those who remain in Christchurch humble me. Whether it is a truckload of groceries, walkathons, coin trails at schools, a swimathon in Cambridge, auctions, or adding a few dollars at the supermarket checkout every time one passes through, those very actions support the people of Christchurch. The most recent initiative is one I am really enjoying through my electorate offices, and that is the Shoe Boxes of Love. Every day I have care parcels turning up in my office. Some are labelled “6 to 8-year-old girl”, and in the shoebox are some lollies, some colouring pens, some books, and there might be some bubble bath—all sorts of bits and pieces that somebody has put a lot of thought and attention into collecting. When that box arrives in Christchurch the recipients will know that love has been sent in that box. Every person is contributing to the rebuilding of Christchurch.

I do not think that anyone in this room could dispute the fact that 22 February changed our landscape physically, financially, and socially, so I was quite staggered that the first speaker in the general debate from the Opposition did not even pay attention to the enormous challenge we have ahead of us as a country. I do not think helping to support and rebuild Christchurch is a boring matter, unlike some of the members sitting opposite. It is important for us as a Government to make sure we get it right, and it will be a priority for us this year and for years ahead. It is actually essential for all New Zealand. But while we do this it is important that we continue with our economic plan. We need to reduce New Zealand’s vulnerability to foreign lenders. We need to reduce New Zealand’s levels of consumption and levels of debt, and to make sure we look at our savings and investment. We need to make sure that our national savings are growing and that we are exporting across the world more of what we grow.

The earthquake will, unfortunately, delay our return to surplus but it is also important that as a country we stay on top of the levels of debt we incur. We will need to borrow a little more in the short term to meet the Government’s share of the costs of the earthquake as we redirect some capital spending to Christchurch. Major infrastructure projects the Government has already committed to will not be put off. I have seen very directly the economic benefits these sorts of infrastructure projects provide in Taupō, and we need more of those benefits. As the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have said, we also need to look carefully at our spending priorities so we can return to surplus and start repaying debt. While making those decisions, though, we will also protect the most vulnerable and improve public services. If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a country to rebuild a city. This side of the House is focused on that.

On this side of the House we are very well aware of the Canterbury earthquake. We are extremely well aware of the impact it has had on individuals, families, communities, and the whole of Christchurch city. We are extremely well aware of the impact it has on the New Zealand economy. It is offensive to have a member of the Government stand up and tell people on this side of the House that we do not understand the impact of the Canterbury earthquake. We know the struggles people in Canterbury are having every single day, and we support them.

But the problems in the New Zealand economy go back far further than the earthquake. The problems in the New Zealand economy stem from the economic mismanagement of Bill English’s 2½ years as Minister of Finance. That is the problem. This recession is National’s recession; this is the recession it has driven us into. New Zealand is going backwards under National. This recession lies at the feet of the National Government, because it does not have a real economic plan. It looked as though Louise Upston was going to upstage Bill English and finally announce National’s economic plan, but, no, she did not really go there. The best we have seen is asset sales. The best we have seen is a slash-and-burn Budget.

I think there is one thing the House can come together on, perhaps with the exception of Hilary Calvert. There is one thing we can come together on in terms of savings from the Budget, and that is the end of the 2025 Taskforce. It can be done; I think we can come together across the House on this. However, there is a bit of a problem for National in that plan, in that the savings will get from that will probably not amount to much because Don Brash blew the budget in the first year. I think a whole lot of the money has gone. So, unfortunately, that will not be the answer to New Zealand’s economic woes, either. This National Government does not have a plan.

In question time today we saw just how out of touch this Government is with New Zealanders’ everyday struggles. Paula Bennett stood up in this House and said this Government is making tough decisions. I tell Paula Bennett that the people who are making the tough decisions in New Zealand are the families who have to decide whether they can take their children to the doctor or put healthy food on the table. That kind of decision is one that no family in New Zealand should have to face. But that is what is happening as the cost of living goes up, as petrol prices go through the roof, as rents go up, and as the cost of power goes up. People are being faced with decisions that none of us would want to have to make. Some families have to spend 20 percent of their weekly food budget on a visit to the doctor, as a person from the Kapiti coast wrote to tell me. That is unacceptable.

On this side of the House we all know, and New Zealanders know, what a zero Budget looks like. It looks like cuts in areas of importance to New Zealand. Newspaper headlines like the one I have here: “Big Health Cuts On The Way” were for last year’s Budget, let alone the cuts that will be in this year’s Budget. We know from the 1990s what a slash-and-burn Budget looks like in health: it looks like the increased cost of going to the doctor, of prescriptions, and of user charges. Those are the things that a National Government brought in last time there was a zero Budget. That is what we are looking out for. We know that despite the National Government’s spin that it will be spending more on health next year, it will not be enough to make health spending stand still. It is a little like going to the supermarket and saying: “I spent more on my groceries this week, but I didn’t get as many things in the basket.” Those costs have gone up, and that is what is happening in health. The cost of actually delivering health care with things like an ageing population will mean that health cuts are on the way.

Education cuts are on the way, let alone the cuts to Working for Families, and cuts to early childhood education. We need to see these things as an investment in our future. We need to invest in people, in skills training, and in innovation. Those are the things that Governments should be doing. They should be acting against the tide, making sure that people have the skills to be able to grow our economy, and to create jobs and opportunities for our children and our grandchildren. If we do not protect the assets that have been built up by past generations, and use them for future generations, what is the point of Government? This Government is taking a short-term view.

Everybody in New Zealand knows that we have to be careful with the management of the economy, but to slash-and-burn, and to take money out of the pockets of people who need it and put it into the pockets of those who do not will not grow our economy, and will not lead to the kind of future that our children and grandchildren will need to achieve their potential. Labour is focused on policies that will enhance the well-being of children and protect our assets, not on slash-and-burn.

Ka karuerue te papa

He pie auē

Ka huki te whenua

Ka hopo, ka taki kau

The land heaves

A desperate call is heard

the land thrusts

a cry of sorrow resounds

across the Canterbury Plains

It was exquisitely painful to be there. Last Friday I attended the national Christchurch memorial service at Hagley Park. Those words by Charisma Rangipunga were written at the front of the memorial programme. Hagley Park was looking at its best: beautiful majestic trees, blue sky, and warm sun overhead framing the tens of thousands of people attending the event. They were there to honour those who had lost loved ones, those who were grievously injured, and those whose homes or businesses had been destroyed, and, indeed, to acknowledge the fact that New Zealand itself has been indelibly scarred by this tragic event. It was exquisitely painful to be there; the universal sense of loss was palpable. All present, whether prince, policeman, Prime Minister, fireman, victim support worker, urban search and rescue team member, diplomat, Christchurch resident, or one of the many who came from outside Christchurch, or indeed from beyond our shores, were united in their grief. Prince William so eloquently quoted his grandmother: “Grief is the price we pay for love.”

As the ceremony progressed it reflected the enormous amount of shared resolve, courage, and hope among those present, and indeed the ceremony itself was uplifting when one realised the enormity of those emotions. Representatives from Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Baha’i, and Christian religions offered prayers on behalf of many faiths of the world. Hayley Westenra looked angelic, and gave a haunting and ethereally beautiful rendition of “Amazing Grace”. I wager there was not one dry eye in the tens of thousands of those present. Dave Dobbyn, in his normal inimitable style, sang the anthemic “Loyal”. The message was clear: New Zealand is standing alongside Christchurch and is committed to its future. We gathered there to mark the worst of times, and whilst there we observed New Zealand and the actions of New Zealanders at their finest.

There is unlikely to be anyone untouched in some way by the Christchurch earthquake. New Zealanders—most of us—have friends, and some of us have family, in Christchurch. Fortunately, most of us have not lost loved ones, but many know people who have had their homes destroyed or who have lost property. I personally found out only 2 days ago that a colleague I had worked with in the Auckland hospital service, when a house surgeon, had just opened a practice in the CTV building, and he was lost in this tragedy.

At this stage, as many speakers at the memorial service acknowledged, I acknowledge the tragedy in Japan: an earthquake of 9 on the Richter scale that was almost a thousand times more fierce than the earthquake that did such devastation to Christchurch, the subsequent tsunami, and the radiation from damaged nuclear reactors that is complicating rescue efforts. I salute the stoicism and courage of the Japanese, and acknowledge their grief and loss.

“This is the rainy day that we have been saving for.” Those were the words of Bill English when he first became the Minister of Finance. He said that this was the rainy day that we were saving for. Well, if it was raining when National became the Government it must be pouring down now. National is talking about breaking all of the election promises that they made to New Zealanders at the last election. They were not going to cut KiwiSaver; now KiwiSaver is on the chopping-block. They were not going to touch Working for Families, but that is on the chopping-block. They were not going to sell assets, but they are on the chopping-block.

The slow-burning fire sale has started under the National Government. This is because of Bill English’s mismanagement of the economy, and because Bill English and John Key do not have a plan. They do not have a plan; they have no idea what is going on for ordinary, hard-working New Zealand families. Under National, New Zealand has been going backwards. What did John Key say on Monday? John Key said that he lived in the real world. In John Key’s real world he got an extra $1,000 a week in tax cuts. Some people struggle to earn that much money in a week, but John Key receives that much money each week, just in his tax cuts. That is the real world that John Key claims that he lives in.

John Key and Bill English, and the rest of the National Government, are totally out of touch with ordinary, hard-working New Zealanders who are struggling to make ends meet. The cost of living is going up, and every day when they fill up their cars or go to the supermarket they are facing increased prices. What is John Key’s and Bill English’s prescription for that? They will increase prices further. They will privatise accident compensation so that New Zealanders will pay more for their accident compensation cover and get less. They will sell State assets. They will sell the energy companies so that New Zealanders will pay more for their electricity. Of course New Zealanders will pay more for their electricity if the energy companies are sold, because any private investors in electricity companies will want to maximise their profits.

The Government’s plan for getting New Zealand out of the raining and pouring that Bill English is talking about is to load more and more of the cost of living on to ordinary New Zealand working families, because they do not have a plan and they do not know how to get New Zealand back on track. They do not know how to create jobs or lift wages. Their plan is to divide up and hock off whatever is left that the Government may hold.

I want to talk about the cuts in accident compensation that the Government is talking about—in fact, not just the cuts it is talking about but also the cuts it has already made. This morning Phil Goff and I accepted a petition on the forecourt of Parliament from the National Foundation for the Deaf. Under this National Government, because of the cuts that have been made, New Zealanders who have faced hearing loss in the workplace are no longer covered by accident compensation. Those New Zealanders cannot hear a conversation. If they were sitting up in the gallery here they would not be able to hear what I am saying, yet the National Government has cut the support that was previously available to them through accident compensation. That is an absolute disgrace.

If we say that we judge our society by how we treat the most vulnerable, this Government’s track record is an absolute indictment upon its Ministers because they are not doing well by that measure. They are cutting funding for children. They are cutting funding for the youngest children in early childhood education, whose parents are struggling to make ends meet, and now they are having to pay extra for the early childhood education that their children receive. They are cutting funding for people who need home help. Elderly New Zealanders who need home help are having that help cut.

💬 Paul Quinn: What about the 9,000 kōhanga reo and 16,000 Playcentres?

I am not going to listen to anything that Paul Quinn says because he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about. He seems to think that if he just says it with a bit more volume it might make some sense.

The youngest children are facing funding cuts. Elderly New Zealanders are facing funding cuts. Hard-working Kiwi families on the basic wage are facing cost of living increases on a day by day basis, yet this Government has no plan for them because Government members are not in it for them. Government members are in it for themselves and their mates. They do not really care about the New Zealanders on Struggle Street because in John Key’s real world, where one gets a tax cut of $1,000 a week, everything is going along nicely. In John Key’s world, where he gets a brand new BMW to cruise around in every 3 years, things are going along nicely. But things are not going along nicely for the New Zealanders who are working hard to make ends meet. They are struggling, and this Government has no plan to help them out.

I can tell those who are tuned into the parliamentary radio and TV stations that that speaker was Chris Hipkins. We can tell that he has spent only 2½ years, or a bit less in the House, because he did not recall the lack of direction and the stymied nature of the Labour Government in the last 3 years it was in power. Effectively, Labour was in office when we had the best economic times in the last 30 years, if not the last 70 years, and it completely wasted that opportunity. At the election in 2008 New Zealanders shifted their confidence in behind a John Key - led Government, and there we are today.

I would like to start off by dwelling a fraction on the solidarity shown at the Hagley Park event in Christchurch. It was a privilege to be there, and there were some enduring moments that were burnt into the minds and hearts of all present. We have to labour the thought a little, because it was a memorable event for those who were there. What really took my notice was the spontaneous applause for the urban search and rescue teams—it just burst out. It happened on and on throughout the event, and one had to try to capture that moment. There is a population down there who are crying out for support from the whole nation, and the Government is attuned to that.

I offer my congratulations to Gerry Brownlee, David Carter, and the rest of Cabinet as they wrestle with some incredible challenges. I had not been down to Christchurch even after the 4 September earthquake. I went down after the 18 March event and I visited my wife’s brothers, who have been quite affected by the earthquake. When we drove back down Ferry Road, up Fitzgerald Avenue, down Bealey Avenue, and out through Papanui Road, we started to grasp, without seeing the real damage inside the central business district, the magnitude of the challenge facing the people of Christchurch, the nation of New Zealand, and this Government.

I want to dwell on the bright parts of the economy at the moment, and a side of the economy that has been our backbone for many, many years—the primary sector. I think it is opportune for us all to give credit to the primary sector because it produces and creates jobs. There is a bright future for this nation so long as we have a robust and vibrant primary sector. The dairy industry is in good shape. It is working well and we need to applaud it. The sheep and beef sector is in good shape. It is in the best shape it has been in for 20 years. When we look at the cost of an earthquake and the effect of the downturn in the domestic product of this country of 15 percent, we see it is understandable why we have to show some consideration and care around the decisions that will be made in the forthcoming Budget. The aquaculture industry is poised to make a major contribution to this nation’s economy, and this Government shall unleash the potential by revenue and by opportunities of employment. Then we have only to reflect back a bit further to the Canterbury Water Management Strategy.

The Government is getting itself in order. It has the commissioners working overtime to ensure that we break through the impasse of debate and discussion and no activity. The things I have mentioned are part of the very plan that this Government will unleash, and it contrasts very clearly with that plan of the Labour members, who in the very best of times continued talking, got nothing done, and stymied the very opportunities to grow an economy and build capacity. The people of New Zealand clearly have confidence in this Government and they will return it in 2011. Thank you very much.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.