Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement

It is a great privilege to be here making a contribution to the debate on the Prime Minister’s statement, the first with my Minister for Sport and Recreation hat on. I would like to pay tribute to a great New Zealander, Brendon McCullum, the Black Caps captain, who will be retiring this Saturday after playing his 101st test for New Zealand, 100 of them consecutive. He is a man who scored 14,000 runs in all forms of the game for New Zealand. He scored 11 test centuries and he has led that team fantastically well, and I think it is no euphemism to say he is a great New Zealander.

I see parallels between the way Brendon McCullum approaches cricket and the way our Prime Minister approaches politics—confident, assertive, on the front foot, and inspiring; a man whom people want to follow. Meanwhile, on the other side of the House you have got Andrew Little cowering in the dressing room on all fours, looking for his groin protector, knowing that he is soon going to face another well-directed kick from team-mate David Shearer. The contrast could not be greater.

Meanwhile, old Grant Robertson has been roly-polying off to Paris to learn about the future of work. I hope he has learnt that there is more to work than sitting in Copperfields eating sausage rolls. But I think he has changed his form somewhat. I hope is no longer sending strategy and communications expert Clare Curran off to the photocopier with old copies of The Economist to put together the manifesto. No, he has actually been writing some of it himself. And you have a look on the website. He has got his Future of Work Commission, which he is putting together, and he has made a very interesting connection. He says—and he has written this himself—“The big challenge for business is money.” So Grant Robertson has finally made that connection between business and money. And do you know what he thinks one of the answers for New Zealand business is? It is crowdfunding. You just send out an email, you put it on the net, you send a tweet, and the money rolls in.

It has been a great summer for New Zealand, not just on the sporting field but also in terms of the economy. We have got a growing economy. We have got real take-home wages growing by 3.1 percent over the last year, well ahead of the rate of inflation at 0.1 percent; 175,000 extra jobs over the past 3 years; and almost that number again coming into the economy by 2020. Net migration is through the roof. People want to actually come into this country. It is very different to when we had the previous Government, when people were leaving in droves. Unemployment is at the lowest since 2009—the third-highest employment rate in the world. There is a lot to be very, very pleased about.

But what I want to know is, what is up with Phil Goff getting a special dispensation to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)? What is all that about? I would have thought the only person who needs a special dispensation would be Andrew Little because he needs to be able to vote with the unions and against every former Labour leader who is still living. So you talk to Mike Moore, you talk to Helen Clark—they are all totally in favour of TPP. So what I want to know is why can Stuart Nash not have a dispensation? Why can Kelvin Davis not have a dispensation? Why can David Shearer not have a dispensation? Because they know that this is a deal that actually opens up 800 million new consumers for New Zealand, removes tariffs from 93 percent of our exports, and adds $2.7 billion to the economy by 2030. It is absolutely essential.

I want to know why, in the first week back in Parliament, was there not one single question in the House from the Labour Opposition members opposing TPP? They have gone on about it all summer. Why was it left to poor old Rino Tirikatene over there to be dragged out of the deep freeze on the backbenches, to be thawed out? They put in an electric charge to try to get a pulse and a brain wave, and then what is he talking about? Customs—the big issues. You really have to wonder what is going on there.

Then, of course, you have got Annette King. She is terribly impressed with herself, because she is the only person who actually wanted to be deputy leader and they made her deputy leader. She spent 6 years trying to wreck the health system—just brought back from the brink—so, I mean, how can she speak with any authority on health? She has been criticising us this week for asking for a 1 percent efficiency saving from district health boards. But do you know what? When Labour was in Government, it asked for an efficiency dividend automatically during its Budget. If that does not make a spokesperson look hypocritical, I do not know what does.

But I can tell you the health system is going extremely well—an extra $4 billion in funding under this Government, $400 million at the last Budget. We are focusing on services for New Zealanders. It is about quality of services. We have upped the rate of electives—50,000 extra electives over our time in Government. We have an extra 110,000 specialist appointments and 5,500 more doctors and nurses. What is Labour’s strategy on health? Frankly, there is not one. Its only answer is more money, and when it was in Government it doubled the budget, delivered 2,000 fewer operations, and sent 800 people to Australia for cancer treatment. Today in question time we were talking about free GP visits for under-13s. Labour hates that policy because it knows that it would have liked to take the credit for that, but, in actual fact, it is us who have delivered it. We are delivering for New Zealand families the best possible start in life.

But there are a lot of things, actually, that Labour would like to secretly support, like a change of flag. I mean, as you know, that is actually its policy—that is its policy—but it just cannot bear the fact that it is going to be someone else who gets to change it. I want Grant Robertson to really get up and say that he does not want the New Zealand flag to change.

So there is a lot of good stuff going on right across the health sector. We are focusing on Christchurch. Health in Christchurch—$147 million per year goes into the mental health ring-fence there, up $23 million on when National came into Government. The budget for the Canterbury District Health Board is now $1.37 billion. That has gone up $254 million under this Government. What we need to hear from the Labour Party is whether it has a plan for health, because I am pretty sure there is absolutely no plan there for it. We have also tackled the tough issues, things like Health Benefits Ltd. We have reformed that. That is now going to drive the back-office savings, which is going to fund more operations and more medicines for New Zealand. Pharmac—$150 million of extra funding there during our time in Government. We are very focused on providing the medicines that New Zealanders need.

And what Opposition members need to explain, if their strategy on health is just more and more money, is what that is going to do to their ability to maintain a surplus. Grant is shaking his head. I do not think he actually knows. I do not think he would actually have a clue how he is going to run the economy. So, when you look at it, the only party that can both manage the books and deliver better services for New Zealand is National, and we are continuing to do that. If you look at obesity, what is Labour going to do? It has decided it is going to regulate the amount of sugar in your food. Well, I do not think that is actually going to be very popular with New Zealanders.

What you can see there is Labour Opposition in complete disarray. Those members do not like their leader. They have not got a unified position on TPP. Actually, most of them would love to vote for it, and I think it will be very interesting when it is voted on in Parliament. Will the Labour Party oppose it? Because I can tell you that if it does, it is headed straight for oblivion.

Meanwhile, we have got a very busy programme of work. We are focused on the issues that matter to New Zealanders. It is jobs. It is growth. It is education. It is definitely health. It is law and order. I can tell you that if you had been at the National Rugby League Nines and you went out there amongst the people and you really saw the reception that John Key got, the Labour Party should be very, very worried.

I seek leave to table the Black Caps cricket schedule, which indicates that the match starting on 20 February finishes on 24 February, to indicate that this Labour Opposition has confidence it will last for 5 days, rather than be all over on the first day as indicated by the Minister for Sport and Recreation.

I do not think that would inform the House.

I move, That this debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to.

Debate interrupted.