Address in Reply

This Parliament has got off to a very good start, with two outstanding contributions by Alfred Ngaro and Paul Goldsmith, new backbench members of the National Party caucus.

There was once a time in this Parliament—in fact, in the days when the Hon Dr Michael Cullen was here as a young man—when, in an Address in Reply debate like this, every Member of Parliament would sit through every contribution in the belief that every Member of Parliament would have something worthwhile to say.  Today the House is abandoned, presumably because there is a belief that not every Member of Parliament has something worthwhile to say. 

But if we can agree to agree on the things that we agree on, then maybe we can make some progress for this country, and that is the reason we are here.

It has been a long time between drinks; in fact, Mr Speaker, it has been 12 years.

More than a decade since I have left here, there have been some changes. For everything that changes, nothing changes much, but what has changed in the last decade and two years is this country.

In my valedictory speech, on 5 October 1999, I recorded the significant progress we made during the 1990s.  However, that progress has been reversed: the past decade has been lost. 

In the past 12 years a net 280,000 of our best and brightest citizens have fled this country.  We now have more of our people living overseas than any other developed country in the OECD, except Ireland.

This country is at the crossroads.

In my valedictory speech, when members all thought that I had gone for ever, I lamented that there was no hope for the young if we continued to throw welfare at them, yet non – worked-tested benefits have grown by 60,000 in the past decade. Last year we had over a quarter of a million New Zealanders on non – work-tested benefits.  It is my long belief that most people want to work, and there is no dignity in joblessness.

In the 1990s our multifactor productivity grew twice as fast as it had in the 1980s.  In the past decade, growth was even worse than in the 1980s. 

We have gone backwards. 

Every single year in the 1990s the value of our exports exceeded the value of our imports.  “New Zealand Inc.” was paying its way. 

In the past decade we paid our way, only 5 years out of the 10.

It has been a great struggle for New Zealand families; for the families that we come to this House to represent, for the families that we come to this House to give a leg up and a hand out when they need it, for the families that struggle to make ends meet, and for the families that face Christmas without much, and without much hope for the new year.

In the 1990s the cost of owning a home was equivalent to three times disposal income. Now the cost of owning a home is five times disposal income. Australians now earn 40 per cent more than we do for doing the same work.  How can we expect to compete with Australia when so many of our citizens have been left out and left behind by an education system that does not work for them?

I congratulate John Key and the National Party on forming this Government. The Speech from the Throne had much to say about coming to grips with some of this country’s challenges. It is time to come to grips with some of this country’s challenges.  I believe that education is the key to creating change.

Education that works is the answer for a generation that has not signed up to learning.  Education that works is the answer to get our poorest citizens into work, into jobs, and into higher wages. I want nothing more than every young person to be engaged in a world-class education opportunity. Although the State education system works for the majority of our students, it fails too many.

I do not criticise the teachers, in the classrooms, who are doing their best, but far too many of our students are wagging school—in fact, 30,000 every day of the week.  We know that 20 percent of our  school-leavers are unable to read or write well enough to get a job, and nearly one in three of our youth today is consigned to the dole—a welfare cheque and oblivion.

That is why I am glad to have secured National’s support for ACT’s innovative approach to education: education that works for the kids who cannot find work, because the education system has not worked for them.  Charter schools are about giving children choices that they would not otherwise have. 

A charter school is set up with an ambitious, well-defined mission to meet the educational needs of particular communities and with the freedom needed to do just that.  Their success is based on having freedom to innovate, combined with strict accountability to parents and the Government for academic and financial performance.   My hope is that all four corners of this Parliament can put the needs of our underachieving students ahead of the politics of the day.

 If we are to make this country a place of achievement, of success and pride, then we cannot continue to talk about the politics of the left and the politics of the right. 

There is no left or right in a dole queue—it is all wrong.  

There is no left or right in the 2,500 people who turned up for 150 jobs at a Countdown supermarket in South Auckland.

It is not about the politics of the left and the right, it is about the reality of confronting a country on a mouse wheel—a mouse wheel that sees New Zealanders put in the second-longest hours of work per capita in the OECD, but for only the 23rd highest incomes. We are working harder, earning less, saving much less, and struggling to make ends meet.

It is deeply worrying for me that people on the average income in rural, provincial Kaikohe—an area of provincial New Zealand I represented in this Parliament—are living on just $14,000 a year.

It is deeply worrying for me to see the deep trenches of social deprivation that I witnessed first-hand while campaigning in the 23 electorates across greater Auckland.  It is deeply depressing for me to sit in District Courts in parts of this country where it is an outing as opposed to a punishment, where there is no care and no hope, where there is no job and no work, and where there is no dignity and no pride except going back to jail with the mates.

We must stop talking about the left and stop talking about the right and start talking about the education that works for the most disadvantaged of our citizens: education that represents innovation, apprenticeships, jobs, and prosperity. The country is at a crossroads and there needs to be a sense of urgency.

After 14 elections my days are getting longer and the years are getting shorter. I am here to make a difference. I have come back to this 50th Parliament to make a difference.

ACT’s agenda for the 50th Parliament is a commitment to the values that underpin the time-honoured values of the ACT Party.  These values are timeless: freedom, choice, and personal responsibility.  These are the pillars of a modern, successful democracy that pays its way and earns its keep, a society where young have hope, where families are strong, and the vulnerable are cared for.

Under our negotiated agreement in confidence and supply with this Government, substantially negotiated by my friend the Hon John Boscawen and Catherine Isaac, we are going to provide updates on how we are closing the gap in income with Australia.  We need to close that gap with Australia if we are going to keep our best and our brightest from fleeing this nation. 

We also negotiated in the confidence and supply agreement a spending limit to be introduced to check the excesses of the Government.  Welfare will be remodelled.  The ACC work account will be open to competition, and the Resource Management Act will be streamlined.

Let me at this stage pay tribute to the work of Rodney Hide, the member for Epsom and the member of this House.  He did a good job and made a great contribution to New Zealand, and I thank him for that.

Let me also say today a big thank you to the voters of Whangarei who gave me the opportunity to enter the 40th Parliament.  Today I would like to thank the people of Epsom for the opportunity to represent their aspirations in the 50th Parliament.  In fact, medical technology is on my side and I am looking forward to being here in the 60th Parliament. 

I have high hopes and great expectations for New Zealand. I have high hopes and greater expectations for our young people, and I have greater hopes and greater expectations for this 50th Parliament.