Address In Reply Speech to Parliament

Heather Roy Tuesday, 13 February 2007 Speeches - Other

Madam Speaker.

We have just listened to a Prime Minister's speech that epitomises everything that is chronically and terminally wrong with this Government.

I move to amend the motion, removing all words after the word "that" and inserting "this House has no confidence in the Government, which is in denial about the real issues confronting New Zealanders, keeping families dependent on government, and stands between our people and prosperity".

Let us first remind ourselves that this is a government born of desperation and self interest, primarily between the Labour Party and Winston First.

This government conspires to deliver a society ever to be remembered as Helengrad.

They follow their leader, in a state of collective denial of the carnage they are creating.

A denial evident throughout the Prime Minister's speech today.

Can there be a greater manifestation of their desperation to cling to power than the latest act of denial?

It was proof positive that eighty thousand Kiwi kids attend school with no breakfast - and no prospect of lunch either.

The prime responsibility for feeding and caring for children rests with parents. Not with schools, businesses or politicians. Not with John Key or Helen Clark.

But do their empty stomachs keep the Prime Minister awake at night? Not at all - she denies their very existence.

By doing that, she denies them the offer of food from caring companies to feed both body and mind.

The alternative, of course, would be to admit the abject failure of this government.

But there was no admission of that in the speech we have just heard.

The Prime Minister is, of course, a master of the art of denial.

Witness the crumbling health service, creaking under its own bureaucratic weight.

Countless thousands of Kiwis are waiting for life-saving and life-changing treatment.

The solution? Simple - deny it.

The government had them wiped from the waiting list.

What problem?

See. Gone.

It's the perfect crime.

Unemployment? No problem.

Just manipulate the figures. They're not unemployed - they're invalids. They're sick.

Sick alright - sick of being denied by this government.

It's the Prime Minister who should feel sick - sick with shame.

But no. They have convinced themselves that anything is justified. Any slick twisting of the facts, any spinning of the truth. Anything is justified in the interest of power.

Let the children go hungry.

Let the sick suffer.

Let the jobless wither away.

Generation after generation of them.

Denial after denial, because the solution would be to deny the crazy ideology that drives this government.

The obvious solution would entail an admission that their policies have failed.

The Prime Minister is in denial that the answer lies in creating a truly fair society.

A society where hard work and enterprise are rewarded.

A society where the disadvantaged are given a hand up - not a hand out.

A society where people can depend on the government to create an environment in which they can all prosper.

When the economy did pick up, the Government read the signs that a burgeoning middle class was emerging.

More and more Kiwis were actually in danger of taking charge of their own destiny, less dependent on the Government.

A government awash with cash.

Did they welcome this transformation? Did they embrace the opportunity?

Did they do what any responsible government would do and return the money to the people who earned it in the first place - a move that would have empowered hard working kiwis and innovative companies?

No. They panicked.

They didn't see a nation set free from the chains of excessive taxation.

They didn't see families with choice.

They saw their voter base eroded.

For this is a government who depend on people being dependent upon them.

So what did they do?

They fell into a bout of chronic denial and set about turning middle New Zealand into a land of beneficiaries.

That's the Labour way. The Winston First way.

It's not the Maori Party way - they know the perils of inter-generational dependence, and are sick of Maori being just another statistic for Labour to lie about.

It's not the Green way - they know that only a well-educated, healthy, invigorated workforce can support the vulnerable and the truly needy.

The time has come for everyone on the right side of this House - whatever our differences - to end the denial.

And the more I talk to our friends and colleagues in other parties, the more I am encouraged at how we are united in our desire to create a prosperous nation.

The Prime Minister knows the answer is to repair the infrastructure - the education system, the justice system and the health service - and that the people will take care of the rest.

But instead she stays in denial, locking as many people as possible into a lifetime of dependence on the state - on the government - on Labour - pretending all will be well.

It is clear from her speech what the Prime Minister seeks more than anything - another term, another three years at the helm.

And to achieve that she is prepared to practise the cruellest of hoaxes - using the money that hard working Kiwis pay in tax to turn them into dependents - in the fervent hope they will reward her with their vote.

Such is their state of denial that some of the Labour Party have even managed to convince themselves this is somehow a manifestation of socialism.

They insult their own heritage if they think that.

Labour Prime Ministers who once stood for reform and new ideas were never afraid to address the social and economic issues of their day.

If this Prime Minister believes she lives up to their reputation, she is in denial about that, too.

This country could once lay claim to being a model of social democracy. ACT recognises, respects, and believes in just that.

What we do not believe in - what we detest - is denial of the fact that Kiwi kids go hungry. That our health service is sick. That our justice system is failing us - releasing hardened criminals despite the pleas of the police.

This is denial in the face of overwhelming evidence. But the answer is at hand.

I long for the day when a Prime Minister stands in this House to return power and self respect to the people.

A Prime Minister leading a government that puts in place the building blocks for a fair and just society.

A government that encourages success.

A government that recognises its duty is to lead and to inspire.

The speech we have just heard was a classic twist on the Mark Twain gag.

"Yes - the Prime Minister has principles...

And if you don't like those...

She has others."

It's not good enough.

Those eighty thousand hungry children do not live in some far off land to be pitied over chardonnay and then denied by breakfast. They are our future, and they are our fellow New Zealanders.

The tens of thousands of sick and suffering - wiped from hospital waiting lists - are not a tear-jerking statistic from a World Vision commercial. They are our fellow New Zealanders.

The victims of avoidable crime do not live in some far off ghetto - they are our fellow New Zealanders.

The hard working men and women, supporting others dependent on the state, do not live in some third world country. They, too, are our fellow New Zealanders.

And they all deserve better.

They deserve a government that will not deny them.

ENDS

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