Embargoed until delivery
4.15pm 16 December 2009 Speech

A fair go for hardworking Kiwis

Speech notes for Adjournment Debate.

A year ago today Bill English also moved the adjournment debate.
He began it by accusing the former Labour administration of being "scandal-ridden".

This at the very time he was busy – busy rearranging his personal affairs to get twice the level of housing allowance any other Minister was getting, $47,000 a year, by claiming he had no pecuniary interest in his own home.

The Auditor-General said patently he did have an interest.
Mr English claimed he lived in Dipton in order to get a housing allowance, but at the same time to get eligibility for a self-drive car he said he lived in Wellington.

And $47k wasn't enough. He wanted more – more hours for someone to do the cleaning for him.
Ironically, the very same occupation, cleaning, which the Government says, despite their low wage, should have a wage freeze.

Bill English launches the crusade to cut the real incomes of the lowest-paid workers from the moral high ground of wrongly claiming $47,000 a year to rent his own home, a sum greater than the entire annual wage of most workers!

And Mr English had the temerity to talk about Labour scandals! He is the gift that keeps on taking.
He has of course been in good company in this Administration.
Mr Hide, the perk buster who was into the perks as hard and fast as he could, condemning the privilege while secretly taking advantage of it.

And Mr Harawira who was happy to have the taxpayer meet his costs to go to Europe, and then not go to the meeting the taxpayer had met all of his costs to go to. But accountability for Mr Harawira is apparently just an inappropriate Pakeha convention.

Mr English finished his speech last year by promising that National would use its majority "in order to improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders."

Over the last year the National-led Government has done anything but that.
This has been a government that has looked after privilege – the highest-paid 3% took 30% of the tax cuts legislated, the multinationals and the polluters got $110 billion from the ETS legislation, to be paid for by hardworking Kiwi taxpayers, not the polluter, the corporate heads have continued to draw fabulous salaries without a word of criticism from National.

And the burden of the recession has been allowed to fall on hardworking ordinary Kiwi families who have been told it is they who have to make sacrifices.

This is the government that promotes zero pay rises for hardworking hospital staff who are low-paid, and are facing a rising cost of living.

This is a government whose Prime Minister boasted yesterday that 60,000 Kiwis losing their jobs was "a pretty good result".

This government may be smug and arrogant about those Kiwis whose pay has been cut or lost their jobs, but the plight of hardworking New Zealanders who are finding it impossible to make ends meet is not to be sneered at.

Take this case of a young man who Maryan Street and I met in Nelson last week.
He was working without pay at a company in Stoke in the hope of getting a job.
He wanted to get off the sickness benefit and had applied for more than 20 jobs since September without success.

One of the company’s bosses confirmed there was a lot of unemployment and unemployed people were phoning every week and offering to work without pay to prove themselves.

John Key says it's a pretty good result that a net additional 60,000 Kiwis like Ivan are out of work this year, under his watch.

And as we adjourn thinking about what we might be doing with our families over Christmas, I ask National and Act members in particular to think about what is happening to other families.

Dianne Robertson is City Missioner in Auckland, a person long experienced in helping those in need.
The sort of story she told yesterday on Radio New Zealand I have heard from the Citizens Advice Bureaus, the Sallies, the Budgeting Services people across New Zealand.

It's a sad one.

Dianne Robertson said the Mission is noticing a whole new class of people needing help this festive season.

"We're seeing thousands more people coming through our doors asking for help."
She cites the case of a woman with 3 young children whose husband was made redundant eight weeks ago.

They had to move out of their home.
They had "nothing for Christmas, nothing for extras and really struggling, and yet a year ago they were doing OK."

So much, Mr Key and Mr English, for taking sharp edges off the recession.

It's time the uplift in the world economy and the benefits it brings for the New Zealand economy was shared more fairly with ordinary hardworking Kiwis who are really struggling to make ends meet.

It's about jobs, it's about ensuring that people's incomes don't fall behind the cost of living, it's about not destroying valuable services like Adult and Community Education, Accident Compensation, help for severely disabled kids which Mrs Tolley has cut.

It's about the need for this Government to govern for all New Zealanders and not just the privileged and the wealthy elite.

Finally, Mr Speaker, can I offer Parliamentary staff a thank you and best wishes for the coming festive season.
Can I thank you, Mr Speaker, and your Office for the role your Office has played, the Clerk's Office, the Hansard reporters, the security staff and the messengers, Bellamy's and the cleaning staff, without all of whom this place could not function.

I would also like to acknowledge our executive, media, research, clerical and electorate office staff. They work hard and professionally.

Forgive us if sometimes we fail sufficiently to acknowledge our appreciation.
Last but not least I thank the spouses and families of parliamentarians.
They pay the price for our chosen careers – the absence of their partners and parents when often they are needed at home, and the intrusion into their lives of the very public nature of what we do.

To all colleagues, your families and staff at Parliament, I wish you a merry Christmas, a relaxing and enjoyable summer and a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year.

ENDS

© Scoop Media