General Debate

Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) Link to this

I move, That the House take note of miscellaneous business.

I am sure Ministers on this side of the House and members opposite would want to join me in thanking the public services of Canterbury for the effort they have made over the last 2 weeks in support of the people of Christchurch and Canterbury. The effort has been tremendous, and I know that Ministers and members from all sides of the House have been impressed with the commitment and the dedication of so many people who, while themselves suffering damage and problems, were available to help their fellow citizens in the region over the time of the quake. Even today Ministers are in Canterbury, working with organisations in order to assist the recovery there, and, as members are aware, the House passed important urgent legislation yesterday that will enable a quicker response to the demands of the people of Christchurch and Canterbury.

Regarding public health, I can say that the hospital services in Christchurch are now up to speed and operating as usual. Elective surgery, which was stopped at the time of the earthquake, has recommenced in Christchurch today. The general practitioner surgeries and pharmacies are fully functional. The neonatal intensive care unit remains at capacity—one of the points to note from the earthquake is that a lot more babies have been born than normal at this time of year—and boil-water notices remain in Kaiapoi, Kairaki, and Pines Beach.

I have to say that when I visited Christchurch Hospital, the sense of calm and the determination of all the staff to provide services for the people of Christchurch were very impressive. The public health service has responded strongly to support the effort in Christchurch and Canterbury. About 60 or so staff have flown or otherwise travelled from other district health board areas in order to support the Canterbury District Health Board in its efforts.

We should not just look at the tremendous work that the hospital services have done, but also acknowledge the amazing effort of the general practice and pharmacy community in Christchurch. Within days just about every general practice in Christchurch was up and running, supported by all but about two or three pharmacies, which were badly damaged, and providing a good-quality service for the people of the region. I visited the Pegasus Health people in Christchurch. Within minutes of daylight in Christchurch, people from the general practice level were lined up and ready to help, and that was repeated right across the public health services in the city.

A large number of rest home residents from a couple of homes have had to be moved to other places. I visited one of those rest homes in Avonside in Christchurch. It would be fair to say the owners of the rest home felt for the many residents who had to move. These people had spent some time in the rest home, had all their friends there, and that was where they had made their lives. Having to move was very disruptive to those older folk. But what is absolutely clear is that right across Canterbury there has been strong support from the hospitals, the general practice community, the pharmacies, and the community nursing service. People have received a really good service.

The challenge hereon in is to provide support for the people of Christchurch and Canterbury as they deal with the aftermath. A whole lot of non-governmental organisations and other health providers are out providing counselling and support, and are available for the people of Canterbury who have any problems, issues, or concerns they may want to raise. There are still a number of areas where there is pressure on the health services. Fortunately all our other facilities have reopened, including Lincoln Maternity Hospital and the Burwood Birthing Unit. The ambulance services also need significant acknowledgment for the work they have done. The presence in the welfare centres was spectacular, and it will cease at noon today when those things change. We have learnt an awful lot about how those services can be improved.

Ministers and members opposite would want us to record our congratulations and thanks to the public servants from departments across the spectrum who have worked so well following the earthquake.

KEVIN HAGUE (Green) Link to this

This is Conservation Week, and it is also the International Year of Biodiversity. In this country we have been extremely fortunate to have some extraordinary biodiversity assets as a result of our extremely wide range of habitats and historic freedom from pests, resulting from geographic isolation. Our small islands represent one of the world’s treasure troves for biodiversity. We have the opportunity to enjoy that, but also the responsibility to preserve it. Our history has not been great on that front. Since human habitation we have lost 85 percent of our lowland forests, 90 percent of our wetlands, 43 percent of our amphibians, 20 percent of our bats, and somewhere between 20 and 40 percent of our birds. That is from the world’s great avian paradise. I find it personally impossible to visit Zealandia, just up the road in Karori, without being profoundly saddened by the catalogue of what has been lost.

But what compounds this and makes it so much worse is the extent of the biodiversity crisis that we still face. Well over 2,000 species in New Zealand are currently threatened with extinction, and most of these are in the most modified and least protected parts of the country. Amongst the species threatened with extinction we number all of our frogs and bats, 89 percent of our reptiles, 50 percent of our freshwater fish, some of our iconic marine mammals, and 57 percent of our remaining birds. Yet, of the more than 2,000 threatened species, only around 250 receive any active conservation protection from the Department of Conservation.

Pivotally, we have critical habitat being threatened by human activity or neglect. The Resource Management Act has failed to preserve and enhance endangered habitat on private land, and no onus is placed on the Minister of Conservation to develop species recovery plans.

The signs of further devastating decline are everywhere around us. The last wetlands are being drained, our last wild rivers are being dammed, the remaining lowland forest is being fragmented and poorly protected, freshwater quality shows an increasing decline, we have a pillage mentality being permitted in the fishing industry—most vividly illustrated, I guess, in the Antarctic toothfish in the Ross Sea, for goodness’ sake—and intensive pasture-based farming is now expanding into precious tussock land, such as the iconic Mackenzie Basin.

What has our Government’s response been to this situation? The Government has cut the budget for the Department of Conservation, which is already strapped for cash, by a further $53 million over 3 years, thereby further weakening the department’s already parlous ability to respond to the crisis. There have been budget cuts to biosecurity services, threatening our fragile ecosystems with yet more shocks from pest incursions. We had a clear indication this year, in John Key’s speech to open Parliament, that this is a Government that sees the environment purely as a set of raw materials for commercial exploitation.

I will illustrate the Government’s lightweight interest in conservation by reference to question time yesterday. I asked the Minister of Conservation: “How does the Minister think New Zealanders will feel to learn during Conservation Week that our own company Meridian Energy may flood 300 hectares of pristine conservation land, putting at risk more than 20 threatened species, when there is a perfectly good alternative scheme that would meet the West Coast’s power needs?”. Her answer was: “I think that for a rowi, one of our rarest kiwis, to have been hatched at the beginning of Conservation Week—he was unscathed by the earthquake and is now named Richter—will put a smile on the faces of many New Zealanders as to the importance of conservation in New Zealand.”

Hon JOHN CARTER (Minister of Civil Defence) Link to this

Eleven days ago this country, and particularly the people of Canterbury, experienced a disaster of a worldwide proportion. I take the opportunity to comment on the fact that we have come through the stage of shock and trauma that the people have suffered, and are now moving into the recovery stage. That is not to say that there are not people in the Canterbury area who are still traumatised and will continue to be so for some time, if not for some months yet to come. I must say I have not been sleeping down there in Canterbury. I have been down there quite regularly, and I feel quite tired, so I can imagine how many of the people down in Canterbury must be feeling as a consequence of sleepless nights caused by the aftershocks.

The people, their safety, and all those things, are very important. We passed the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act through this Parliament yesterday, and I thank members of the House for their support in that regard. I know that some—and all of us, I guess—have questions about how the legislation will operate, but we certainly intend to make sure it works for the people of Canterbury without inhibiting or causing problems for the rest of New Zealand.

However, we need to acknowledge the fact that many issues still need to be addressed as we move forward. We have heard a significant number of comments about housing and buildings down in Canterbury, and those are important, but we should not overlook the fact that there are also things like the stopbanks on the Waimakariri River, which are a threat to Kaiapoi, that need to be addressed. Something strange that we do not know about yet has happened to the aquifer there, too, because whereas hitherto water had to be pumped from bores on farms, water is now flowing from them. There are all sorts of issues associated with the foundations of buildings and stability that we will have to find out about as we go forward. We have geotechnical engineers down in Canterbury doing that work now. There is still a lot to be found out, and we are addressing the issues as rapidly as we can, but it will take some time. I know that it is difficult, but people will have to exercise patience.

I rise, basically, to pass on my thanks to all those people who have been involved in the events that occurred and the recovery. I particularly acknowledge the civil defence personnel and all the people associated with them, as well as the Fire Service, the police, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, and the Ministry of Tourism—I could go on. A huge number of people have been involved in organisations and departments down in Canterbury, and all of them have been stoic. Many of those people have had their own personal problems at home, yet they have left those problems behind as they have gone to work to deal with other people’s problems. That has been a real challenge for many of the people who have been at work. They have worked long, long hours and put in days and days, then gone home to deal with their own personal issues in their homes and families. They all need to be commended, and New Zealanders acknowledge that and say thank you for the way in which the people of Canterbury have responded. I know that the people of Canterbury would want me to thank the rest of New Zealand for the way it, in turn, has responded to their needs in terms of giving help to them.

It certainly has been an amazing exercise, one which we wish no one would ever have to go through, but we can be proud of the fact that we have a structure that has responded, proud that the people of Canterbury have responded in the way they have, and proud of the way New Zealand has responded to this event. Judging by the comments of people from around the world, we certainly are a standout in the way we have responded, to date, to the emergency that occurred, to the events that have unfolded, and to the sheer size of the event.

In concluding, I say that although it is true that we have a long way to go, this Parliament has given us the opportunity, through the new legislation, to allow the recovery to happen. We will be there alongside the people of Canterbury to give them all the assistance they need to ensure their recovery is made as rapidly as possible.

Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Labour—Christchurch East) Link to this

I offer my appreciation to the whips for allowing me to speak today, as this is the first day that I have managed to get away from Christchurch. My electorate of Christchurch East has been hit very badly by the earthquake, and it has some of the most damaged suburbs in the city. I live in Bexley, which is one of those suburbs. People have asked me over the last few days how I am, and I say to the House that I am not very good. I have listened to constituents pour out their hearts about the loss of their dream homes, and say they do not know how they will ever be able to recover from that loss. Some of those dream homes face our waterways, such as the Bexley Wetland, Horseshoe Lake Reserve, the Avon River, where Dallington is located, and the lagoon at Brooklands.

The tremendously hard thing that I have had to cope with over the last few days is listening to the tragedy that I have heard poured out. I am a bit of a sponge for that sort of thing, and I know that is my great weakness in life. But I really have been impressed by the willingness of people to help others, even though they are suffering themselves. I have never experienced anything like the earthquake. Those members who know me well know that I am terrified of earthquakes, but my terror has been located in Wellington. It was not located in Christchurch, and I have had my world turned upside down—literally.

Robbie and I set off pretty early on, as our house looked pretty good. We wanted to see how the electorate was doing. We went through Bexley, where we live, and there was lots of flooding there, which members will have seen on the television. We went on to Tumara Park, Parklands, and Brooklands. The volunteer fire brigade at Brooklands gave me my first coffee for the day. I just want to put that on the record, because it was instant coffee and I did not care about that. Those who know me really well will know it was pretty special that I was prepared to love instant coffee at that moment. We had no water or power at home, so that was why I was hanging out for a coffee. I attended the Brooklands civil defence meeting at 9 o’clock. Although there was not much to be reported there, the meeting really emphasised for me, very early on, how important the volunteer networks are, especially in the suburbs a little bit further out from the core infrastructure that the inner-city suburbs enjoy.

I then went to Dallington and saw it had sustained serious damage. But what I saw at St Paul’s School really broke my heart. I had visited the school only 3 days before, so to see the playground completely cut up, the church falling over at the back—and the parish had buried Father Miles O’Malley only the week before. I spoke to a number of people around there, and they said the damage probably would have broken his heart, so in a way it was a blessing that he was spared seeing the tragedy that has befallen that community. I came home exhausted, and I slept on the couch downstairs that night.

On the following day Brendon Burns left a message on my answering machine. He and Phil Goff were on their way out to Kaiapoi with Carmel Sepuloni. They stopped at a petrol station and encountered a very irate taxi driver who lived in my electorate, and who said nobody had been to see them. So I went to Kingsford Street, and I was shocked at what I saw. People had no power, no water, and no sewerage. There was silt everywhere. That was when I started to learn about liquefaction; I had never heard of it before. It looked like a war zone. The silt was everywhere; people were working tirelessly with shovels and wheelbarrows. I spoke to some residents on the side streets, and they really did feel quite forgotten.

I just put on the record my congratulations to Roger Sutton and his team. I used his direct line only three times in that whole period, and each time the call was followed up. I also put on the record the importance of elected representatives having a direct line. People rely on us to be able to get a message through when there is an urgent situation, and we need to have a direct line. We now have it, but it was 10 days after the earthquake before we got it.

That day was when some of my constituents let me in to take photographs of some of the damage, and I put them up on my Facebook page so that people could see them. That was done to show that these homes were not all older ones; they were 4 to 5 years old. They were dream homes that people had saved up for.

The next day Kath, one of my staff members, and I left the office to do a quick scan around Bexley and then went into South New Brighton. I then joined up with Councillor Chrissie Williams. Because I needed support and she needed support, we worked together.

I am happy to work with that community. I feel privileged and proud to represent it in Parliament, and I will help it to rebuild.

NICKY WAGNER (National) Link to this

It has been a really tough time for Cantabrians. From 4 September the earthquake has changed everything. The world as we knew it has come to a shattering halt, but very soon the state of emergency will be lifted and we will begin the restoration and rebuilding phase. This earthquake was a crisis of massive proportions, but with crisis comes opportunity. Cantabrians who responded so magnificently to the crisis must dig even deeper now and seize the opportunity to rebuild our infrastructure, our communities, and our quality of life. I have lived in Christchurch all my life. I love the city, and I know that if we work together we can make it even better yet. Like a phoenix—like Napier—Christchurch too can rise from the rubble in a new, more beautiful form.

When the early settlers came to Christchurch they came with the dream of creating the perfect society. They modelled it on Victorian values and English towns, but they did a pretty good job. The layout is simple and works well, even today. Some of their original, beautiful buildings, such as Christchurch Cathedral, the provincial chambers, and the arts centre are still here. Those places are living testimony to our appreciation of historic buildings and to the dollars spent on earthquake strengthening.

But the early settlers did not get everything right. They often used the old, existing English plans, but in the Southern Hemisphere the windows all face the wrong way. They made no attempt to build to our landscape, or to our climate, or to accommodate a different way of life. This time, when we rebuild, we can use local knowledge, and have the experience of hindsight and a vision for the future.

That day, 4 September, was an important day for Christchurch before the earthquake. It was the day that Christchurch people were invited into Te Hononga—the new Christchurch Civic Centre. The opening did not happen, but the building is still there, “shaken but not stirred”. It is a great example of what the people of Christchurch can achieve in our rebuild. It is a recycled building. Architect Ian Athfield has reused the best from the past—the bulk, the size, the strength of the old Post Office centre has been reconfigured for modern use. It is a thoughtful building; it reflects its function as a place to bring people together, and its ownership structure. Te Hononga means “the joining”. The building is a partnership between Ngāi Tahu and the city council, and it is an inspirational place of light, of space, and of art that reflects the people who meet and work there. It is a high-tech, well-engineered building. It contains all the latest technology to enhance the capacity of people and to improve productivity. It is a great place to work, and in great places one gets great work. It is an environmentally friendly building with a record six-star eco-rating. It captures its water, uses waste gas for heating, and is energy-efficient.

Those are the values that must underpin the new Christchurch. We must use the best from the past but reconfigure it for the future. We must utilise the latest technology to enhance productivity and strengthen our economy. We must be environmentally friendly to ensure long-term sustainability for our city. Most important, our city must provide a great quality of life for our people, especially the next generation so that they will want to make Christchurch their home. Christchurch is a beautiful city, it is a great city, and it is the responsibility of all our citizens to seize this hard-earned opportunity and work positively together to build a better and brighter future for Christchurch. Thank you.

Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato) Link to this

Every MP would acknowledge the extensive damage caused to families and communities in Christchurch as a result of the earthquake. It is right that members opposite have talked about the huge challenge of rebuilding the city, and, more important, the lives of people who have been absolutely shaken as a result of their experience. But I want to ensure that some of the other issues affecting families are not masked by this particular debate. More important, I want to know what the Government will do about the increasing pressure on every household in New Zealand, including the ones in Christchurch, arising from the increased costs they are facing—increased costs generally, increased costs as a result of the GST hikes on 1 October, and, more important, their effect on low and middle income earners. Seventy-three percent of the Hauraki-Waikato electorate earns $40,000 and will see little or no benefit from the tax cuts delivered by National and the Māori Party. GST will hurt them at the checkout, and when purchasing every consumable item.

I suspect that vulnerable families in Christchurch are worried about rebuilding their homes, the cost in the increase of GST, and the impact that it will have on them. But, more important, they are worried about how they will cope in the immediate term with that rebuilding effort, and the pressure of costs. That is sad, because the real winners in National’s tax package are actually high-income earners—not the low-income earners, not the vulnerable families, and not those on fixed incomes like superannuitants. More needs to be done to hear their voice.

The Christchurch earthquake, if it does anything, should let us all know in this House that although New Zealand is a huge land mass, reverberations are felt throughout it. I think that the reverberation from increased household prices will be felt stiffly throughout every household across the country, just like an earthquake, on 1 October. I want to know where the Māori Party is on this issue, because it voted for tax cuts that deliver nothing to Māori households. The Māori Party voted for GST increases that will deliver nothing to Māori households; in fact it voted on an issue that, more important, affects families in the pocket and will have a fundamental impact on how they cope going forward.

There are a number of areas where we have seen costs increase generally since National came into Government, and the indications are that those cost increases will continue. Rents, for example, have increased by 9.5 percent. In addition, 47 percent of landlords say that they will increase rents further to offset issues around being denied property depreciation write-offs. Rates have increased by 6.4 percent, more so as a result of the Auckland super-city. Families in Auckland are really fearful of what the level of rates increase will be for them, as they try to marry up the huge costs that it will take to move towards the super-city structure. I expect that that will be the case throughout New Zealand.

General practitioner fees have increased by about 6.5 percent. More and more families are being told to seek after-hours services because they cannot see their local general practitioner, and an after-hours service can cost up to $69. I ask members to factor that cost into a Christchurch family and see how they would feel if they were told that they could not take their baby to their general practitioner and had to pay $69 to go to an after-hours service. Petrol companies have hiked up petrol prices, and energy and electricity prices have also gone up. These are the types of pressures that households are feeling; this is the reverberation.

I am all for supporting the rebuilding effort that is going into Christchurch, but it should not, and cannot, mask the real effect that families, low and middle income earners, will feel on 1 October because of the tax cuts that deliver to high-income earners and not to low-income earners, and because of the GST hikes that will affect every low-income and vulnerable family. More needs to be done on that front.

Finally, let us look at this issue. The Government needs to show what its plan for growth is. It cannot isolate its effort to Christchurch; the rebuilding effort must go nationwide. We need to see more growth, so that there is less pressure on household incomes.

PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) Link to this

I take this opportunity, along with my parliamentary colleagues, to offer my condolences, sympathy, thoughts, and prayers to those who have been affected by the Canterbury earthquake. It has been debated often since the day of the earthquake, but I offer some short words on what has occurred in Canterbury. I spent some time in Canterbury during my youth. I did my professional legal studies there, and I saw firsthand during that time the resilience and the fortitude of the people of Canterbury. We see it in a number of areas when we visit the place: on the sporting field, in businesses, and in schools. I know that the people of Canterbury will be back from this natural disaster and I wish them well.

I take up some of the issues that the previous speaker, the Hon Nanaia Mahuta, touched on in terms of what this Government is doing about the economy and the plight of people across this country. I have been across my own electorate of Maungakiekie, and I have talked to business owners, residents, and superannuitants. It is tough; it is tough right across this country, from an economic perspective. But they tell me that they are pleased with the leadership of our Prime Minister, the Rt Hon John Key; they are pleased with the leadership of National in bringing this country out of the recession; they are pleased with policies that are inclusive and are about promoting growth and opportunities in New Zealand; and they are pleased about the upcoming tax cuts on 1 October.

The previous speaker said that the tax cuts do not affect the poor. I correct that speaker by saying that 73 percent of earners will face a top tax rate of 17.5 percent. I repeat for her benefit that 73 percent of earners will face a statutory income tax rate of 17.5 percent or less. That is about distributing the benefits of tax cuts across the board.

I spoke at a small-business conference in Mount Wellington in my electorate of Maungakiekie. Small-business owners are the lifeblood, the heartbeat of this country; over 95 percent of companies in this country are small to medium sized enterprises. The small-business owners said to me and to David Clendon, the Green MP who was there with me, that they do not want more compliance, they do not want more taxes, and they do not want more regulations that hinder their ability to transact and to export goods overseas. It is critical to our future and the future of our children that we have an economy that pays for itself, and that we have an economy in which exports and the export sector are growing. Under the previous Government, for 5 consecutive years exports contracted and decreased.

H V ROSS ROBERTSON (Labour—Manukau East) Link to this

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. Before addressing the issue of GST and its impact on senior citizens, let me acknowledge those people in Canterbury who are suffering the devastating effects of the terrible earthquake. Let us also acknowledge the impact that it has had on members of this House who have suffered personally in this tragedy—my own colleague on the Labour side Brendon Burns and, I understand, Amy Adams and the Hon Gerry Brownlee. Let us remember that these people have suffered personally as well.

I will address the issue of GST and its impact on seniors. I ask where the voice is for senior citizens in this Government. Hello? Hello? There is no one there. There is no one there standing up for senior citizens—no one at all. I challenge the Minister for Senior Citizens to get up off his hind legs, take a call in this House, and justify why there should be a 2.5 percent increase in the rate of GST, adding up to 15 percent, which will attack the most vulnerable in our society. I tell the Minister to stand up, take a call, and answer the challenge. What is the Minister doing about addressing the impact on the most vulnerable in our society?

Senior citizens are an important constituency who have contributed significantly to this country. They have contributed significantly to building this nation. We have to look just around the wall at the plaques—Monte Cassino, Gallipoli, Crete, just to name but a few. When the Hon Phil Goff, leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, offered me the role of spokesperson on seniors, I was absolutely delighted—absolutely delighted. It had nothing to do with the fact that I have an inherent interest—nothing to do with that—but with my desire to serve others. I wonder how much the appointment of Dr Woods as the Director General of Health will impact on serving others and the elderly.

The attacks on seniors continue. If we go around the country and talk to Grey Power groups, one of the things we find is that they are unhappy with the advocacy for them at the highest levels of Government. They ask where the voice is, and who in Government is speaking up for seniors. The Government is ineffective. I have been told about the cuts to the accident compensation scheme, especially cuts to eligibility for hearing aids and how that impacts on seniors. That is very important. We heard today about the Retirement Commissioner, Diana Crossan, who gives a 3-yearly report to the Government. As I understand it, there is information in her report about the possibility of raising the age of eligibility for superannuation to 67. I want to know what the Minister for Senior Citizens thinks about that. What we have here—

Hon JOHN BOSCAWEN (Deputy Leader—ACT) Link to this

Yesterday I rose and spoke on the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill. We have heard further this afternoon of the devastation and the destruction that was borne on Canterbury. The earthquake in Canterbury is probably the No. 1 natural disaster that has happened in my lifetime. There may not be another disaster during my lifetime that is as dramatic and that has such far-reaching consequences as what has happened in Canterbury.

On a similar note, later this afternoon the House will debate the first reading of the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill. I suggest that this bill is the single most important that has been debated in my short time in Parliament. I suspect it will be the most important bill that will be debated in my entire parliamentary career. This bill has major constitutional significance. It has the potential to alienate—

LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō) Link to this

I join my colleagues in the House in acknowledging the courage that Cantabrians have shown in this time of crisis. In a crisis like this people look for decisive action and certainty. They look for things that will give them the confidence to move forward in their rebuilding. Unfortunately, in these times they do not need scaremongering, and that is exactly what members opposite are trying to do when they talk about the tax cuts that come in on 1 October.

I want to tell the House about the comments made by some of my constituents in the Taupō electorate when they were provided with some extremely misleading information from the Opposition. The Opposition is trying to say that National’s GST is 15 percent, putting all of the cost of GST on us. Let us have a little lesson in history. GST was put in at 10 percent in 1986. Who put it in? Labour did. GST went up to 12.5 percent in 1989. Who put it up? Labour did. So it is false information to say that National’s GST is 15 percent. I object to the scaremongering in communities that are vulnerable right now. In particular, I think it is despicable to talk about that in Canterbury at this time. It is extremely insensitive.

Let us talk about 1 October, because it is a time that my constituents are looking forward to. They are looking forward to having more money in their pocket on 1 October. The average family will be $25 a week better off. Labour members tend to say that seniors are not doing well under National. I will correct that. They will be $140 a fortnight better off under this Government. I think that members opposite must struggle with their maths if they cannot calculate the difference between 12.5 percent and 15 percent, and if they cannot figure out that with seniors being $140 a fortnight better off, they are way better off than they were under Labour.

Let us look at some other examples. I am interested in the well-being of families in my electorate. Families tell me that they have been struggling, and they have been struggling whether they are in Tokoroa, Taupō, or Tūrangi. I know they are struggling, and that is why they are looking forward to having more money in their back pockets on 1 October. There will be $4 billion in tax cuts, and GST will bring in only $2 billion. Again, that shows us that members opposite do not know how to do the maths and figure out that New Zealanders will be better off on 1 October. New Zealand superannuation, Working for Families, and benefit payments also increase on 1 October. I tell the House what my constituents are telling me: 88 percent of them think that this Government is on the right track in what it is doing with tax changes, and that is across the electorate.

Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour) Link to this

Like my colleagues and members opposite, I also record my good wishes to the people of Canterbury, my admiration for their resilience and their ability to work so hard and come together at this time, and my admiration for the way in which all the members of Parliament from that area are pitching in together to bring assistance to the city. I have not gone to Canterbury—I do not want to be a tourist—but when the time is right, I will go and visit my community and express my good wishes to them personally. I know my colleagues there are doing an excellent job.

I want to focus on another event that is about to occur, and that is the tax switch and the GST increase that is coming up and the certainty of increasing costs, especially for the most vulnerable. The previous member who spoke, Louise Upston, believes that this was scaremongering. I would like the member to explain where the scaremongering is. Indeed, members on the other side have engaged in intellectual dishonesty, by taking a particular case and not taking account of all the effects on each particular family that will come on 1 October. This Government talks about equity and fairness, but Miss Upston might like to listen to the definitions of equity and fairness because that member’s Government is taking a rather odd definition of those.

Mr Bill English talked about that in his response to the Tax Working Group report. He said that changes would have to meet the test of equity and fairness. Well, the chickens are coming home to roost, because the time is nigh when people will begin to see their pay packets. They will go to supermarkets, they will buy groceries, and they will look at their expenses going up. They will wonder about the myth that members opposite have put forward that everybody will be well off, because they will not be well off. People simply do not believe it. There is no evidence to show it. The Government members are leaving out some very, very important pieces. The equity and fairness they talk about is the certainty that 1 percent of taxpayers will receive 15 percent of the $14.3 billion tax package. I ask how members opposite define equity and fairness when that is the effect. If the facts be known, this is a tax swindle. When we look at it, we see that one-third of the $14.3 billion will go to the top 5 percent of earners. That may be equity and fairness in the minds of those members opposite; it is certainly not seen as equity and fairness on this side of the House.

What members opposite have failed to do—and one does not understand why, because they have all the tools—is satisfactorily explain why they have not modelled the total costs on an average family, which is a family on an average income or low income, a family with children and child-care, and a family with a mortgage. Those are very ordinary, everyday New Zealand families. When the members opposite begin to model those costs, they will see that those families are not well off. There is any amount of evidence. We know that this opportunity will be taken by many others to go beyond what GST will do. For example, members opposite know that rents have already increased by 5.9 percent. In addition, 47 percent of landlords say they will increase rents further as they go forward. Rates have increased by 6.4 percent. When we look at the increase of that on the average person with a home—

Hon TAU HENARE (National) Link to this

Today, 15 September 2010, marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. In that battle 127 Kiwi soldiers fought, and 20 of them lost their lives. New Zealanders made up the second-largest number of foreign aircrew involved in the Battle of Britain.