Parliamentary Debate

DEBATE---GENERAL

Dr WAYNE MAPP (NZ National---North Shore): I can only say to Mr Benson-Pope that those in glass houses should not throw stones. I have only to think about the likes of Marian Hobbs, and what she has done. Or to think about Phillida Bunkle, which leads me to wonder why Phillida Bunkle is still sitting over there. Are the pleas of that member to her leader still going unanswered?

Hon. Murray McCully: Don't speak ill of the dead.

Dr WAYNE MAPP: Well, there we are: ``Don't speak ill of the dead.'' That is now on the record.

Today is the beginning of the Catching the Knowledge Wave conference. That is a big challenge for New Zealand, and I think that most people in this House will acknowledge that. However, this side of the House wants to know whether the Government will rise to the challenge of that. I wonder whether it will catch the break---and I guess it will be looking for a left break rather than for a right break, and we all know that left breaks are not very effective. There are some challenges there and they relate to the following fundamental features.

Firstly, tertiary education---what is the Government's answer on that? It seems to surround the issue of a vision of a vision. What kind of future can be built from that? What kind of woolly thinking is Mr Maharey serving to us today?

Hon. David Carter: Is it politically correct?

Dr WAYNE MAPP: Is it politically correct? That comment could lead to the Report of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification. There have been a lot of wishy-washy statements from the Government on that.

But the real issues will be as follows, and they will challenge the Government. In relation to the issue of corporate taxes, I ask how companies and businesses, both here in New Zealand and out of the country, will be encouraged to invest here with a corporate tax rate of 33 percent. Australia has a rate of 30 percent. No words from the Government will obscure that fundamental fact. I heard Mr Benson-Pope talk about growth. Let me remind that member that in the 1990s, the average growth rate was 3 percent per annum. What was it in the last quarter? Zero, zip, zilch, sod all! Mr Benson-Pope needs to be reminded about a few of the hard facts of life. The reality is that only actions will count, and this side of the House is waiting for the actions of the Government that will actually build investment.

Then there is superannuation, because we have a triangle here: superannuation, taxes, and tertiary education. That triangle has to be got right if growth is to be achieved, and it is quite clear that the Government is fluffing that.

The National Party has opposed the superannuation policy for some very clear reasons, which I will now enumerate. Firstly, for the next 3 years, $5 billion will be borrowed. I can talk to anyone on the street, and they will all say the same thing: ``Who on earth heard of borrowing to save?''. On top of that, it excludes choices. It excludes the choice to reduce corporate taxes---and I remind the Government that we are in a competitive world and that other countries are reducing their taxes. This Government is refusing that opportunity, and it then wonders why investment is disappearing.

Finally, it reduces choices in social expenditure. For 3 years, I did not get complaints about waiting lists in the North Shore Hospital. In the last 6 months, people have been ringing me, and stopping me in the street, to say that the waiting lists in our hospitals are a disgrace, and, in saying that, those people refer to examples from within their own families. This is not just something they are reading; it is something they are experiencing. That reduction in health expenditure can be directly tied to the $600 million going into the Superannuation Fund. The churning of reorganisation has meant that nothing has been achieved for New Zealanders.

I will conclude on this point. The Government does face some real challenges. The Catching the Knowledge Wave conference will bring those to the fore, and this Government will fail.