Friday, February 04, 2005
The speech Helen did not give
2005 began with the international response to the catastrophe caused by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean. New Zealand’s official response amounts to this country’s largest ever relief effort. This was not difficult, considering that we normally spend only 0.2 percent of GNP on overseas aid.
The tsunami was a natural disaster without precedent in our lifetimes, at least certainly since I’ve been Prime Minister. Of course, I ignore the 500,000 killed by Cyclone Bhola in Bangladesh in 1970, or the 1.2-million who died in the recent North Korean famine. And, of course, I stress natural disasters, as opposed to the nearly 4-million killed in the recent Congo war, the half-million or so in the Somali civil war, the 500,000 in the Angolan war, the 500,000 in the Ugandan war, and the 800,000 in Rwanda. As New Zealand has followed the lead of the United Nations and made little response to any of those, they don’t count.
I know there was some criticism of New Zealand’s Hercules aircraft, which kept breaking down during the tsunami relief efforts. However, maintenance of the aging fleet has been budgeted for the coming year, and this should be sufficient to forestall any further criticism. Should there be unexpected demand on our transport facilities in future, cheap air fares on commercial services are now available thanks to our encouragement of competition. As I previously stressed, New Zealand lives in an incredibly benign regional environment, so we can be good neighbours without the need to spend further money on our defence forces.
New Zealand at the beginning of 2005 is a confident nation, and it’s moving ahead. We might be only 20 in the OECD rankings, we might be the most indebted country in the western world, our balance of payments might have been in the red every quarter since 1973, household debt might be 130% of income, and we might be equal with Slovenia in personal purchasing power, but the economic indicators, I’d like to believe, remain positive. We were after all, extremely lucky in 1999 to inherit a windfall economy which has enabled us to implement our inclusive, diverse and reconstructionist social agenda. New Zealanders live by the maxim, “it is more blessed to give than receive”, and the generous contribution by so many of $6 billion dollars in taxes beyond what the Government need gives me confidence that we can continue this policy with little dissension.
The results are being felt in homes across the country. They’re all doing so well that from April my government will give them an extra $1.1 billion dollars out of the rich people’s taxes over the next two years just so they don’t feel left out.
People are feeling safer, too, because the crime rate is at its lowest level in 21 years—setting aside the fact that violent crime is at near-record levels, and the prison population is the highest ever. Now we must focus on measures that will reduce prison rates so that we can get tougher on crime without needing to build more prisons beyond the extra already planned.
Benefit numbers have tumbled, too. Only 350,000 people are now on benefits, for which we budgeted $12.3 billion dollars this year. Because the numbers are tumbling, we estimate that only an additional half billion dollars will be needed in 2005-2006 (a total of $12.8 billion).
Health spending is up 40 percent over the past five years, therefore it is imperative that we get maximum efficiency in the sector. For this reason, we have moved 5,163 people off hospital waiting lists and back into the care of their GPs. A total of 1,164 people died while on waiting lists, which further reduced costs. We have also been able to continue the previous government’s policy of reducing public hospital beds—together we have achieved a reduction of 2,000 beds over the last 10 years, matching the reduction in the number of operations performed.
As New Zealand moves into the 21st century, technological progress is imperative. For this reason, we are moving away from funding old-fashioned procedures such as ear grommets for children and hernias in favour of assisted reproduction technologies, which will assist same-sex couples who otherwise could not have children.
Education spending is up 39 percent, which is reflected in the fact that only a quarter of our students are now in the lowest rankings of international literacy and maths tests. This is praiseworthy, considering the gap between girls’ and boys’ achievement is one of the largest in the world. In 2005, we will see a further improvement in New Zealand’s world-class educational qualification, the NCEA. I can be absolutely sure about this because the introduction of NCEA has shown it has so many problems things really can’t get any worse.
At the tertiary level we are continuing to make education more affordable. Therefore, student debt will be held to an increase of only $1 billion over the next 12 months, on top of the current debt level of $7 billion.
Everything this government does in education reinforces the vision we have for taking New Zealand ahead, which is why we do not apologise for the forced school closures, the increased violence in classrooms, the politically correct curricula, and the refusal to allow integrated schools to expand. Our vision of increased centralisation and control of education will become everyone’s vision.
New Zealand is a very different place now from the way it was in the 1990s. Today, 44 percent of children are born outside marriage; 18,000 are killed by abortion; teenage pregnancy is the third-highest in the world; sexually transmitted diseases have become an epidemic; we have the highest teen suicide rate in the world; 27 percent of dependent children live with a sole parent; and prostitution is legal.
Through innovative legislation, my government has succeeded in restricting freedoms in a wide range of areas, such as smoking. This government may have legislated to increase binge drinking by young teens, but at least they will not be able to harm themselves by smoking publicly while they do it.
Other proud achievements have included restrictions in the ability to build your own house, imprisonment without trial, removal of the right to appeal to the Privy Council, swimming pool fencing, school zoning, playground regulations, compulsory micro-chipping of dogs, and increased surveillance of emails. This will be continued after the next election with such measures as taking away the right of farmers to keep people off their land, and hate speech laws. As my government demonstrated with the hate crimes provision in the Sentencing Act, we are determined to punish people who think inappropriately.
We may be taking away some freedoms, but we are an equal opportunity government. Therefore, we will be expanding the rights of minorities. Maori now have equal opportunity to block projects under the Resource Management Act. We have given same-sex couples the right to register their relationship as if it were marriage. Before the election, we will pass a law to allow any de facto couple all the rights of marriage. No longer will married couples be able to claim that their relationship is anything special. After the election, my government will move to allow same-sex couples the right to adopt; Muslim immigrant families to bring in multiple wives they have committed to in marriage overseas; and the expansion of children’s rights, such as the right to privacy and the right to not be physically disciplined.
In this government we are proud New Zealanders. When I visit our embassies overseas, I swell with pride to see my portrait hanging there in place of the Queen’s. I am proud that we no longer feel obliged to say grace at a public banquet, even if the principal guest is the head of the Church of England. I am proud that we have had the confidence to do away with such anachronisms as Queen’s Counsel and English titles. These are the things that make us great.
This is a nation with huge potential. This is a government with a bold agenda to realise that potential.
2005 began with the international response to the catastrophe caused by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean. New Zealand’s official response amounts to this country’s largest ever relief effort. This was not difficult, considering that we normally spend only 0.2 percent of GNP on overseas aid.
The tsunami was a natural disaster without precedent in our lifetimes, at least certainly since I’ve been Prime Minister. Of course, I ignore the 500,000 killed by Cyclone Bhola in Bangladesh in 1970, or the 1.2-million who died in the recent North Korean famine. And, of course, I stress natural disasters, as opposed to the nearly 4-million killed in the recent Congo war, the half-million or so in the Somali civil war, the 500,000 in the Angolan war, the 500,000 in the Ugandan war, and the 800,000 in Rwanda. As New Zealand has followed the lead of the United Nations and made little response to any of those, they don’t count.
I know there was some criticism of New Zealand’s Hercules aircraft, which kept breaking down during the tsunami relief efforts. However, maintenance of the aging fleet has been budgeted for the coming year, and this should be sufficient to forestall any further criticism. Should there be unexpected demand on our transport facilities in future, cheap air fares on commercial services are now available thanks to our encouragement of competition. As I previously stressed, New Zealand lives in an incredibly benign regional environment, so we can be good neighbours without the need to spend further money on our defence forces.
New Zealand at the beginning of 2005 is a confident nation, and it’s moving ahead. We might be only 20 in the OECD rankings, we might be the most indebted country in the western world, our balance of payments might have been in the red every quarter since 1973, household debt might be 130% of income, and we might be equal with Slovenia in personal purchasing power, but the economic indicators, I’d like to believe, remain positive. We were after all, extremely lucky in 1999 to inherit a windfall economy which has enabled us to implement our inclusive, diverse and reconstructionist social agenda. New Zealanders live by the maxim, “it is more blessed to give than receive”, and the generous contribution by so many of $6 billion dollars in taxes beyond what the Government need gives me confidence that we can continue this policy with little dissension.
The results are being felt in homes across the country. They’re all doing so well that from April my government will give them an extra $1.1 billion dollars out of the rich people’s taxes over the next two years just so they don’t feel left out.
People are feeling safer, too, because the crime rate is at its lowest level in 21 years—setting aside the fact that violent crime is at near-record levels, and the prison population is the highest ever. Now we must focus on measures that will reduce prison rates so that we can get tougher on crime without needing to build more prisons beyond the extra already planned.
Benefit numbers have tumbled, too. Only 350,000 people are now on benefits, for which we budgeted $12.3 billion dollars this year. Because the numbers are tumbling, we estimate that only an additional half billion dollars will be needed in 2005-2006 (a total of $12.8 billion).
Health spending is up 40 percent over the past five years, therefore it is imperative that we get maximum efficiency in the sector. For this reason, we have moved 5,163 people off hospital waiting lists and back into the care of their GPs. A total of 1,164 people died while on waiting lists, which further reduced costs. We have also been able to continue the previous government’s policy of reducing public hospital beds—together we have achieved a reduction of 2,000 beds over the last 10 years, matching the reduction in the number of operations performed.
As New Zealand moves into the 21st century, technological progress is imperative. For this reason, we are moving away from funding old-fashioned procedures such as ear grommets for children and hernias in favour of assisted reproduction technologies, which will assist same-sex couples who otherwise could not have children.
Education spending is up 39 percent, which is reflected in the fact that only a quarter of our students are now in the lowest rankings of international literacy and maths tests. This is praiseworthy, considering the gap between girls’ and boys’ achievement is one of the largest in the world. In 2005, we will see a further improvement in New Zealand’s world-class educational qualification, the NCEA. I can be absolutely sure about this because the introduction of NCEA has shown it has so many problems things really can’t get any worse.
At the tertiary level we are continuing to make education more affordable. Therefore, student debt will be held to an increase of only $1 billion over the next 12 months, on top of the current debt level of $7 billion.
Everything this government does in education reinforces the vision we have for taking New Zealand ahead, which is why we do not apologise for the forced school closures, the increased violence in classrooms, the politically correct curricula, and the refusal to allow integrated schools to expand. Our vision of increased centralisation and control of education will become everyone’s vision.
New Zealand is a very different place now from the way it was in the 1990s. Today, 44 percent of children are born outside marriage; 18,000 are killed by abortion; teenage pregnancy is the third-highest in the world; sexually transmitted diseases have become an epidemic; we have the highest teen suicide rate in the world; 27 percent of dependent children live with a sole parent; and prostitution is legal.
Through innovative legislation, my government has succeeded in restricting freedoms in a wide range of areas, such as smoking. This government may have legislated to increase binge drinking by young teens, but at least they will not be able to harm themselves by smoking publicly while they do it.
Other proud achievements have included restrictions in the ability to build your own house, imprisonment without trial, removal of the right to appeal to the Privy Council, swimming pool fencing, school zoning, playground regulations, compulsory micro-chipping of dogs, and increased surveillance of emails. This will be continued after the next election with such measures as taking away the right of farmers to keep people off their land, and hate speech laws. As my government demonstrated with the hate crimes provision in the Sentencing Act, we are determined to punish people who think inappropriately.
We may be taking away some freedoms, but we are an equal opportunity government. Therefore, we will be expanding the rights of minorities. Maori now have equal opportunity to block projects under the Resource Management Act. We have given same-sex couples the right to register their relationship as if it were marriage. Before the election, we will pass a law to allow any de facto couple all the rights of marriage. No longer will married couples be able to claim that their relationship is anything special. After the election, my government will move to allow same-sex couples the right to adopt; Muslim immigrant families to bring in multiple wives they have committed to in marriage overseas; and the expansion of children’s rights, such as the right to privacy and the right to not be physically disciplined.
In this government we are proud New Zealanders. When I visit our embassies overseas, I swell with pride to see my portrait hanging there in place of the Queen’s. I am proud that we no longer feel obliged to say grace at a public banquet, even if the principal guest is the head of the Church of England. I am proud that we have had the confidence to do away with such anachronisms as Queen’s Counsel and English titles. These are the things that make us great.
This is a nation with huge potential. This is a government with a bold agenda to realise that potential.
