7 June 2007

Dyson AGM speech

Distinguished guests, greetings to you gathered here for this purpose today.

Greetings once, twice, three times to you all.

Thank you for the invitation to be part of your political forum today.

Can I acknowledge your President, Graham Stairmand and Board,
as well as thanking all the Grey Power branches who have hosted me
throughout the last 12 months.

Can I acknowledge my colleague Steve Chadwick and my future colleague Pauline Scott.

I also want to acknowledge since your last AGM, the death of Graham Tapper and
the illnesses of Wes Cameron, Les Howard and your secretary Bill Atkinson.

We have been asked to talk about four issues:
New Zealand Superannuation, Justice, Energy and Health issues.

To start with Superannuation:

Immediately following our election to lead the Government in 1999,

we raised the wage floor for married couples from 60% to 65% of the average wage.
This reversed a decision of the previous National Government.

The New Zealand Superannuation Act of 2001 enshrined in law:

That legislation also ensured that we put money aside every year,
into a fund which the Government cannot use for any other purpose,
so that future Superannuation payments can remain secure.>p? One of the issues that has been raised with me about Superannuation is
about the non-qualifying spouse issue.

There are three points that I want to make in this regard:

You should also know that only 1% of all people receiving superannuation have their payments
abated due to other income received.

We are committed to keeping the annual adjustment to NZ Superannuation in place so that
on 1st April every year, the between 65 and 72.5% rate is maintained and
that for those qualified, there is no income or asset testing on their superannuation.

On the Justice issues:

In the last 5 years, we have added over 1000 extra police staff and
$200 million to the annual police budget.
This is the biggest and best-resourced police force ever in this country.

We have a falling crime rate and improved resolution rate.

We are committed to improving the rights of victims of crime.
Their rights, such as the rights to be informed of services, and
of the progress of the case of their offender, are now mandatory.

New rights have been created for victims on matters such as name suppression,
bail hearings and victim impact statements.
The range of crimes for which victims may join the register to be automatically
informed about matters such as parole hearings or release of offenders has also been broadened.

The Sentencing Act has placed greater emphasis on criminals being made to pay reparation to their victims.
This reparation figure rose to $18.8million in 2003 – the highest figure ever.

The Youth Justice system has also been in the news lately.

The Youth Court and Family Court deals with most young offenders.
Family Group Conferences are used in about 25% of cases
– the most difficult to deal with.
During this process, the young person has to front up to his or her
actions and parents and other family members can be ordered to undertake

parenting programmes and pay reparation. The most effective way to deal with crime is through prevention.
Building up Plunket, social workers in schools, truancy programmes,
parenting programmes and budget help are all part of that.

So are ensuring that more New Zealanders are better educated, healthier and have a job.

To move to Electricity
We released our Power Package in October 2000, as a response to the changes that
were required following the previous Government’s moves to fragment the electricity
sector and make it into a competitive market..

We know that many older people on low fixed incomes are the most susceptible to
electricity price rises.
That’s why we introduced the low fixed charge tariff policy.

The policy says that electricity retailers must offer a tariff option
with a fixed daily charge of no more than 30 cents per day before GST.

The regulations came into force on 1st October last year.

We established the Electricity Commission to ensure the maintenance of electricity supply
and have produced the first Energy Efficiency strategy.

New Zealand cannot continue to have no money put into new generation
and no support for energy efficiency measures.

One of the energy efficiency measures is the increased funding for retrofitting homes
so that insulation and other energy efficiency measures in older homes can be made available.

This has been extremely popular in colder parts of the country, where home insulation
makes a tremendous difference to the warmth of the home and the health of the resident
– and is cheaper than using more power to heat a house that loses the heat through the ceiling!

In the Health area,

you will all be familiar to the changes we have introduced in improving access
to Primary Health care.

Since 1st July last year, everyone enrolled in a PHO who is over 65,
has been eligible to receive cheaper visit to their GP or nurse.
This reduction in doctors’ visits has averaged out at $23 for most people,>br> and $8 for those on Community Services Card or High Use Health Cards.

And everyone over 65 enrolled with a PHO now has a maximum of $3 on each prescription item
– as opposed to $15 previously.

97% of people over 65 are now in a PHO.
That is good money back into the pockets of people who previously were
finding it very hard to afford to go to the doctor. We have also been looking at gaps in access to operations.
In the last budget we provided funding to double the number of hip and >br> knee operations over four years.
The number has already increased by over one third.
Further announcements are ongoing.

We have also passed the legislation to progressively remove asset testing
for older people in rest homes.
The legislation comes into effect from 1st July this year and each year,
the threshold level will increase by $10,000.

From the 1st July, 70% of people in rest homes will be fully subsidized.

The issue of caregivers is critical to the health of older people.
Our current caregivers are, in the main, poorly paid and poorly trained.
The industry has a low recruitment and retention rate,
which contributes to lower quality service.

We have developed a nationally recognised training certificate for the first time ever,
and will be moving to introduce that certificate into all contracts,
so that the increased money that has been paid to providers will be linked to
increased training and better pay for the workers.
(Caregivers programmes in Dunedin, Hutt Valley and Waikato).

The Labour-led Government has a clear and demonstrated commitment to a strong economy,
strong growth, rebuilding health and education services and supporting families.