1999 National Opening Announcer: Tonight is the start of the last election campaign of the second millenium. Within thirty days, New Zealanders will decide which political party is best to lead New Zealand into the next century. Shipley: "I'm so proud of our country. This small smart nation has been built by hard-working, good, innovative and creative people. It is a wonderful place to live, a very special place to bring up children, and a country we can be genuinely optimistic about. With a National government, New Zealand is a place where families can have the confidence to succeed. Where business can flourish, and where opportunity is there for the taking. I am determined to lead a good and effective government that will allow people to be confident that prosperityand security are ours if we work hard and work together.” Announcer: “In November last year the John F Kennedy school of government, at the prestigious Harvard University in the United States, released world wide report on the findings of a major investigation into the quality of government. After measuring the performance of more than 80 countries around the world, the results were as follows: (announcer and text) Best Government in the world New Zealand.” Announcer: “The United States was seventh, and Australia was tenth. Said the associate professor of public policy at Harvard, New Zealadn does an amazingly good job compared to all the others. This is the government of the National Party. This is the government of Jenny Shipley. Text: Strong economic leadership Shipley: “No society can succeed and prosper without firm and consistent economic policy management. Good goverment must always strike the right balance between paying off debt and reducing taxes in a way that encourages our brightest and best young people. One of the greatest challenges to good government is employment. We've been really determined not to leave people behind, so that everyone can share in the properity of our country. We've done really well in terms of jobs. And you get more jobs through growth. We are determined to get further job creation through expanding trade opportunies and we are well on track.” Announcer: “The four main areas that can destroy jobs are inflation, interest rates, tax and industrial disputes. Good government keeps inflation under control. Businesses and families cannot plan any sort of future if they don't know what that future will cost.” Text: Inflation Interest Rates Tax Industrial Disputes Announcer: “National in government has reduced annual inflation from over 8% a year, when they took over, to under 2% today. And just as importantly, they have kept it there.” Text: Annual inflation under 2% Announcer: “Interest rates are also vital. A few years ago back in the eighties New Zealanders were facing interest rates upwards of twenty percent. Today they are around 6 per cent.” Text: Interest Rates around 6%. “And most importantly of all, this National government is keeping them down.” Tax. National can’t see the sense in unfairly punishing success, which is why they are committed to the lowest possible taxes for both businesses and wage earners. National firmly believes you should be rewarded for effort, and you should have the choice of how you spend your money. As well, National’s Employment Contracts Act has meant strike action is down a staggering 88% and helped create 249,800 extra new jobs since 1991. Text: Lowest Possible Taxes. Strike Action Down 88%. 249,800 new jobs since 1991. Economy Growth from $71 Billion to $100 Billion. Our strong economy, and improved international trade arrangements, have seen our economy grow from 71 billion dollars in 1990, to almost 100 billion dollars today. Jenny Shipley: “A strong economy is absolutely vital if we are to have a fair and successful society. We’ve made great progress under a National led government. We must not stop now and we certainly must not change direction. I’m confident that we can continue to enhance the environment where people with creative and innovative ideas are not only wanting to succeed, but they will succeed.” Text: New Zealand in the World Announcer: New Zealand is just a small part of a very big world. But it is in that big world that we must compete with our products and services. National has worked hard to achieve an open and honest dialogue with the markets that will fund our future. The National government has worked with others to free up trade amongst our trading partners. The artificial barrier of tariffs, which never truly reflect the real cost of goods, has slowly been taken down. Now real progress has been made, and the benefits that flow from free traded are starting to make a real difference. The costs of essentials has come down. Open trade does mean change, but it also means new opportunities and new jobs are flowing in. Part of that dialogue was of course the very successful conference recently held right here.” JS: “APEC has put New Zealand firmly on the world stage in both trade and in diplomatic terms, and we can all really be very proud of that. 21 economies have agreed to work together, on free and open trade and in the case of East Timor, New Zealand led the way in seeing that those people will enjoy the freedom that they so strongly voted for. I think it’s also true to say that New Zealanders are enjoying better relations with our neighbours and our trading partners than ever before. And there’s more. Mike Moore is now working for us in Geneva promoting free trade worldwide. And it’s my hope that, very soon, Don McKinnon will be the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth promoting democratic principles within that very important grouping. Text: Education for the Future Announcer: “Of all the wonderful things this country has to offer, none is more precious, more powerful, more potent, than its people. That is why National continues to place such a huge emphasis on education. From pre-school to the most advanced tertiary courses. JS: “I’m a politician, but I’m a Mum as well, and I have the same hopes and concerns for my children as other parents do. I want to see that the things that we value at home are reflected in the education system we have in New Zealand schools. It’s really important. I have great faith in teachers and parents and in administrators. We trust them to bring the national curriculum to life in the interests of the children they teach, and to also use the resources in the best interests of those young people. Some others would deny Boards of Trustees that choice, and we think that would be wrong.” Text: Social Programmes that make a Difference Announcer: “There will always be those in society who will, from time to time, need the help of others. It may happen to any one of us and good government must always be ready to respond quickly and fairly.” JS: “National believes that welfare is about giving people a hand up, and helping them make plans for the future. We work with each person, we work with families at risk, and we’re determined to break the cycle of dependency that so cripples people, and allow them to have hope for an independent and strong future. We put social workers into schools so that we can identify problems early, and can work on them. And where families are seriously at risk, we have social service agencies and government agencies working together to deal with problems, before they become embedded.” Announcer: “National’s welfare policy is based on strengthening families. It works best when New Zealand has a strong and growing economy. The better the nation does, the better we all do.” Text: Improving Personal Safety “A civilised and caring society must operate in a civilized, caring way. National has long been a party committed to safety, security and freedom for all its people.” Text: Safety, Security and Freedom “The National government has introduced much harsher penalties for violent home invasions. And they also introduced longer tougher sentences for rape. The government listened to New Zealand, and they acted quickly.” JS: “We responded to New Zealanders concerns by introducing longer and harsher penalties, because we want the criminals to get the message. But we’ve also tried to prevent crime by introducing far more police men and women on the streets of New Zealand. We’ve increased our police force by 900 new officers since 1990, and we’ve introduced some special squads to concentrate on burglary, and perhaps more importantly on juvenile crime. We’ve also introduced a wide range of early intervention measures, because the best way to beat crime is to stop it happening in the first place.” Text: The Way Ahead Announcer: “There is little doubt that New Zealand is moving towards a better tomorrow. Little doubt also that National is the one political party with both the vision and the vigour to keep our country moving forward.” JS: “We’ve brought New Zealand through nine dramatic years. They’ve been exciting. They’ve been years of change. They’ve been very successful years. We’ve announced a strategy for the future so we can catch the next wave of growth. We’ve got dynamic plans in education, in research and science, and in information technology, to build on New Zealand’s existing economic strength in agriculture, tourism, fisheries, manufacturing and our forestry sector. More than anything else we are dedicated to providing a really fertile environment in which this kiwi spirit can be nurtured and flourish, an environment where New Zealanders are given the freedom to actually make their own decisions for themselves and their families. And also in their businesses and in their community. The New Zealand we see for the next millennium is a country where people have real choice, choice about lower tax rates that will allow us to retain our best businesses and our brightest and best young graduates. Choices about whether employees and employers can make their own arrangements or whether the unions from Wellington will be telling them how to think, and how to act. The choice for the future will depend on economic growth. More growth means more jobs, more income and more tax revenue. Growth means more choices for our country. National has three priorities, and they are to pay off the mortgage, to increase spending in areas that really matter to New Zealanders like health and education and the social programmes, and to return more money to New Zealanders, through tax reductions, so they can get on and make decisions for themselves. We’ve got an important choice to make on election day. We can either take New Zealand backward by offering yesterday’s solutions to today’s problems or we can move forward with National, a party with an experienced and dynamic team, a terrific track record and exciting plans for the future. The choice is ours. On the 27th of November, make the right choice. Text: Vote National with your party vote. 1999 Labour Opening Helen Clark: “You know people often think politicians are out of touch, and they might have a point. It’s easy to get remote from the realities of everyday life. That’s why I spend as much time as possible, meeting people, asking them questions and listening to them talk about the realities of the challenges they face. These folk aren’t whingers and moaners, they’re ordinary hard-working kiwis who just want to get ahead and achieve their goals. But sometimes there are just too many barriers in the way. 21-year old Kim Hoyce is a third year medical student. With fees and living expenses her student loan is already up to $26,000. Kim: “It’s going to be enormous because its easily going to be um three years at least from now until I’ll be earning anything, and it’s only after that that any money starts coming in so that I can even begin paying it off.” HC: “What do you estimate you would expect to owe by the time you finish medical school?” Kim: “Anywhere between 60 and 100 thousand. It just keeps on piling on and on and on and personally I just think its criminal. It feels like the government is earning money off the fact that I’m financing my own education.” HC: “Stephen Mills is 54, with a wife and two adult children. He’s suffered from osteo-arthritis for fifteen years. For the last three, he’s been waiting for a hip replacement.” Stephen: “Sometimes you go to move and the pain sort of stops you moving and you’re in the middle of something and you want to stop but you can’t and, um, so that its sort of ah almost reached the point of, ah, where it’s well completely debilitating really.” HC: “And you’re a person who’s worked all your life, never been unemployed until this illness put you out of the workforce.” Stephen: “I’d love to go back to work, there’s nothing better I feel in sort of going to work. Um at the moment I have a part-time job. At least when I go out to catch the bus in the morning I say, well I’ve got a day ahead of me, I feel like somebody. And then I come home at night and see my wife and my daughter and they say well this happened today, that happened today, this is what happened, I feel good about it, and that’s what I’d like to feel once again.” HC: Lee Brash is a solo mother with three young children. The rent on her state flat used to be $73 a week. Now it’s risen to $270.” Lee: “I’m paying 60% of my income in my rent. So, I have got enough money for food and power and telephone and to run a car ,which I need for my job, but when things happen like when we have car repairs I don’t often have the money for that, I have to scrabble around for that.” HC: “Where would you be without the support of friends in your community?” Lee: “Well I really don’t think I could afford to be here. I’d have to shift out of Auckland which would be very sad.” HC: “Hi Kids. Katharine Holloway’s rent climbed to over $300 a week. When I met her, she and her seven children were living in emergency housing, all of them in one room. When you were trying to cope with the really high rent, what could you feed the family. Did you have meat? Katharine: “I’ll be lucky if I could get meat, but you know mince, sausages go a long way don’t they.” HC: “And you got into problems with the power bill?” K: “Yes, plenty of problems with the power bill.” HC: “And did you find the kids were getting sick a lot?” K: “Yes, my children end up and they were, they’re asthmatics now, and when they have an asthma attack 3 o’clock in the morning well.” HC: “What do you do?” K: “Grab a cab, you grab a cab, and it costs you 50 bucks.” HC: “And how much did you have left after paying $310 in rent, to live on.” K: “Oh maybe 40, 50 dollars.” HC: “And you couldn’t do it” K: “No. So I was more or less um dipping my hand in the box and saying, Oh lucky you, you get paid today, you know, so that was how I ending up being in, it wasn’t helping me because I ended up getting into debt, heavily into debt, so I ended up here.” HC: Sheryl Love works as a secondary school teacher. She lives alone and worries about the safety of her extended family, and with good reason. Sheryl: “My youngest son um was living in West Auckland and he had, he’s been burgled twice in approximately the last two years, literally everything he possessed was taken. And um my other son has been attacked and severely beaten. I think he’s forgotten about it, but I have never forgotten the police bringing him home, bleeding and terribly beaten. You don’t, you don’t ever forget those sort of things. And it is, it’s not getting any better, it’s getting worse. You know, just you feel you’re not, I’d like to go for a walk at night but there’s no way after dark. The thing is, it won’t happen to me, is gone. Funnily enough as I grow older, I get more concerned for my family, my grandchildren, my elderly mother who lives alone and her, she’s entered the siege mentality, you know, her home is like a fortress, and I also worry if anything happened to her, how on earth would I get in to help her, and she’s not the only one. You know, it’s such a change in New Zealand society.” HC: Bruce Donaldson sold his home to finance his processing factory Fruit Enterprises. He believes passionately that we should be adding value to our primary produce, and he’s convinced small businesses like his are good for New Zealand’s future. Bruce: “I don’t think we employed anybody that already had a job, because in the early stages this business was so unstable I wasn’t prepared to take people that already had a job. I didn’t want them to give up a job to come in here cos I didn’t know if I could keep them. So I took people that didn’t have jobs and they’ve all turned out to be absolutely brilliant.” HC: And what about getting into exporting, has that proved tricky as well? Bruce: “To get that off the ground it would be nice if I could ring up Tradenz and say, look here’s the data that I’ve got, here’s the product, here’s the samples, um can you help me. But when I do that the first thing that they want to know is can I afford to pay the bill? Things like research and development, we can do so much ourselves in our own laboratory on our own very limited equipment, but there’s some fabulous facilities available at the universities but accessing those today costs money and we front up there and you know we’ve got to pull the cheque book out and we just don’t have it, I mean we need the cheque book to pay the wages, to pay the tax and keep the business going.” HC: Jeanette Jenkinson is retired and lives on New Zealand superannuation. Market rents and medical bills have eroded her savings ‘til there’s nothing left. Jeanette: “I’ve got to watch every cent. For example, I live close to Saint Lukes and I often go in when I’m doing my shopping and I long for an ice cream and I go up to the counter and then I, “No Jenks, no ice cream today.” HC: “And have you found you’re getting behind with some of the bills?” JJ: “Yes, I am a little bit behind with the power board, with the Mercury, and with the Telecom I’m afraid I’m behind two months.” HC: Do you remember last year getting a letter from the government after they cut the pension saying that your purchasing power will be maintained. JJ: Oh yes HC: Do you think your purchasing power’s been maintained? JJ: That’s a load of blarmy. HC: Hah hah ha ha ha ha ha ha. “There are thousands of people with stories like these. The National government’s had nine years to do something about it, nine years to deliver on the promises they made, and look what they’ve given us. They promised hospital waiting lists would get shorter. They got longer. They promised better fire and police services, then ripped the heart out of them. They promised cheaper education and now debt’s crippling our children. They promised more affordable and better housing. We have people living in poverty. Fifty years ago this country had the third highest standard of living in the world. Today we rank around 25th. So what do these ordinary kiwis want from the next government.” Kim: “Ideally obviously tertiary education would be free, but I don’t think that that’s feasible, um, what I’d really like to see would be disappearance of the interest, or at least the compound interest, um it’s a real killer.” Stephen: “I feel that the important thing is to make surgery, make all those things available to people who need it.” Lee: “I’d really like for them to see people not just as economic units, but as people with needs and who are treasures in themselves.” Katharine: “Lower the market rent. It’ll be, It’ll be easier for me and my children.” Sheryl: “Increase our police force, definitely.” Bruce: “Better access to capital, better support for research and development, faster write-off on new capital equipment like this to assist with new purchases and probably above all, assistance with export.” JJ: “They may, they might, seeing the cost of living is so expensive, just raise the superannuation a little.” HC: “That would make it a lot easier.” JJ: “That would make the world of difference.” HC: “That isn’t too much to ask is it, good health, decent housing, affordable education, security, a living wage. They’re all at the heart of Labour’s vision for the future. I’m not going to pretend we can change the world overnight, but these things I can promise you a Labour government will do in the first three years: We’ll cut waiting times for surgery and focus on patients, not profits. We’ll help tertiary students by charging no interest on their loans while they’re studying. We’ll create jobs by promoting New Zealand industry and helping exporters and small businesses. We’ll ensure that state tenants on low incomes pay no more than 25% of their income in rent. We’ll reverse this year’s superannuation cuts so older people can live with dignity again. We’ll crack down on burglary so people can feel safe in their homes. Text: Health: Focus on patients & reduce waiting times. Education: Charge no interest while studying. Employment: Create jobs, promote industry & exports Housing: Restore income related rents. Superannuation: Reverse the 1999 cuts. Security: Crack down on burglary. “We won’t increase GST or company tax. Anyone earning less than $60,000 a year, that’s 95% of you, won’t pay a single extra cent of personal income tax, you have my word. New Zealanders deserve a better economy, a better society, a better country. It’s time for a change, a change of heart, a change of government. And only a vote for Labour can guarantee that change. Labour’s mission is to build a prosperous future for our country and our people. We can’t do it in a day or a month. But we can do it, and we will. That’s my promise to you, and I intend to see it through. Text: It’s time for change. Only a vote for Labour can change the government. Followed at 11.30 by Kids/Future ad.