Labour 2008 campaign opening broadcast Helen Clark: "I spend a lot of my time out with grass roots New Zealanders in all kinds of settings. It may be a school, it may be at the shopping mall, it may be at a league function. It could be anywhere, the key thing is to keep your ear to the ground on what our people are thinking at the grass roots, because that enables me to be a better leader." "For me the election is about trust. It is about who we New Zealanders trust the future of our families, our communities, our country, our economy, our public services, with. It is about contrasting our government, which has taken principled decisions, sometimes very hard decisions, with an opposition which has flip flopped on every single major issue. Fundamentally it comes down to who do you trust the future with. The twenty-first century has thrown up a lot of challenges and right now we are seeing the worst international financial crisis since the 1930s. These international crises require a lot of judgement, and a lot of experience. So we have to be prudent, we have to be careful, we have to be making investments which are really important to take our families and our country ahead. Our vision is for every family in our country to feel secure. It is for us to offer the best life-style, the best conditions of life for our people that they could find anywhere in the world. I'm someone who has committed my whole adult life to New Zealand. New Zealand had, for me, all the opportunity in the world, and all the security in the world as I watched my grandparents grow old, as I watched my nieces and nephews grow up." Education: the future For me education is going to be so critical, that is why I'm excited about the schools plus policy, which offers the opportunity for our teenagers to get more out of their secondary schooling years and in those early years in apprenticeships and in training. For equality of opportunity, being able to be in early childhood education is such as important start in life, so twenty hours free is a huge policy. It is huge for families too because a lot of our families are saving eighty to ninety dollars a week per three or four-year old child in early childhood education. And that makes a big difference to the family budget. Youth apprenticeships are going to be very important, introduced from year nine for thirteen year olds on, and when young people see that they have the ability to go on and get the qualifications which will get them into trade and technical occupations, I think we are going to see a lot more interest in our school system. I'm really excited about the new system of one teacher to every 15 new entrant children aged five in our schools. That means the teacher can give a lot of attention to those new entrants and make sure they get on top of the basics of their reading and their writing very, very early on. Affordable housing Traditionally, New Zealand governments, since the First Labour government, have helped people into their first home. Tragically, in the 1990s, the National Party sold off the entire mortgage portfolio of the Housing Corporation. But Labour is back there helping again. I'm hearing wonderful stores about young people who are just so thrilled to have the chance to have their own home because Labour's shared equity programme has helped them. A better public health system It is so important that the public health system works well. Because most of our people don't go private. They want the public health system to be delivering that all important treatment. And so the fact that we've been able to double the number of orthopaedic operations on hips and knees is critical, drive up the number of cataract operations by 50%, this really matters to people. Particularly to our older citizens, for whom not having those things attended to can make life very, very miserable. Proudly Kiwi I believe that through arts and culture we New Zealanders are expressing what is truly unique about us. Nowhere else in the world are you going to see a show life Pacifiska, no-where else in the world are you going to see Kapa Haka the way it is performed with such incredible enthusiasm, heart-felt enthusiasm. No-where else in the world are you going to see a movie made like Whale Rider, telling the story of our people. Our Labour government has really got in behind our sports people, and I am so proud of what we achieved at the Olympics this year. I am so proud of what the All Blacks are achieving, the rugby league players, the net ballers, the people in sports high profile, and not so high profile, who are giving it everything they've got. A world for our children I grew up on our family farm on the border of the Pirongia Forest Park in the Waikato. And being out in the outdoors, out in the bush, out in the snow, matters a lot to me. Climate change is one of the greatest issues facing the planet. We don't want to leave a world to our children where the glaciers have all gone, where the sea levels have risen to wipe out the island homes of our neighbours in the South Pacific, where the great forests are collapsing. We want a world where we pass on the incredible natural heritage that we have been privileged to have in our life-times. I believe there is incredible goodwill among our people to do the right thing by the environment. I believe that if we can offer good, affordable public transport, and our government has poured money into public transport, our people will use it. I believe, as a society, as a nation, we are capable of rising to fight these huge challenges of fighting climate change. Keeping it Kiwi The National Party's privatisation of rail in the 1990s was a disaster. Not enough investment went into the system over a long period of time. Now the New Zealand people are the proud owners of Kiwi Rail. And we see it as important for a sustainable transport system for the future. We are looking at projections of the freight carried in our country doubling by 2040. Who wants all that on the highways with juggernauts baring down on the family car. There are some things it is so important there is public ownership of. Like our Accident Compensation system. We have a world leading scheme. It offers comprehensive coverage, it is the envy of many countries. It is also cost effective. It supports workers and others who have an accident and it rehabilitates people. To privatise that would be so absurd. Our government brought ACC totally back into the public system, when we were first elected, and we absolutely commit to keeping it that way. When we came into government most of our banking system was foreign owned. And we believed that kiwis wanted the chance to bank with a Kiwi bank. We started Kiwi Bank, it has been a runaway success, people support it because it is Kiwi owned. And Labour backs it all the way. Treaty settlements Labour has made a big commitment to Treaty settlements because we have to reconcile with our past. And we have to empower iwi and hapu throughout New Zealand to be able to move ahead with confidence. I know we are going to meet the goal of meeting the historical Treaty settlements and that will be for the good of all New Zealanders. A fair deal at work Labour has been absolutely committed to a fair deal at work. We've made a lot of improvements: the four weeks' holidays has been critical. So has paid parental leave and I know we can improve that further as well. What is more important than young parents having the chance to have paid time off work to bond with a new baby. That is really giving our children the very best start in life. Strong leadership. Good management. Our country is better positioned than many to deal with the international financial crisis because we've run a very sensible approach to government finances and the economy. It has been good management. We've had the opposition saying we should have blown the bank on tax cuts years ago. But we believed we had to invest in our infrastructure, invest in our people, our health system, our education system. That has meant we've had a bit of money for a rainy day, which is why the 1 October increases in Working for Families and the tax cuts flowing all the way through to superannuation are possible and actually helpful at this time. Judgement you can trust In my job you are under the spotlights all the time. Every call is a judgement call. And a lot of those calls are very hard calls. You are drawing on your own values, you are drawing on the many years of experience you have had. I'm so proud of being a New Zealander and of the unique things about us and our country. Our people want to see New Zealanders' values expressed through our foreign affairs and defence policies. That is why the decision not to be part of the invasion of Iraq was so critical. Some of our oldest and closest friends went in a very different direction on Iraq. But we had to stand for what we believe was right, and it has been a huge sorrow to me to see the death toll for many nations involved there, and for Iraqis themselves. I think trust is critical. People don't necessarily agree with everything you have ever done. Being upfront and straight with people, the truth isn't always pleasant, but it has got to be spoken. And I think that people come to respect you for calling it as it is, even if they don't always agree with the judgement you have reached. In touch with people I'm out and about all the time because I think it is really important in a leadership role that you keep in touch with people at the grass roots. Because out there, there is people working hard, they've bringing up their children, they are looking after relatives who may be older, or frail or have a disability, people with real lives. And I have to be listening to what they have to say. I meet so many people who say this could only happen in New Zealand, that I could meet our Prime Minister on a local street, but I think that is one of the great things about being a Kiwi. My campaign will be totally people-focussed, of course there are a lot of media engagements I have to do like debates. But other than that it will be out and about with people because that is what I am in this for. In this job I'm seeking re-election because I believe in New Zealanders and I want to support New Zealanders to build the strongest country we can. I believe, that I can offer, the leadership that will keep taking New Zealand ahead. I know there has been an incredible transformation in this country's economy and society during the years I've been Prime Minister. I want us to continue making the changes which will make our families strong, and our small country greater.