Leaders dispute vision of the road ahead

The Prime Minister yesterday set out the Government's election priorities, stressing increased productivity with more women in the workforce and better childcare to help them get there (see link to speech below). Here is how other party leaders in Parliament responded to her statement:

Don Brash (National)

"I would like to thank the Prime Minister for clarifying that the Labour Party believes the Government is the solution to everything, and that individual responsibility and enterprise have no role in modern New Zealand."

Winston Peters (NZ First)

"Like last year, again we were saved by a gracious providence - the bell went - and we just saw an example of starting the year with a hiss and a snore ... This country needs solutions, not failed right-wing policies that have been tried in the past."

Rodney Hide (Act)

"We had a grandmother, a great-grandmother, an 83-year-old in a little town in New Zealand brutally assaulted and murdered ... and where is Helen Clark in her speech in dealing with this? Every grandmother in the country is scared at home."

Jeanette Fitzsimons (Greens)

"Once again the Prime Minister has delivered a speech where she talks about a sustainable future and a better quality of life, without a single reference to ensuring we protect and invest in the ecological foundations on which this quality is based ... The environment doesn't rate a mention - not once - in the Prime Minister's vision."

Peter Dunne (United Future)

"So many parents today worry about are they doing it right, are they caring as they ought to for their kids. There are no supports there for them ... so we do need to bring that focus back to the household."

Jim Anderton (Progressive)

"Since 1999 the Progressive Labour-led coalition Government has overseen a transformation of the New Zealand economy and anyone who doesn't acknowledge [that] either has no idea of the facts or just wants to make cheap political capital."

Tariana Turia (Maori Party)

"The Treaty of Waitangi was not ... a strategy to advise us how to respond to grievances, nor was it the beginner's guide to establishing a treaty industry. In this respect it is very disappointing that the three times the word treaty appeared in the Prime Minister's address refer exclusively to a focus on settlement policy."