<&>Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English Version One <&>Copyright 1998 School of Linguistics & Applied Language Studies <&>Victoria University of Wellington <&>side one <&>0:25 tim good morning good morning jim good morning tim this is an old an old friend of yours from dunedin jim i would how would you restructure the the present housing corporation jim well the housing corporation has traditionally and historically been a a um a housing body that looks after those who are not able for variety of reasons health income um security to provide housing from the private sector there's always been a private sector and <&>1:00 there always will be and so there should in a mixed economy but the housing corporation has been there to provide housing for those in need who are not able to fulfil that need which is an essential er service really i mean health education housing and employment i think are the four keys to to human survival and um the housing corporation should be there we would see housing as one of the main economic and social instruments of an alliance government so we would invest two hundred and fifty million dollars into the housing corporation to actually provide more housing and do it each year for five years that would also provide more jobs it would deal with the hundred thousand new zealanders who are living in appallingly bad housing conditions at the present time and provide employment opportunities as well and we would monitor and um restrict the rent increases to a percentage we suggest twenty five percent of total income i mean i just had a a fifty six year old yesterday ring my electorate office she's she's living in a housing corporation rental her <&>2:00 rental is going up from seventy three dollars to ninety dollars this week and she's earning a hundred and thirty one dollars a week now come on i mean how in GOD'S name are we expecting people to cope and because she's in a housing rental a housing corporation rental or housing new zealand rental she doesn't qualify for any accommodation benefit so it's just become impossible for people to survive now <.>all for all those of you listeners who want to know more about housing you can hear it from jim anderton but um john luxton will be on next monday so er get your housing questions ready then john luxton <{1><[1>the minister of housing he'll be on next monday good er to have your call tim you're listening to radio pacific the <{2><[2>talk of new zealand three oh nine three oh double nine is the number if you'd like to give us a call then the lines are open for you to do so jim anderton is our guest <&>2:50 <&>advertisements not transcribed <&>3:09 <[1>sneezes <[2>coughs on radio pacific now richard good morning er hello yes er mister anderton <{1><[1>i would like to ask you er about the health policy i've <,> been a labour voter <,> er but i am thinking of <.>s swinging over but you had a a mister gribbon i <{2><[2>think on on television i haven't seen much about alliance since then on on television what <,> what are you going to be doing about the crown health enterprises um <[1>yes richard <[2>barry gribbons we're going to abolish them we're going to go back to elected area health boards with professional management <{><[>to <[>why are they so much better though for goodness sake i mean we've gone through all this and yes that's right and we're going through it all again why are we going through <.>th the crown health enterprises <{><[>thing i mean <[>mm why would you abolish them <&>4:00 well because at the present time the community has very little input into what's going on in their health care at a local level for example area health boards at least used to have their meetings in public the er crown health enterprises don't and er the public know very little they know exactly what they're told you know from propaganda and i don't think that's good enough for an essential service like health and furthermore the principle of health service will be that er people receive health care because they need it not because they can pay for it and that will go through the primary system g ps and prescriptions and through the secondary care services like public hospitals and um we will increase taxation to to make health care free on a universal basis that means free to the user it's not free of course and that would cost about a total of four hundred million dollars more that is to have free g ps free prescriptions and free public <&>5:00 hospitals as public hospitals should be of course the idea of of of paying to go into a public hospital is is a <.>n negation in terms so um that's the deal er rich or poor if you're rich you've paid a bit more tax over your lifetime but i mean whenever you need care you get it as of right forever i mean the idea that you send out a bill to a premature baby of three months old for four hundred and fifty or five hundred dollars for care in an intensive care neonatal unit is obscene and that's what's happening in my electorate and all over the country is that enough to swing your vote richard well yeah it <.>i <.>i it does seem very good so you'll have a universal <{><[>publicly funded <[>a universal right to free health care for all people in this country paid through a progressive tax system fundamentally <{1><[1>what it always used to be to be honest that's what we used to do you paid a a rate of tax according to your income and when you needed essential care like er health you got it <{2><[2>free of charge <[1>word <[2>yes well that <&>6:00 <,> that that seems very good i i've been er watching er um that t v programme counterpoint <{1><[1>and they have <,> helen clark <{2><[2>on and er they used to have simon upton but what you're proposing seems um VERY you know er <.>v very different from both <{3><[3>national and labour <[1>yes <[2>that's right <[3>well it is different and i've written to television and <{1><[1>said if you want if you want to have a different viewpoint why don't you have the alliance because <.>th labour and national are so close i mean as i say the only specific difference that i can see in labour's health policy is that they would abolish the hospital charges and if national does abolish them labour haven't got a policy <{2><[2>basically <[1>word <[2>okay richard nice to have your call three oh nine three oh double nine is the number sarah good morning oh good morning mister anderton yes sarah i'd like to ask just two quick questions but as there are so many issues we'd like to discuss and there's not time on <,> air after that is it possible for us to get an address where by we could write to you care of parliament buildings wellington oh that simply thank you now um compulsory <&>7:00 union membership are you bringing that back in no <,> the unions themselves don't want it now i mean there may be the odd union leader that would but by and large they recognise that um that regime is gone and they've got to win support from their members i think there is a case for people paying their share of costs for <.>commu communal benefits like you know wage and condition wages and conditions that are won by award negotiations and so on by unions but er the unions would prefer to win that support on a voluntary basis good thank you and g s t any changes there yes one big change i'm going to abolish it <,> over five six years i think it would take us to do it phase it out at about two two and a half percent a year and replace it with a financial transactions tax which is a much broader base of financial transactions throughout the community something like <,> ten or twelve times the total gross domestic product of the country actually is what the volume of money going <&>8:00 through the <.>banks banking system is and we'd tax on that and <{><[>people would pay <[>okay so what transactions are taxed financial transactions financial the volume of <{><[>money that goes through the banking system <[>word doesn't it turn the banks though into the policemen no it turns them into tax collectors like all businesses in new zealand are turned into tax collectors i mean every small business that has to administer g s t has to pay enormous compliance costs for that so it would be a BOON to small businesses not to have to do it good to have your call sarah twenty one minutes away from eleven oclock here on radio pacific you can er talk to jim anderton by calling three oh nine three oh double nine if you're calling from out of auckland of course put a zero nine in front of that and your call will be given priority <&>8:39 <&>advertisements not transcribed <&>8:43 radio pacific of course broadcasting up and down the nation with jim anderton in our studio this morning and kathy good morning yes good morning good <{><[>morning mister anderton i would like to ask you about education because i'm the mother of five gifted <&>9:00 children and education is crippling our <.>ord very ordinary family i would like to ask you what your policy is on external secondary school exams and tertiary education because that's what i will be voting on this election <[>good morning kathy well let's take them in turn the education system and and investment in education is probably the most important social investment that we can make <.>in for the country's future and although many politicians give lip service to that unfortunately over recent years education has actually fallen in real terms er in the provision that's made for it and that's going to actually cause us a lot of problems <,> in the future because many other countries that are developing rapidly are spending more on education while we spend in effectively less now er our policy again is the same as for the essential area of health that we see education as a community benefit it's not just an <&>10:00 individual benefit the whole community benefits if we have good doctors good lawyers good mothers and fathers good technicians good radio er interviewers and <{><[>politicians and therefore we shouldn't ask people to pay for education when they're getting it we should ask them to pay for it when they've had it and they're earning money and er the more education they've got USUALLY the better money they earn so they pay a higher rate of tax through progressive taxation so we say free er education from kindergarten or preschool right through to tertiary level and postgraduate and THEN when people have got good jobs in this country they will pay back that money instead of charging for loans or fees and then trying to take it back over the next twenty years and all this nonsense let's call a spade a spade and get education as a a KEY element for the future of new zealand and provide it free of charge <[>laughs okay kathy? no um <{1><[1>he's completely ignored my first <{2><[2>i'd like to know that <[1>oh <[2>i'm sorry the the question of external exams yes well tut the education policy of the alliance <&>11:00 is actually going to be er announced after the end of may BASICALLY er my view of what i've heard through the discussions in the alliance is that external examinations are not looked upon with great favour in the education community there may be a place for them for some kind of maintenance of standards but by and large we should trust our education institutions as we trust our <.>in universities after all when you go to university you don't have an external university exam you have an internal one and we should trust our schools to have internal exams and give us um a a fair view of the abilities of students it's always disturbed me very badly that we have a pass fail situation in this country right from the beginning when you go to school certificate you know fifty percent of new zealanders <.>f fail tut a a key examination and they have failure branded on them in their mind in their emotions at a very tender age and i think that's a a heinous thing to do to people so we should have <&>12:00 a a more success oriented a win win situation in other words let's let's concentrate on the abilities that every individual has develop those and use those skills i mean i know many people who failed school certificate who actually make a very worthwhile contribution <.>an and in some cases a highly intellectual one too but just because they failed in the fifth form er doesn't mean to say they they are failures at all and yet we do tend to use that as a measurement in employment and everything else okay kathy? oh not really <{><[>no <[>well no i didn't think <{1><[1>with five gifted children it must be pretty difficult <{2><[2>i would imagine <[1>yes <[2>yes because i actually find that the internal <.>as assessment is a lose lose system mm for average or lower than average children <{><[>and that i wouldn't because there are subjects in the sixth form certificate it's impossible to pass so no matter what your child does <[>why is that why is it impossible to pass them because they give the high grades to academic subjects and nonacademic subjects get the failing <{><[>grade <[>but that's the school certificate system no this is also a system in the sixth form and it's <&>13:00 much more marked than than the school certificate i'm actually a a mathematics coach mm and i find the children who are hurt by the internal assessment are the average or lower than average children well now that's <.>a that's a fault of the measurement er er criteria isn't it i mean <.>i if you have people who are measured in such a way that <.>the they have to fail because of the grading system that's a fault there it's not a fault of whether it's internal or external because the school certificate system is exactly the same for YEARS they actually down graded people who took maori for example and more of them failed than <.>h those who took say mathematics now that was a failure of the school cert system and the way in which they marked and graded now you can have that bad marking and grading system whether you have external or internal examination it's a topic you could go on talking about all morning kathy i'm afraid we've got to cut it there good to have your call though fourteen minutes away from eleven oclock we're going down to napier to have a chat to james good morning <&>13:57