Joyce Steven: Budget Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Joyce Steven: Budget Debate 
[Sitting date: 30 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2674. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development) 
: 
 Budget 2012 is all about investing in our future. It is a very impressive Budget that Bill English has put together with four key priorities. No. 1 is something the Labour Party knows nothing about: responsibly managing the Government’s finances. No. 2 is building a more productive and competitive economy. No. 3 is delivering better public services within tight financial constraints and No. 4 is rebuilding Christchurch. It is a responsible Budget that creates $4.4 billion in new initiatives $3 billion in savings and $1.4 billion in revenue initiatives—that is $4.4 billion in new initiatives without increasing spending. And it is a surplus in 2014-15.  
Contrast that firm solid economic leadership with the rabble that is on the other side of the House who have absolutely no economic direction whatsoever. All they have is the three denying Davids. The first denying David who is not even in the House today is David Parker. 
Grant Robertson 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is a longstanding convention in the House not to refer to the absence of members which the member just did. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is absolutely correct. I ask the Minister to please not refer to any absence of a member. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: Thank you for that Mr Speaker. The first denying David is David Parker Labour’s so-called finance spokesman who starts from the position of being in denial about the world economy. He is an economist who wants to assume away the global financial crisis who wants to pretend that the biggest world recession since the Great Depression did not happen and who wants to pretend that the Christchurch earthquakes never happened. He tells this House he is sick of hearing about the global financial crisis and he is sick of hearing about Christchurch earthquakes. Well so frankly are the people of Christchurch and the people of New Zealand but they know that that is reality. He is Labour’s finance spokesperson. He is in denial and being in denial is no place to start from in developing an economic policy. 
Then there is denying David No. 2 also known as David Cunliffe also known as Sonny Crockett to his mates—Dave the ham actor. He stood up big and tall in front of the New Lynn ladies club— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Point of order Mr Speaker. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I can predict what the member’s point of order will be. Members must not refer to members by other than their proper names and even in the Budget debate they must still refer to members by their proper names. I call the Hon Steven Joyce. 
Hon Simon Bridges 
: They’re a bit sensitive eh? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: They are a little sensitive for that one. But anyway he stood up tall and strong in front of the New Lynn ladies branch of the Labour Party and denied the last 30 years of economic policy in this country his party’s role in it and his own role in it. His economic policy is to fire-hose money around to any company or any person who walks in front of him. But it is not just money; he wants to fire-hose borrowed money around—borrowed money borrowed internationally. He also wants to bet the New Zealand economy against the international money markets with the exchange rate. That gentleman is in economic denial. He is also in denial of what David Parker is in denial of but God forbid he would ever be in charge of New Zealand economic policy. 
Then you come to denying Dave No. 3 “David What’s-his-name”. He is in desperate denial that the other two Davids want his job. Plus there is his hungry-looking deputy Grant Robertson who is also seeking his job. So we have these three denying Davids who have absolutely no coordinated approach to economic policy at all. They deny the global financial crisis they say their economic plan is to want more jobs and growth and then they whack increased taxes on growing businesses. That is what they want to do: they want to add a capital gains tax. The Labour Party also says it wants more growth. It says it wants more growth and then it declares it will stop almost everything the Government is working on that would encourage growth. So whether it is convention centres whether it is oil and gas whether it is foreign investment whether it is more intensive agriculture whether it is ultra-fast broadband or whether it is new roads—the list goes on and on of the things that Labour would not do.  
Labour is also saying—and this is one that stretches credibility to the absolute maximum—that it wants to balance the books. It says that it wants to do that in the same time as the National Government and then it opposes every piece of spending restraint in the last 4 years—every piece of spending restraint. Labour is saying that it wants growth but then it wants to tax growth. It is saying it wants to stop everything that leads to growth it is saying it wants to balance the books while not stopping any spending and it says it wants to pretend the real world does not exist. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: What a lot of rubbish. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: That happens to be true. That is not an economic policy; that is a joke. That is actually snake oil salesman activity.  
Then you have the friends the Greens. Every opportunity the Greens get they say they want to return to basically the horse and cart.  
Finally we have Labour’s other friend Hone Harawira who wants jobs in his electorate but then wants to encourage people to march against mining in the far north. So we have the ridiculous situation in last weekend’s  
Weekend Herald 
 where on page 9 we have protesters including all of Hone’s mates against mining in the far north and then on page 3 we have the residents of Kaikohe saying that they will get up and go over to work in the mines in Australia. That is the trouble with that side of the House. It has absolutely no idea of cause and effect between what you say in this House and the impact it has on the economy.  
That is in contrast with this Government and Bill English’s Budget which is working hard to grow the New Zealand economy. The Budget addresses a number of things that will help develop the New Zealand economy. No. 1 is infrastructure. It will be one of the things that this country will look back on in terms of this Government saying that it kept investing in infrastructure during tough economic times and we are. We are investing billions to get the country moving more quickly. We are investing $12 billion in the high-use highways around New Zealand. That was opposed by Labour and opposed by the Greens. One thing we could be sure of is that if those parties ever got in none of it would be happening. 
We are also investing $1.35 billion to roll out ultra-fast broadband and an extra $300 million for the Rural Broadband Initiative. We are also investing $2 billion to upgrade the metro rail systems in Auckland and Wellington. Labour wants to spend more of course. It wants a 35c return on every dollar spent; that is the quality of economic analysis in the Labour Party. We are also working hard on the capital markets by encouraging New Zealanders with their opportunities to invest in the mixed-ownership model companies. That will help kick-start New Zealand’s capital markets and the Labour Party does not want any part of that either.  
Another area where we are working to grow the economy is in skills. We have made some great progress there and Labour hates it. We are funding the highest number of core tertiary places ever—13000 more in 2012 than in 2008. We are also funding for performance for completing qualifications and courses. “Bums on seats” is finished. That went out with Labour members and the door kicked them in the bum on the way out.  
 We are also getting excellent results for priority learners like Maori. There are 5500 more places at university for Maori than in 2008 and completion rates are up. Finally we are getting great progress in literacy and numeracy. This year 122000 people are taking embedded literacy and numeracy in higher-level education around New Zealand which is up from 36000 just 2 years ago.  
Then we go on to what is in this Budget. There is $42 million worth of investment to increase engineering diplomas and graduates— 
Grant Robertson 
: Where does that money come from? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: —over the next 5 years building to 500 a year. Mr Robertson hates it. He does not like engineers. Labour never invested in engineers. We are also investing $100 million more for research at universities we have 3000 more Youth Guarantee places and we are also putting $17 million into extra investment in science at universities. On top of that we are investing further in research and innovation across the New Zealand economy from basic science to applied science and to firm-led innovation with the Advanced Technology Institute. It is a massive amount of money and it leaves those tired old research and development tax credits in the shade. The spend on research and investment goes up from $1.16 billion to $1.24 billion this year up from $1 billion in 2008-09. It is an increase of 17 percent in 4 years. I am proud of the Government which invests in science and innovation. [ 
Interruption 
] Those members wish they were us. They wish they were us.  
This Budget is balanced and sensible. It is about investing in New Zealand’s future. It is about responsibly managing New Zealand’s finances while building an innovative productive and competitive economy that sells more to the world supports more jobs and delivers better public services in constrained times. It is about returning to surplus in 2014-15. It is about continuing to protect the most vulnerable New Zealanders with Working for Families and New Zealand superannuation and encouraging and supporting beneficiaries into the workforce. It is about investing in the rebuild of Canterbury. The National-led Government is delivering on all the promises it made to New Zealanders at the 2011 election and it is working hard to ensure a brighter future for all New Zealanders.