Adams Amy: General Debate 
Adams Amy: General Debate 
[Volume:672;Page:18791] 
AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn) 
: 
 It is clearly Mr Cunliffe’s day today to give the vein-popping “flirting with delusions of grandeur” speech from the other side—full of hollow platitudes. It is always interesting watching Labour members speak to see whose day it is to make the leadership bid. Clearly today was Mr Cunliffe’s day and I have to say it is no surprise to hear that he addressed his entire speech to the gallery because none of his colleagues were paying any attention whatsoever to a word he had to say. So I hope he got a better response from the gallery because his colleagues all had their heads down and could not have shown any less interest in what he had to say—pretty much like the rest of New Zealand. 
Tomorrow is Budget day and I am pleased the members opposite have realised that. It is the closest they have come to saying anything useful all week. The Budget this year will be yet another brick in the rebuilding of this country’s economy. 
Hon Members 
: Come on! 
AMY ADAMS 
: That is what it will be. It will be yet another step in turning round the complete hash that the last Labour Government left the economy of this country in. It is election year but this Government will not use the Budget to recklessly throw around money in a desperate grab for votes in the way the Labour Government did. We will not do that; we are fiscally prudent. We know that a Government has to walk the talk. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Tell us about the farmers’ tax. 
AMY ADAMS 
: I tell Mr Cunliffe that anyone can say the words; this Government is delivering. We know that a Government has to earn the money and has to support the people who earn the money before a Government has anything to spend. Labour Governments are great at spending but this Government gets in behind people who are actually earning the money. This Budget is about a couple of things: it is about controlling Government spending and getting the books back in shape and it is about investing in infrastructure and skills. Those are the sorts of building blocks we need to get this economy going. Most important in my view it is about rebuilding my province of Canterbury and that will cost over $15 billion. We know we have to play our part in the rebuilding of Canterbury. New Zealand knows that the Government has to make changes in order to pay that bill. 
This Budget will do that; it will keep us on the path to rebalancing the economy. It will get the books back in order and get New Zealand back into surplus. Then we can have choices create productive sustainable jobs and provide better incomes for New Zealanders. Anybody can talk about that stuff. The National-led Government is the one delivering that stuff for everyday New Zealanders and that is why New Zealanders will continue to back us. That is why every single poll shows us that the only lot of people they want on the Treasury benches is the National-led Government. There is no interest in Labour no interest in the Greens no interest in the “Hone Heke” tax. The National-led Government has shown time and again that this is the party of fiscal responsibility. New Zealanders are supporting us. 
In between Labour’s squabbles and factions it tries every now and then to come up with a big bright idea. It tries to land a couple of blows on us. What have we had this week? There is so much to choose from but my favourite has to be David Cunliffe’s website poll. That was great. Two days before the Budget he was polling his faithful sheep on what they thought about the Budget. Best of all by the time he pulled down the website there was an 88 percent support rate for the National Budget which was so good that more than 24 hours before Bill English delivered it the country already loved it! It showed 88 percent support for the Budget which is pretty much the support I think most polls will show. But what about the front page of today’s  
Dominion Post 
 which shows Stuart Nash finally dropping the veil and admitting his complete financial incompetence by suggesting we should tax businesses on their turnover. That shows brilliance! That story had to be one of the most moronic pieces of thinking I have seen in a long time. Labour went out and suggested that $500000 turnover was the same as the same amount of salary. Does that not tell us how few Labour members have ever had a productive job in their lives? If any one of them had run a business and had even a basic grasp of how business works they would know the difference between turnover and profit. If I get this right Labour’s plan is to tax us on money we do not earn. Is that right? It would tax us on money we do not earn. I have an earth-shattering piece of news for members opposite. Maybe farmers are paying tax on what they actually get to keep. That would be radical.