Hipkins Chris: Appropriation (2015/16 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Appropriation (2015/16 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate[Sitting date: 18 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5887. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka): That speech said everything about the National Government’s priorities. It now regards the Labour Party’s 9 years in Government as reckless. So what is it that it regards as so reckless? Nine surpluses in a row is clearly reckless according to the National Government—nine surpluses in a row. Record low unemployment—that is a reckless idea! What a reckless idea that we get people into work! That is recklessness according to the National Party. Record low debt in New Zealand’s history—that is reckless according to the National Government. What a reckless irresponsible Government that would deliver those things for New Zealand! It says everything about the National Government’s current economic management that it thinks that that is reckless—that it thinks that that is reckless.Chris Bishop railed against the idea that the Government must do something—that the Government must do something. There are 59 people sitting over on that side of the House who have clearly adopted that strategy. They do absolutely nothing to justify the salaries that the taxpayer is giving them. They believe that the role of Government is to do absolutely nothing—absolutely nothing. Increase taxes—yes the Government has done that. It increased GST for New Zealanders. Decrease spending in key areas—yes the Government has done thatin a whole host of areas on a real terms per capita basis. This is a Government that does not actually want to do anything and does not want to confront the real issues that are facing New Zealanders. This is a Government that thinks a debate about changing the flag is more important than the looming dairy crisis. In fact it is not even looming any more; it has arrived.We have a major problem. There were 500 jobs lost at Fonterra. We have got 1100 jobs lost so far at Solid Energy with the prospect of more to go. There is 7.5 percent unemployment in Taranaki. Remember the days when the National Government was going on about how great Taranaki was? This was an icon of what provincial New Zealand regional New Zealand could be. Taranaki was highlighted there. There is 7.5 percent unemployment in Taranaki under this National Government and things are getting worse. That is the highest level of unemployment in Taranaki in 21 years and it has happened under this Government. We reached record low unemployment under the Labour Government and now we are seeing more and more people unemployed under this Government while Chris Bishop and the National Government are adopting their mantra of “Government should do nothing.”The biggest message in that 10-minute contribution was Chris Bishop’s saying that the idea that the Government should do something was preposterous and that the Government should in fact do nothing. There are 50000 more people unemployed today than when John Key became Prime Minister. That is one of the many legacies that this National Government will be leaving New Zealand. The Government’s priorities are all wrong. It wants to change the flag not fix the dairy crisis. The Government wants to put sun decks and $140000 televisions in head offices not deal with the housing crisis. The Government wants to pump up the Beehive salaries whilst turning a blind eye to the fact that unemployment is going up under this National Government. This is a Government that is breaking so many of the promises that it made to New Zealanders.Of course there was no more privatisation under National. The privatisation agenda has ended unless of course it is a State house or some land or it is all of those other things that the Government is selling off. Apparently that is not privatisation despite the fact that something that was owned by the Government is no longer going to be owned by it. Somehow under National that does not fit the definition of privatisation any more. Of course what we know about the National Government is that if it cannot sell it it will cut it; if it cannot cut it it will restructure it; if it cannot restructure it it will try to contract it out; and if it cannot contract it out well goodness knows what will happen then. The Government simply tries to ignore it. It is a Budget of broken promises.We spent a lot of the Budget debate talking about the surplus and then goodness me a surplus just sort of popped up. It was only a temporary surplus but it did pop up. Do you know what one of the biggest contributors to the surplus was? The underspend in education. The money that the Government had budgeted to spend on education it did not actually spend on education. That was one of the biggest contributors to this tiny little surplus which just popped up out of nowhere. The Government stopped spending money that was budgeted for education. Where did the Government stop spending it? The Government released this breakdown which accounted for about 40 percent of the underspend. Where is the rest of that money? Where is the rest of the money that the Government did not spend on education but that it had budgeted for? I have found out. I know where it is. It is in Investing in Educational Success.This is the flagship programme that the Government has in the education area and the Government is underspending on it. The Government cannot give the money away. It cannot give the money away for its flagship education programme. That is how the Government ekes out a surplus—by stopping spending money on health and education. These are the areas where New Zealanders know that money is sorely needed. This Government is so determined that it will eke out some kind of face-saving surplus for Bill English by underspending on education. I think that that is totally and utterly wrong and it says everything about the Government’s priorities.I want to talk about the sell-off of State housing because that will bite in an area like the Hutt Valley where we have a lot of State houses. It will hurt people in the Hutt Valley—and it is hurting themalready. What we are seeing is the wholesale sell-off or demolition of State houses throughout the Hutt Valley. In areas where there were high concentrations of State housing there is now vacant land—empty land. And what happens to that land? It gets sold off and new houses get built. Here is the real rort—and this is just amazing—the Government will not release the figures on this because it knows that they are so damning. The Government gave away over 100 houses in 4 months—literally gave them to a developer and said: “You develop and you give us back some houses.”The Government has now admitted that it is buying back the houses. So basically the Government gave away the land and the houses and what did it get back out of it? Absolutely nothing because the Government is now buying the houses back off the developer. How is that in any way a good use of taxpayers’ money? Of course the Government will not release the information—it is commercially sensitive. The prices are all commercially sensitive. The Government having given the developer all of the land and the houses that were previously on it which it then trucked off and used elsewhere—the taxpayer is now having to buy back a small percentage of the houses that exist on that land. How is that good? How is that possibly being accountable? How is that possibly justified?And that is happening not just in Pōmare; it is happening up and down New Zealand. When I think about these commercial geniuses in the National Government I tell you: private interests see them coming. Basically the housing developers see them coming because they know that they are going to make money. Rio Tinto sees them coming. Skycity sees them coming. It was $30 million for Rio Tinto. Skycity—goodness knows how much money it is finally going to get out of them. They see them coming—the commercial geniuses over there. Such good negotiators they are that every time Steven Joyce sits down for a meal the taxpayer ends up forking out more money. He is that good a commercial negotiator that the commercial sector—the private sector—sees him coming and it hooks more and more money out of him.This Budget is not good for New Zealand. It continues to overlook the very big issues that we have—the housing crisis. The average price to buy a house in Auckland will be $1 million within a short space of time. That is outrageous. It means that there is a whole generation of people who will not be able to buy houses in Auckland. That is something that the Government is ignoring—the lack of diversification in our export industries and the huge potential that exists were the Government willing to be more active and to be a partner to our export industries. There is enormous potential there. But no this Government is willing to look the other way. Of course it is willing to spend $14 million buying an apartment for someone to hang out in in New York but it is not willing to get in behind and back exporters who want to grow the export market. The Government is willing to allow contracts to companies overseas for significant Government procurements—that is the Government buying stuff—without even giving New Zealand manufacturers and New Zealand firms a look in. That is just wrong.There is so much opportunity in the New Zealand economy—so much opportunity to turn things round to create jobs to go back to those days when Governments produced a surplus when we paid back debt when we had record low unemployment and when people could actually afford to buy a house. Gosh what terrible days they were under the Labour Government! We could go back to those fantastic times for New Zealand if the Government were willing to take so many of the opportunities that exist before it. But it will not because as Chris Bishop has pointed out the National Government believes that Governments should do nothing—as he so clearly articulated in his 10-minute speech which said everything about the National Government’s priorities. The Government should do nothing—the Government should do nothing. I disagree. I think that if we are going to have Governments Governments should do something. They should make sure that the conditions are right for job creation for people to be in work for people to be buying houses for housing to be affordable and for our export industries to thrive. I believe those are functions that the Government should undertake. Not under this National Government—that is not happening and New Zealanders are being short-changed.But New Zealanders are seeing through it. New Zealanders have had enough. New Zealanders want to see the Government stepping up and they are not seeing that. They are growing tired of the National Government and they are growing tired of the arrogance of the National Government. They want a Government with vision and they know that they have not got one. Well I tell you what: they will get one soon because we are only 2 years away from an election and there will be a change of Government in 2017. We will deliver for New Zealand the prosperous economic conditions that will create jobs that will increase incomes and that will give New Zealanders a foot on to the property ladder so that they can buy their own homes and so that we can see our social services like health and education really thrive.