Gilmore Aaron: Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Gilmore Aaron: Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:672;Page:18904] 
AARON GILMORE (National) 
: 
 It gives me enormous pleasure to stand and talk about the voodoo we just heard from the Opposition. We actually have a plan; it is called Budget 2011. The big difference between the Opposition and us is that we will spend $45 billion less than it would. We will spend it in a different better and cleverer way. What are people saying out there today as a response to Mr English’s third Budget? The commentator in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 
Audrey Young gave the Budget six out of ten. That is not bad; I thought that was not bad. John Armstrong the great Tory gave us six out of ten. Fran O’Sullivan whom the Opposition love to quote time and time again gave us seven and a half out of ten. I think that is pretty good given the economic times we are in. 
This Budget for me puts in $8.8 billion to rebuild Christchurch. I hope most of that money will be spent on my side of town in the eastern suburbs. A lot of the money will be spent on rebuilding our roads rebuilding our water supplies rebuilding our schools and—this is important—rebuilding homes: the thousands of homes up and down parts of eastern Christchurch that are ruined including my brother’s my mother’s and in part my own home. 
Another interesting thing in this Budget is the focus on KiwiSaver. KiwiSaver will grow to $60 billion in ten years due to the subsidies and input going through and the savings that will occur—$60 billion which is a great thing. The incentives are still in place for people to save. People are saving. They are still joining up to KiwiSaver at a rate of 20000 people a month. We heard from Mr Nash who spoke just before me the ironic idea that we need to invest more in crazy things. An interesting thing is that people are saving more. The whole purpose of the tax switch was to reduce consumption and increase savings. That is what we need to do. That is what the Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill actually helps to encourage and that is what the Budget does. The Budget puts in place an increased savings rate. Savings have gone up and debt servicing costs have come down. That has to be a good thing. 
We heard from Mr Nash that 75 percent of New Zealanders earn below the average wage. Well that figure includes kids and the retired. The last time that I saw Labour’s policy it did not have a policy of sending children out to work but maybe it does now given that it has a turnover tax policy as well. 
Hon Members 
: Down the mines! 
AARON GILMORE 
: Send them off to the mines in many ways. We heard from Mr Nash that early childhood education in Napier had been cut and had no money. It has $1.7 million floating around in bank accounts as I have seen. Also the Canterbury Westland Free Kindergarten Association has even more money than that floating around. We do not think it is appropriate that hard-working taxpayers should pay money in order for kindergarten associations to bolster their bank accounts. We think those associations should use the money that they have first in the most sensible way that is possible. That is what we do in tough economic times—we look at what is in our bank account we look at what we have in the cupboard and we look at spending it in a more sensible and appropriate way. 
That is what Budget 2011 does. It reprioritises a whole lot of things. It puts in place a lot of plans to spend our money in a more sensible way. It puts in place a plan to invest tens of billions of dollars in new infrastructure and new assets. Those are exactly the things that we want to do. Budget 2011 reduces our debt levels puts the economy on a sustainable basis and grows jobs. What more could we want? Thank you very much.