Goldsmith Paul; Rurawhe AdrianHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to talk in this grave time for the country in terms of its economy and what we're dealing with under the issues that are put forward in this Budget. We all know that COVID-19 is wreaking havoc with not just economies but people's lives all around the world. Anybody tuning in to this debate will be fully aware looking at their TV screens and reading the news around the world of the impact that this is having in the US in the UK in Europe and in Australia and our good friends in Victoria are really struggling at the moment. So we're very conscious that this is a time for extraordinary measures and that's why National has been broadly supportive of the very significant increase in Government spending outlined in this Budget and the need to go further into debt. There's no question about that and I don't for a moment acknowledge or respect the Minister of Finance for talking about some people calling for austerity measures. That is a falsehood and is completely wrong. Nobody in this country right here right now is saying Oh we should not be spending anything and we should be going back to austerity." Nobody is saying that and for the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister to keep repeating it is outrageous and wrong and inaccurate and sneaky and it is trying to avoid focus on what they are now not doing which is actually providing a coherent plan to get us back on track and to get people back into work. The Prime Minister is so arrogant about the state of her support that she thinks she doesn't need to come up with any policies in this Government and then she is quite happy to come up with complete falsehoods on the way that National is talking about trying to get this country back into a reasonable position on debt. So I want to talk about three things in relation to this Budget. I want to talk about jobs I want to talk about taxes and debt and I want to talk about infrastructure and they're all critical parts of this Budget. On jobs there's no question that New Zealanders are losing their jobs right now. Tens of thousands of New Zealanders have lost their jobs because of the lockdown and the following economic disruption. We've got about 452000 New Zealanders currently in receipt of the wage subsidy and that's ending in the next few weeks. There is a big question about how many of those people will in fact lose their jobs. This will have an enormous impact on them their families and their ability to look after their families and it will have a real impact on their broader extended family over a period of time. So the critical question is: where do we get the new jobs to replace the ones that are being lost? How do we get people back into work? The story that we've had from this Government—the primary response that they have got—is that the Government will borrow lots of money and will go out and buy jobs. So there's going to be $1.1 billion spent on paying people to go out and hunt possums and to plant flax bushes and to build pools in provincial towns and to do various other bits and pieces and that's all very useful and it's good. At a critical time like this Government spending can create a few jobs—temporary jobs. But we all know that it is actually the tens of thousands of business owners in this country—businesses large and small—actually choosing to expand their business and hire somebody and advance that creates sustainable jobs. The big difference between Governments is the spenders versus the enablers. We in the National Party are focused on enabling that private sector growth to create genuine jobs to employ New Zealanders like we did in the last two years of the National Government where this country was generating 10000 new jobs a month and if we can return to that level of progress we'll be making great gains. So that's why I'm disappointed not to see in this Budget things like what National's been talking about which is allowing people who have been made redundant and they're having a big pay-out and they're getting taxed on that pay-out—why don't we as National is proposing allow that tax payment to be used as a tax credit for them in setting up a new business throw in a bit of KiwiSaver savings and enable those people to get started in a new entrepreneurial scheme and create opportunities and if they want to hire an extra person we'll give them a $10000 JobStart payment as well to encourage them to take on an extra person. That's how you enable and create opportunities for the private sector to invest. Then the recipe for success in private sector hasn't changed. It's about keeping taxes low it's about pushing back the tide of regulation and throughout this difficult difficult economic time this Government has carried on and said "Nothing's changed." It just keeps on piling on new costs for businesses—every day every week new costs to business. Last week it was higher waste levies; a couple of weeks before it was higher road-user charges; and right on 1 April when businesses were absolutely locked down and had zero revenue they still put up the minimum wage. They have no concept of the difficulty that businesses experience in trying to stay in business and they keep on adding those costs. So not adding taxes not adding regulations being consistent about the rules and allowing investment to flow both domestically and offshore are the key to getting private sector investment. The second question is around tax and debt. We had the Minister of Finance banging on as he always does about the National Party having this horrendous goal of trying to get New Zealand's debt level—having a plan to get its debt level—under control over the next decade or so. Well how terrible is that? What a terrible thing—the idea that a party in this Government might be so responsible that they might think that it makes sense to have a plan to get debt under control. Every day every speech that Mr Robertson starts off with is about how New Zealand's in a great position to spend spend spend during this crisis because we came into it with low levels of debt. Well why did we come into it with low levels of debt? Only because previous Governments have been disciplined with their spending and had got on top of the debt. The previous National Government had to borrow $50 billion to get through the global financial crisis and the Canterbury earthquakes. We did that because we wanted to support New Zealanders. Then we continued to be disciplined with our spending and got on top of it and we can do it again. This Government's only experience prior to COVID was to come in inherit massive surpluses of many billions and billions of dollars and what did they do? Within two years they had squandered all those surpluses so that the Budget that we are talking about today prior to COVID happening was projected to be in deficit. So they inherited massive surpluses and within two years they were already projecting a deficit before we had the COVID situation. Now after COVID we've massively increased spending and massively increased the debt and my worry is and the worry of many New Zealanders when they look around and they see all the spending from Shane Jones and all the different projects that are being lined up and all the Ministers trooping up in their high-vis for the latest shovel-ready announcement—we support getting those jobs in but they're delaying them an extra few weeks so that they can sort of line up the Prime Minister's photographers and get the media all organised and get the hard hat on and get it all properly stage-managed. All those announcements and people are wondering "Well hang on a moment how's this going to work?" Is it the case that they'll spend whatever it takes to put off the economic pain to 20 September and then on 20 September if they're successful the smiles will drop and New Zealanders will be presented with the invoice? The invoice is higher taxes and the Greens at least are honest about it because they love higher taxes. They love taxes—"tax is love" according to the Greens—and they want more of it. They can't get enough of it and so they want to have a wealth tax and they want to have higher-income taxes. They desperately wanted a capital gains tax and they missed out on that but they want more tax. Labour have been very cute. They're hiding. They're keeping their heads down. The Prime Minister doesn't want to talk about new policies but just wants to sort of keep her head down and cruise to victory. Well that's not going to happen because New Zealanders want to know what the tax policy is from this Government. They want to know how much they're going to have to pay because New Zealanders are struggling to get through the week and pay their bills and they don't want to be paying more tax to a Government that can't control its spending. I'm sure there's no question that Labour will come out and say "Oh well we'll only tax higher-income earners." Well I can give you this prediction: a Government that can't control its spending will eventually come after you—not just the higher-income earners but everybody—because if you can't control your spending you need more and more and more and more. The third area around infrastructure—well we've heard all about it today in the light-rail down Dominion Road not happening. Big announcements but very little actually happening on infrastructure whereas the National Party is determined to unlock the potential of this country by connecting for example the 2.5 million New Zealanders between Whangārei Hamilton and Tauranga in a visionary scheme to connect that region to become one of the most dynamic and exciting areas of Australasia and unlocking the potential of that great Waikato region connecting it properly with the great city of Auckland and the ports of Tauranga and opening up that northern Auckland—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! I'm sorry but the member's time has expired."