Parata Hekia: Budget Debate 
Parata Hekia: Budget Debate 
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HEKIA PARATA (National) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Speaker. Tena tatou e te Whare i tenei po. I am delighted and proud to join my colleagues in speaking in this 2010 Budget debate. I am proud that all the commentators all the people I have met up and down the country and all my relations and whanau have told me that this is the kind of Budget that gives them hope. It delivers on the aspirational and ambitious message that we have delivered from the time we began campaigning and that was the basis for New Zealanders voting National into Government. This Budget lends itself to hyperbole. It is brilliant. It is a once-in-a-generation Budget. It is smart. It is comprehensive. It is positive. It encourages all New Zealanders to have the faith in themselves that this Government has in them. 
There are huge philosophical differences between this side of the House and that side of the House. Basically we ultimately and absolutely believe in New Zealanders. We trust them to make good decisions for themselves and we believe that they want the best for themselves. The role of Government is to create the environment that helps them to be successful. It is not the role of Government to continually cut the pie ever smaller to get better at making slivers available to this segment of society and to that segment of society. Rather it is our responsibility we believe on this side of the House to put practical incentives in the hands of New Zealanders so that they can make decisions about how hard they work how much they spend how much they save and how much they invest. This Budget through the tax reform that the Minister of Finance has so smartly designed allows that for all New Zealanders regardless of the kind of work they are doing. As my colleague who has just sat down said it allows New Zealanders to keep 82.5c of every dollar that they earn. This Budget incentivises them to know that rather than handing it over to an ever-increasing bloated bureaucracy to make decisions about what is best for them that decision is left in their own hands to be made for themselves for their families and for their communities. 
One of the key philosophical differences that we can see in the Budget that has been presented to New Zealanders and to which New Zealanders are responding so positively is that we believe in them to make good choices for themselves. We are trying to model the very behaviour we want to see occurring. We are focusing on good fiscal management. Ever since National came into Government we have sought to ensure that all public services are delivered in a smarter more consistent fashion and that we deliver greater value for the same amount of money. In doing that in last year’s Budget we were able to find nearly $2 billion of poorly spent money and a further $1.8 billion in this Budget. That is almost $4 billion worth of taxpayers’ money that is being reprioritised into areas like health. 
As the previous speaker pointed out much to the disbelief and scepticism of members opposite $2 billion worth of new money will go into health. That is $2 billion of new money going into health and New Zealanders appreciate that. They know that they need good health they need good housing and they need a strong educational platform if they are to make their way in life and be successful for themselves and for their families. 
We cannot spend more than we earn. If we think about the Budget for our nation we will find that it has the same simple recipe as the budget for our own households. We cannot spend more than we earn—or certainly we cannot go on spending more than we earn—and we have to become more discerning about the consumption choices that we make. Our tax package has tilted that economic behaviour in favour of people working harder in order to keep more money but also in terms of making better judgments about how much we spend and what we spend it on. We have seen a period of rampant consumerism not only confined to New Zealand but also in the rest of the world. We have young generations my children amongst them growing up and thinking that buying more is better. I am endeavouring in our household to role model the very behaviour that our Minister of Finance has set for us in this Budget. I have required my daughters to get jobs. They moan and groan when I say “When I was your age I was doing x y and z.” which of course I was. In fact it was a b c d and all the way through to x y and z. Our children understand about working hard and earning their money and the difference between paying more or less tax is now completely understood by my daughters. 
We are moving in the right direction as unemployment and business confidence figures show. We are expecting on the basis of the Budget to see 170000 new jobs over the next 4 years and they will be real sustainable jobs. This has been welcome news to my wider whanau as I said who live on the East Coast of the North Island and who have been the victims of the boom-and-bust investments of many Governments over many eras. They had decided that trees were the answer then it was grapes then kiwifruit then corn that were the answer. In fact the answer is not what the Government decides to invest in or not invest in in a community; the answer is people making decisions for themselves. Those people live in those communities and know what does or does not work for them. Our Government’s role is to invest in those people to make the decisions rather than the Government making the decisions for them. 
Part of the equipment that people require in order to make those good decisions is an excellent education. This Government is very committed to ensuring that an excellent education is available to all New Zealanders. This Budget invests a further $91 million in early childhood education to raise the participation rates of those communities that have a very low record of engagement with the early childhood sector; in particular Maori and Pacific Island communities. We know both directly and through research that those children who participate in early childhood education will have a stronger educational experience that will sustain them through life. The trajectory of their educational experience will be longer higher and wider and that is why we have invested $91 million in the early childhood sector so that Maori and Pacific Island children in particular but not exclusively will have the opportunity to participate and engage in early childhood education. 
Not 2 weeks ago in Porirua the Minister of Education the Minister of Pacific Island Affairs and myself attended the opening of Toru Whetu a kindergarten in Waitangirua that is associated with Maraeroa Marae. That kindergarten is a first in New Zealand in that it is a joint venture between the Niuean Cook Island and Tuvaluan communities. They have come together because they recognise two things that we on this side of the House recognise and want to invest in. The first is that it is extremely important to have strong cultural identity because that is the vehicle that will carry one through life. The second is to have a strong education because that is the power that will boost that vehicle through life. Toru Whetu anticipates and reflects exactly the investment that this Government is making in early childhood education. 
I think the Opposition would do the country a service by not scaremongering about early childhood education and putting off those families whom we are trying so hard to engage with early childhood education. I am a playcentre child. Playcentres are run by parents and they are very happy with the idea that they can continue to offer early childhood education on an equivalent basis to the other early childhood options that choose to have trained teachers. But our Government is about choice. If parents choose to send their children to playcentres which have parent-led early childhood education to kohanga reo which have nanny and papa-led early childhood education to Toru Whetu or to kindergarten those are the choices that are available to them. This Government has been prepared to put its money where its mouth is and back cultural identity early childhood education primary education tertiary education and lifelong learning. That is what this Budget is about and I commend it to the House with pride excitement energy and delight. It is a generation-changing Budget and New Zealanders will be able to build not only hope but also the practical embodiment of it. Thank you.