Simpson Scott: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSimpson Scott: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 27 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:4066. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): It is with an enormous degree of pride and pleasure that I rise in this Budget debate to speak in support of Bill English’s seventh Budget. And what a great Budget it is not just for this John Key - National-led Government but also for New Zealand and all New Zealanders. It is part of a plan that is working. It is part of a plan that has been in place for 7 yearsnow—7 years of careful prudent fiscal management—that has enabled Bill English and the National Party team to negotiate their way on behalf of all New Zealanders through some of the most difficult economic times that our country has seen. It is a Budget that has allowed us as a Government now that some light is emerging at the end of the tunnel to address some of the real hardship and need that exists in our community.Before I get into the meat of my presentation to youtoday I just want to make comment on the contribution made earlier this afternoon by my colleague the Hon Maggie Barry Minister of Conservation. I was delighted as the member for Coromandel to note that the Budget includes a further spending allowance of $11.2 million to protect further the future of our native bird the kiwi. People who are familiar with the Coromandel will know that the Coromandel produces fine kiwi. It is a natural breeding area and an awful lot of terrific kiwi preservation work is being done by worthy organisations such as Moehau Environment Group. I commend to this House the work that this group and many others do. I was delighted to see this extra spending because kiwi are of course known around the world as our national symbol and they are under threat. This is a Government that wants to make sure that that threat is diminished and that further protection for our kiwi is made available. I am particularly enthused by the Kōhanga Kiwi project where kiwi will now be able to be farmedessentially. Their longevity and future prosperity as a species will be preserved and secured.What I particularly want to talk about in terms of my Budget contribution today is how proud I was when the Prime Minister stood up on election night last year and after acknowledging the comprehensive National Party victory that we were able to secure said: “This National-led Government will govern for all people for all New Zealanders.” Here in this seventh Budget of Bill English is the evidence of that occurring. Yesterday afternoon I listened very closely to my colleague the Hon Paula Bennett giving her Budget speech. She also spoke of her pride now being an Associate Minister of Finance in the work and preparation that she and the finance team did in the lead-up to Budget 2015. She reminded us that Bill English and his team have been working away steadily on this Budget for probably the best part of 12 months. In fact I understand that work on Budget 2016 has already commenced.It is easy to forget that ours is an economy with 2.8 percent economic growth and that we are projecting a further 150000 jobs being created. It is easy to remember that when National first started talking a couple of years ago about creating 170000 jobs members of the Opposition and on the left were derisory in their comments about our ambition and aspiration to create that number of jobs. It would be fair to say that they took every opportunity to criticise to discount and to reject that as any kind of realistic prospect. Well here we are now in Budget 2015 saying that no we did not actually create 170000 new jobs. Actually the economy has produced 194000 new jobs. Since 2011 194000 new jobs have been created in this economy under Bill English’s prudent and careful management. That is important because it makes an absolutely fundamental difference to the quality of life and the future prospects of New Zealanders.Seeing the average wage increase year on year on year is another sign of how strong our economy is and of what the tangible material benefits are for hard-working New Zealanders. That people have more money available in their pockets and are able to get jobs is a sign of a healthy growing economy. Seeing us project that unemployment will continue to drop and that employment will continue to rise is another sign of good things to come. From the projections it is easy to see that Budget 2015 indicates well and truly that we are headed in the right direction. We are projecting a 4.5 percent unemployment rate which is still too high but it is better than those of almost all comparable nations around the world.What we can see is that over the last 6½ years we have moved resources of the State to those who fundamentally need them the most. Watching the faces of Opposition members while Bill English was reading his Budget—I was sitting on the cross benches at the back as I do as a hard-working backbencher—it was obvious that the blood literally drained from Grant Robertson’s face. National is unashamed in its approach of wanting to target benefits and increases for those who are facing the most difficulties and who are in the most hardship in our society. Actually we have done that over a number of years as Paula Bennett pointed out in her speech yesterday by resetting the compass if you like of welfarism in New Zealand. I remember well when this Government first came to power in 2008. Paula Bennett was the Minister for Social Development and Employment. She said in her speech yesterday that she has never forgotten as the new Minister for Social Development and Employment visiting Paris with a number of social development - type Ministers from around the world and telling them that we had a social welfare system where there were absolutely no obligations placed on a person receiving State-funded welfare until their youngest child turned 18. She said that in other countries it was unimaginable that a social welfare system could operate like that where it was simply a matter of having another child when the youngest child turned 18 in order to get another 18 years of unquestioned access to State welfare.Well we have fundamentally changed that expectation and the balance of what is expected of people. Social welfare is part of a social contract. The social contract is such that it means that there is support—the benefit of support from the State and other taxpayers—available to people when they need itmost. All of us agree that that is a fine and wonderful baseline for our social welfare system. But the quid pro quo is that the people who are receiving State welfare should not see it as a lifestyle or a permanent choice; actually they should be available for workwhen they can. Part of the change that has occurred in the period of time that we have been in Government is that we have reset this balance. We have made sure that those people have hope and opportunities. Under the last Labour—Green Government they did not have hope or opportunities. We have reset the balance that was lost from our welfare system for so long. Now people who are receiving welfare can see some bright hope on the horizon and that their life is not destined to be one of perpetual unlimited relentless welfare dependency into the future. I say that that has got to be a very good thing.What people sometimes forget is that we could not have made that reset change if it had not been for the careful prudent stewardship of the Government’s and the nation’s financial accounts that Bill English and his team have been able to provide on our behalf over the last 7 years. We could not have done that and reset the welfare expectation balance if the underlying books had not been sound. I think Paula Bennett can take huge personal credit for the achievements of the Government in that area and for the brighter future that so many New Zealanders now have. This is a good Budget. It is a prudent careful Budget. It is a Budget that shows that this Government has a great understanding of what is needed in times of hardship and it also has a glimmer of hope for the future for all. I commend it to the House.