Gudgeon Bill: Budget Debate 
Gudgeon Bill: Budget Debate 
[Volume:608;Page:5878] 
BILL GUDGEON (NZ First) 
: 
 If a person is forced to remain dependent upon others essentially he or she is their slave because he or she is subject to their control. Economic freedom lies at the base of all liberties. A person’s property is his or her life. It is what he or she spends. A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious but it cannot survive non-reason within it. An enemy at the gate is less formidable for he is known and he carries his banners openly against the city. But the unreasonable moves amongst those within the gates freely. His whispers rustling through all the alleys are heard in the very halls of government itself. He speaks in the accent familiar to those victims. He wears their face and their garments and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of people. 
This country is dependent on foreign capital flows to maintain its standard of living. As every year ticks by and we do not look any closer to ever managing to turn it round our credit line as a nation withers. We assume that this is a society in which there is not too much poverty or too much trouble and in which most people can get away to the beach. Well hello—wake up New Zealand! Many of us it seems are still demanding an easy way out believing that the world owes us a living and still seeking a free lunch. 
Why is it that four out of every 10 schools has a teacher shortage? Has the Government put a band-aid over a wound that needs a bandage and serious first aid? Why is there a constant change of the following: first assessment philosophy and practice; second seriously overworked teachers; third too much administration for senior teachers and staff so that leadership in the classroom from these people is reduced; and fourth lack of motivation by some students because many good job options do not exist—for example trade apprenticeships? Our undeveloping nation is increasingly unable to employ us house us care for us and give us the lifestyle we aspire to. Former third nations such as Singapore Hong Kong Malaysia and others are not catching up to us; they are roaring past us. 
In the area of law and order our police are becoming the laughing stock of the criminal world. There are to be 50 more police for Auckland. That is hardly a joke I say to Mr Hawkins. What makes it worse is that we allow criminals into the community while their applications for home detention are being processed. This Budget is on the side of the criminals. 
Our people are dying because of the health system. We have practically run out of outlet means to generate the power that consumers demand and pay for. We know that the means such as coal are there to do this. 
Our education system fails us. We have practically no Defence Force to assist the free nations for the defence of our freedom. This Government has told our Vietnam veterans that they did not fight in Agent Orange – spread areas which is not true. This will be proved by a former commander of 161 Battery with whom I served in Malaysia and Borneo and it will cost. 
We have been budgeted into being a Third World nation because of the policies of this Government. How can this Government sit back and watch our rail system deteriorate? How can this Government not pay our servicemen and servicewomen the same rate as the Australian service people are paid who served in the same theatre of East Timor with the same expectations and results? How can this Government say we have a surplus when this country is struggling in the social services area? The roads railways hospitals schools and all the rest of the infrastructure we built were a great cost over the decades. They are in decay. The welfare State has collapsed on itself. It has not only become unaffordable; it is increasingly not meeting our basic needs despite the endless millions of dollars being poured into it. 
All this tells us that the fiscal policies that have been put into place by the Government have been terribly wrong. The world is leaving us behind. We are becoming increasingly impoverished and we will end up languishing at the end of the Earth. 
Jill Pettis 
: Oh for goodness’ sake! 
BILL GUDGEON 
: The member should just listen; she might learn something. The policy of building the economy with borrowed money to stimulate short-term growth is both pointless and damaging. As the leader of the New Zealand First said the balance of payments is plunging deeper into deficit. We need to repay our debt as quickly as possible. We should get out of deficit and live within our means by encouraging a viable economy.