Carter DavidRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): What a great day for the Opposition. And it gets better and better with every Government speech. I have never seen a more flat Government after the delivery of a Budget. Look at the body language on the other side of the House. They know it's a flop—they know it's a flop.If I can just refer to the Hon Dr David Clark because he followed our health spokesperson the Hon Michael Woodhouse. Michael Woodhouse said Nurses deserve more pay." David Clark interjected: "What a load of rubbish."—that's what he said. That's how out of touch that Minister is already with his own sector. He's going to get a lot of "Dear David" letters from now on from nurses right around the country. When asked whether they need more money when promised they need more money by our National spokesperson David Clark says "What a load of rubbish."I can tell by looking at the Government today that they know Grant Robertson has blown it. We've been seeing the commentary from the analysts from the business community and from the New Zealand Educational Institute Te Riu Roa and they're all saying "This Budget is a flop." It's a flop and that rests with one Minister of Finance Grant Robertson.I've been around a few of these Budgets and it's a great day—there's the sense of excitement the sense of anticipation. But I knew the Government was in trouble when Mr Robertson started his speech today. Go back and have a look at it. He spent the first ten minutes re-announcing what he had announced in his December mini-Budget back in December. You cannot keep re-announcing announcements time after time after time and getting away with it. That's what I will remember that speech for. You cannot continue to promise things like a winter energy payment in December and then be back in the House today saying "We can't do it in May but we might be able to do it in July". That's what Jacinda Ardern the Prime Minister said. I've got a message for her: do your homework first before you announce a policy.But the other interesting thing about Grant Robertson's speech: how many times was the word KiwiBuild mentioned? I can tell you: once. Grant Robertson didn't want to talk about Mr Twyford's promise to build 100000 new homes because we know it's a "KiwiFail" policy. This is a "KiwiFail" Budget. Mr Twyford is fast becoming persona non grata in the Labour caucus because he's overpromised—Hon Andrew Little: We love him—we love him.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Well Andrew Little says "We love him." Well he's the only one that says that to me. When I talk to his colleagues outside this place he's the only one who says that to me.I've seen these Budget cycles before. If you go back to 1990-99 they were difficult years for any Government but when National left Government in 1999 the books were sound and what we saw is the pattern we're seeing now when Labour will come in and spend their money throw it around—no effective challenge to their expenditure. Look at the health Budget at the time of the Government from 2000 to 2008. More and more money put into health fewer and fewer operations—Kieran McAnulty: That's right.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: —Mr McAnulty—and more and more patients in New Zealand going to Australia to be treated. That's the legacy of Labour to 2008. And then we get to the last decade the National Government and again the economy has been left in a very sound position. Labour and New Zealand First have spent the last couple of weeks saying that we didn't leave enough money in the kitty and that has been proved to be absolutely wrong. They talked about unappropriated money for health and unappropriated money for education—that's wrong. The problem is Labour overpromised in the election campaign. They don't know how to do Budgets they overpromise and now they can't deliver.So what you see in this Budget is what we've seen in every Budget I've ever seen delivered by Labour. It's about increasing taxes it's about increasing spending it's about borrowing more money and hoping—hoping hoping—that there's no huge natural disasters like earthquakes or crises the Asian financial crisis or global financial crisis that they'll have to deal with. Increase taxes spend more money borrow more money and hope. That's what this Government's about.Having left them in a very sound financial position let the next Labour speaker rise to his feet—the Hon David Parker—and tell this House why borrowing has to go from $56 million to $73 million. Why borrow more money when the tax take is already going up—$2 billion more in the tax take than was expected and that's because a sound economy was left by the previous Government.So where's all this additional money going? Well Labour said this Budget was about health and yet we listened to that excellent speech from the Hon Simon Bridges and he points out that $3.2 billion the big expenditure item by Labour is less—less—than National had in its last Budget.I had a quick look through the media pack and that's really interesting stuff. The Hon Clare Curran—Hon Members: Ha ha!Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: We shouldn't laugh but she is spending $15 million on a ministerial advisory group to advise on how to "support … contribution of public media to an informed democracy." Does that sound like $15 million? The Hon David Parker—he spends $3.1 million setting up a unit to watch the oversight of the Resource Management Act. The doozy of them all the Hon Shane Jones: a one billion - dollar slush fund and let me tell the Hon Shane Jones that New Zealanders will see that like they should. The Rt Hon Winston Peters: $714 million to the Pacific in official development assistance. I thought New Zealand First used to stand for New Zealanders first. It does not—it does not and did not. And then the best one of the lot to prove that the Rt Hon Winston Peters has the negotiating power the Budget allows $4.8 million over the next four years for tax deductions that can be claimed for the cost of high-quality horses acquired with the intention to breed. Well I've owned a few horses in my day. They were high-quality when I bought them; they were a dead loss by the time they went to dog tucker.This is a shocking Budget. I was full of anticipation. I was expecting the Government to be able to do a lot better. When I consider the way the speech was delivered by Grant Robertson it was perfunctory; it's got to be. That's the way Ministers of Finance have to deliver their speech. We then had one of the best Opposition leader speeches I've seen in the 23 Budgets I've had the opportunity and the privilege to observe. And then we had the Prime Minister. I don't think I've ever seen her more flat in my days—never seen her more flat in my days. Then we had the Rt Hon Winston Peters delivering his I think 20 minutes of—well it was gibberish really. I couldn't understand a word of it—an incomprehensible incomprehensible speechBrett Hudson: I thought it was the most coherent he's been in years.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Well my friend said it was the most clear he's been in years. Well no I've heard him answer and ask a lot of questions in this House. That was a shocking speech from the Rt Hon Winston Peters.This Budget will go down as a flop. There was a huge opportunity to set a clear agenda but what this Government has done is put a mark on itself. The same as the previous Labour Government it's about raising taxes and spending recklessly without any regard for the hard-working New Zealanders who pay those taxes. When that runs short they borrow more money. Bring on the next election and let's change it."