Parata Hekia: Budget Debate 
Parata Hekia: Budget Debate 
[Volume:673;Page:19083] 
Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister for Ethnic Affairs) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker Robertson. Huri noa i to tatou Whare tena tatou i tenei ahiahi. I am pleased to take a call on Budget 2011. I am pleased because this Budget speaks to New Zealanders as smart people. New Zealanders understand that this Budget is a Budget of its time. We are still dealing with the impacts of a recession. We are still dealing with the consequences of many of the decisions that were made by Labour when in Government. We are committed to paying down debt and this Budget is very clear about that. It is unambiguous that that is a significant target of our Government. 
New Zealanders are smart people and they understand the analogy that running a Government is the same as running a household. There are only three ways that that can be tackled: find savings in the way that one operates borrow and make opportunities to create new wealth. This Budget addresses all three. New Zealanders know that continuing to borrow at the level we are at the moment is not sustainable for a meaningful long-term future. This Government is about a meaningful long-term future and that is why in the 2½ years that National has been in Government Labour and the country have been able to see that we are prepared to tackle the systemic and structural challenges that face us which Labour was unable and unwilling to do when it was in office. 
We understand that long-term improvement for this country and the opportunities to create wealth rely on our having a highly qualified highly educated society. That is why we have invested so significantly in education. In this Budget we have seen a further $1.4 billion allocated to the education sector and $550 million allocated to early childhood education. This Government understands that the first 5 years of a young person’s life are critical to the quality of the educational trajectory that they will follow in life are critical to the opportunities they will have to contribute to the society of which they are members and are critical for New Zealanders young and old to realise that this is an inclusive society. It is more and more successful based on the level of educational attainment that all New Zealanders experience. A number of our community however are not participating at the level that will ensure or secure that success. That is why we have put aside $91.8 million to target the participation rates of Maori and Pacific Island students and to ensure that they have the opportunity to participate in good-quality early childhood education. We have focused at the primary school level on national standards so that we can discover earlier rather than later whether a child is literate and numerate to the age that they should be. That is why we are focused on what research tells us—that the quality of a child’s education experience relies on the quality of the teacher in the classroom and the ability of that teacher to be informed by the results that national standards will provide them. We cannot have a situation where young people are arriving at high school in year 9 and we are discovering at that point that they are unable to read and write at the appropriate level for their age group. Trying at year 9 to catch up on 8 years of primary schooling is very very difficult. 
Moana Mackey 
: Ask your sister! 
Hon HEKIA PARATA 
: Indeed as Opposition members have pointed out I come from a family of educators and we talk all the time about what is required. We are committed—unlike Opposition members who want to bark like hyenas—and we are prepared to take the hard decisions about what is required for young people to be successful. In fact the member Moana Mackey from Gisborne is misinformed if she thinks she understands my family’s view of education better than I do. I can speak far more authoritatively on that point any day of the week in any forum and I am happy to do so. We have invested a further $1.4 billion in education with the highest-ever amount going towards funding early childhood education. 
This year’s Budget is about building faster economic growth in relation to higher national savings. We are committed to seeing higher national savings and the changes we have made to KiwiSaver respond to our need both to find higher national savings and to fund other priorities that are essential for getting this country back on to a strong growth track. We are about setting a credible path back to surplus and repaying debt. No New Zealander wants the level of debt this country has had to endure off the back of 9 years of profligacy we inherited. We are about paying down debt so that New Zealanders can look forward to the kind of growth they are entitled to. We are looking forward to the 4 percent growth forecast to occur from 2012 to 2015 during which time we expect to see 177000 jobs created as part of this economy. Unlike the Opposition we do not think that growth should be on the back of make-work schemes which tend to be characteristic of the previous Labour Government’s approach to economics. Rather we see the economy doing that and to do that we have to back businesses. In so doing we have to cut red tape and reform employment law which we have seen over the 2½ years of this John Key - led Government. We know unlike the Opposition that growth is built by businesses. That is why we have had the biggest tax reforms in a generation. That is why 72 percent of all income earners are now on a statutory tax rate of 17.5 percent or less. Again it is because this Government recognises that New Zealanders are smart people and that they can make wise decisions about the money they earn while still contributing to the central coffers to fund public services to fund schools to fund hospitals to fund roads to fund ultra-fast broadband to fund more policemen to fund more nurses and to fund more doctors. These are the real changes that New Zealanders want to see and this Government is delivering them. 
As my colleague Kate Wilkinson said previously this Budget is also about rebuilding Christchurch over the next few years. It is critical to this country that the rebuild and the recovery of Christchurch occur and that they occur as fast as possible. It is critical not only for the people of Christchurch and for the social well-being of those people who exist on frayed nerves because they are being challenged every time there is a tremor in that part of the world but also for the rest of New Zealand because Christchurch is our second-biggest economic hub in New Zealand. The rebuild is important for all New Zealanders. New Zealanders are smart people they have recognised that and they understand that the $5.5 billion allocated to the rebuild in this Budget is as much an investment in Christchurch and the wider Canterbury region as it is in the rest of New Zealand. 
This Budget builds a platform for savings and growth and sets a faster return to surplus but it is also an opportunity I think to cast a light on what National has achieved so far. For the past 2½ years the National-led Government has provided the responsible economic management that New Zealand was in such need of after 9 years of Labour. When we took the reins of office the financial crisis had reached its peak and New Zealand had gone into recession before anyone else. There was a big job to do because the economy had shrunk by 3 percent in a year topping off 5 years of historically low growth. Exports had flattened out completely and we know—this Government knows—that we need an export-led economy. So it defies belief that the Opposition thinks that the way one gets growth is to attack the primary producing sector: the farmers who grow meat wool and trees and the fisher folk who catch fish and contribute that to our economy. It defies belief that Opposition members while saying they are committed to export-led growth nevertheless attack the sector that is the platform for that export-led growth. Unlike the Opposition this Government understands that it takes a range of contributions to develop an economy to create opportunity and to create confidence. That is what this Budget has done. It is a Budget of its time. It speaks to New Zealanders who are smart people. They understand that we have to pay down debt they understand that they want better value in our public services and they understand that we need to grow a pathway to greater opportunity for all New Zealanders. I am proud to have spoken on the 2011 Budget. Kia ora tatou.