Smith Lockwood: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
Smith Lockwood: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
[Volume:623;Page:18902] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 When we hear a politician starting to believe his or her party’s own spin we know that the party is in some trouble. That is what we have just heard. We have just heard the honourable member Winnie Laban talk about how families in New Zealand are better off. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: She’s got a lovely smile though. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: She has—she is a good person. But as I said it is so sad when Government members start to believe their own spin; it is the beginning of the end. 
Winnie Laban said that families in New Zealand are better off. What are the facts? The facts are that under this Labour Government the average after-tax household income in New Zealand has not improved at all. The average household in New Zealand—after tax in real dollar terms—is no better off today despite the best economic environment in my 20-year political career. The average household’s after-tax real-dollar income is no better than when Labour came into office. That is an indictment on the Government. To make it worse the difference between the average worker in New Zealand and the average worker in Australia has increased by $4000 a year. New Zealanders are now $4000 a year worse off. We were already behind Australia but the gap has increased from $5000 a year when Labour came into office to $9000 a year now—and Labour says that has been good for New Zealand! Our average household in real dollar terms is no better off despite a tremendous economic tailwind and we are further behind Australia than ever before. 
Looking at this Budget Policy Statement what is so sad about it is that during these good economic times New Zealanders are no better off. And they are good economic times. I cannot remember primary product commodity prices being as high for 20 years. I know this because I am involved in farming myself. Beef prices have not been as high for 20 years. I used to be involved in marketing dairy products before coming to this place. Dairy prices have not been as high for 20 years. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: And of course Helen Clark was responsible for that! 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: Of course Labour claims credit for that. But the tragedy is that despite this situation this Government has squandered a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lock in a tremendous programme for the future to enable future generations in this country to benefit from these good economic times. Yet what does the Budget Policy Statement tell us? It tells us that through to 2009 the per capita growth that Treasury projects—and this Government obviously accepts it—will be 1.9 percent per year. That is less than what we achieved during the 1990s. For the last 12 years from 1993 until now we achieved 2.5 percent per capita GDP growth and the projection in this Budget Policy Statement is that that growth will decline significantly through to 2009 down to 1.9 percent. 
The figures do not mean a lot to listeners. The tragedy is that this Labour Government had a once-in-a-generation opportunity to really put in place structures to enable this country to blossom but instead of doing that the Government has tied everyone’s hands with more regulation. There is more regulation around labour markets and more regulation around anything anyone wants to do and that does not work. Labour tried to put more regulation around tertiary institutions and they broke out in boils all over the place—as see have seen with Christchurch Polytechnic and Te Wananga o Aotearoa. 
If we look at this Budget Policy Statement we see quite clearly that this Government is just a big tax-and-spend Government and that is one reason why the projections as we look ahead are for poorer per capita GDP growth than we have had. We achieved the growth of the last 12 years despite the Asian financial crisis and 2 years of tremendous droughts in this country yet the Budget Policy Statement in looking ahead says that our per capita growth is coming down. One of the reasons is that this Labour Government is simply trying to control too much of the economy. There is more and more tax. I want to remind New Zealanders that if they stay with this Labour Government—heaven forbid—the Budget Policy Statement shows that the average person will pay $4000 more tax in the next 3 years under this big tax-and-spend Labour Government.