Barker Rick: Budget Debate 
Barker Rick: Budget Debate 
[Volume:639;Page:9655] 
Hon RICK BARKER (Minister of Internal Affairs) 
: 
 Listen to the raucous noise from the National Party. The speech from the Exclusive Brethren’s lawyer was one of the most empty speeches I have heard. But that is what one expects from the National Party—all rhetoric and rhetoric that one cannot believe. 
One of the key issues for the next election coming up is going to be whether New Zealand saves for its future or whether it spends its future away. The National Party has got the greatest collection of spenders this country has ever seen. Take one of the greatest economic brains the National Party ever produced the Hon Bill Birch. He left this country with a theme park of industrial white elephants. National debt went through the roof wages fell and what did the National Party do then about balancing the interests of the disadvantaged and the poor with the interests of the wealthy? The answer is very very clear. One of the last Budgets given by the Hon Bill Birch saw tax cuts for the rich and a cut in superannuation for superannuitants. National cut the floor of superannuation from 65 percent down to 60 percent of the net average wage. But that is honouring an old long-time Tory tradition. 
The Tories have always attacked superannuation; it is really clear when one goes back and looks at the history of New Zealand. One of the antecedents of the National Party was in control of this country in the 1930s—a long time before Labour came into power. It is true absolutely true that Pakeha New Zealand got paid more in benefits than Maori. That is the legacy of the antecedents of the National Party. Maori got paid less than Pakeha. It is true that this was changed when Labour came into office in 1935 and said every New Zealander was equal. We made all access to State benefits equal. The Labour Party built the welfare State and the National Party was locked out of office until it accepted without qualification and without equivocation the welfare State. 
It was only when the National Party said to the public that it would make no changes to the welfare State that it was electable and it was electable for quite some time. In 1972-75 along came another visionary Labour Government and one of its key planks was to introduce compulsory superannuation. It was a compulsory superannuation scheme that would have addressed several structural problems in the New Zealand economy: firstly we were not saving enough for retirement; secondly there was a shortage of savings in New Zealand; and thirdly spending was running ahead of what the economy could withstand. 
The Labour Government introduced superannuation. This superannuation scheme was attacked by National and it made a promise to the country—a promise that the public wanted to hear and wanted to believe but we all knew was a lie. The promise was that New Zealanders would be guaranteed 80 percent of the average ordinary 40-hour take-home pay at age 60 on top of any job they wanted to have. Muldoon promised that and he also said as a bribe to the public: “We will scrap Labour’s superannuation scheme. We will give you back the money you put in as well as the employers their scheme.” I say to my deep regret I was working in a factory in Dunedin at the time and everybody voted National that year. They said: “To hell with the superannuation scheme to hell with the future Rob Muldoon will look after us.” and they went and spent the money. 
For the next 10 to 20 years this country thrashed with the problem of what to do to look after our elderly. The best example the National Party came up with was to give tax cuts for the rich and a cut in superannuation for our superannuitants. It cut the floor from 65 percent to 60 percent of the net average wage. That is what the National Party did. It was really interesting when I talked to people at the yacht club while my son was sailing off the North Shore. People came up to me and said: “You’re a Labour politician aren’t you?”. I said: “I am.” They said Jenny Shipley had shown very poor leadership—very poor leadership—because she had cut superannuation for their grandparents. They said: “Cutting the superannuation for our grandparents is a bad thing. These people can’t go and get another job they can’t move to Australia and they can’t do anything else.” 
The National Party in order to fund tax cuts for the rich was prepared to rip the money off the most vulnerable in our society. These were people who had built the railways built the schools built the hospitals—all that we were brought up with—and National was prepared to cut their superannuation. But it gets worse. The National Party said it was going to get rid of the superannuation surcharge. Its members said: “no ifs no buts no maybes watch my lips.” and what did they do? They increased the superannuation surcharge. The National Party has the most shameful disgraceful despicable legacy on superannuation of any party in this Parliament. If any superannuitant has any faith in the National Party then I would say it is a very rare thing. There is no justification for it whatsoever. 
This Budget has been visionary and has tackled the key issues in our economy. All commentators have said there are many problems. Firstly our kids cannot get a deposit to buy a house. What are we going to do about that? Secondly there are inflationary pressures in the economy and they need to be dealt with. Thirdly there are huge savings deficits in this country. The Labour Government with KiwiSaver Mark II has solved all three problems with one hit. We are going to encourage people to save for their retirement we are giving young people the means to get a deposit for a house and we will put money into the system that business and others can draw down. 
In addition to this the Labour-led Government has cut the corporate tax rate from 33c to 30c. In 9 years of misery the National Party did nothing for business at all. With all its opportunity to cut the corporate tax rate it did nothing. The only thing the National Party cut was superannuation for superannuitants. It is on the record and is unmistakable; that is what it did. Superannuation went from 65 percent down to 60 percent. Bill English was there; that was one of his proudest moments. The proudest moment of Bill English was when he cut superannuation from 65 to 60 percent of the net average wage and that man has the cheek to attack the Labour Government’s policy on KiwiSaver to help New Zealanders save for their retirement. 
If Bill English wants to go out and talk about superannuation he will make the Labour Party’s day. We will go back and remind the public of the words of his leader at the time: “no ifs no buts no maybes”. National members lied. They also said to the public “watch our lips” and they lied. They also told the public that they would do nothing to affect workers’ wages and they lied. They brought in the Employment Contracts Act and cut workers’ wages. 
Bill English makes fun about Tory charity. Well I want to tell the National Party what Tory charity is all about; Tory charity is about cutting benefits. Tory charity is about introducing market rentals. National was so concerned about the public of New Zealand that prior to one Christmas when State house rentals were going up it advised all the people in State houses in the Hawke’s Bay area like everyone else in the country that their rents were going up—and they kindly put holly and “Merry Christmas!” on the letterhead. The letters said “Merry Christmas!” to beneficiaries whose rents were going up; that was a Tory policy from the National Party. 
This is a great Budget. It builds on all the other Budgets that have gone before and is part of a long-term sequence of Labour Budgets. It is a sequence of Budgets that has restored the superannuation cuts of the National Government that has put forward extra funding for students to reduce student fees and cut student loans and that has put money into the hand of superannuitants by way of rates rebates. We have done a pile of work in this area and New Zealand is much better off for it. That shows in my own area of Hawke’s Bay where average incomes have risen steadily under this Government. Unemployment has gone down dramatically under this Government. We inherited 160000 people on the unemployment benefit. What do we have today? We have approximately 25000. 
This Government has been fantastic for this country and will continue to be fantastic because the people of New Zealand will support us. They will support us because we have good Budgets that do the best for our country and for all of our people. We are not here in the short term which is essentially what National is. The public will remember that when it comes to superannuation National has nothing in its history to be proud of whatsoever. National is the party that cut superannuation in the past and got rid of superannuation in this country illegally. National when it made promises about superannuation in the past lied—it lied when it said: “no ifs no buts no maybes”—and it will lie again.