Foss Craig: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Foss Craig: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2427] 
CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
: 
 I rise to speak on the financial review of the financial statements of the Government of New Zealand for the year ended 30 June last year. I speak after one or two other speakers and I would like to address some of the points they have raised that pertain to the report on the Table here. 
I will pick up the theme of an earlier speaker because once again my suspicions have been confirmed about the tax cut and election-result denying members opposite. I cannot for the life of me believe that on the one hand they say we need more money—and before the election they said their party was the tax cut party and they legislated for that because they did not trust Dr Cullen or themselves to follow through with it—but now post-election the theme of almost every single speech they give is that we should not have tax cuts; they are starting to put forward the old redistribution line. I look forward to hearing other speakers clarify whether Labour members agree with us in relation to the tax cuts put in place on 1 April this year as a result of the National Party victory at the last election. Do they agree with those tax cuts—yes or no? Do they agree with the fact that so many hard-working New Zealanders have missed out over the last few years? Yes we agreed with and signed up for Working for Families; yes we agreed and signed up for indexation of many of the benefits; but do Labour members agree with tax cuts? 
What I am hearing from members opposite right now is that they do not believe that every New Zealander from those on an average wage and higher and probably those on below the average wage should have more of their own funds when there is a surplus and funnily enough they do not believe that a recessionary environment which this Government inherited is an apt time to leave more money in the pockets of those who earned it in the first place. Listening to an earlier speaker David Cunliffe—a gentleman who apparently does not have a site on Twitter—I do not understand how Labour members say that the fiscal stimulus should be bigger and wider yet they argue against tax cuts. I cannot quite work it out and I will be interested to hear other speakers try to clarify the issue and move the clouds away from the policy because members opposite have so much time on their hands post-election. 
Last week I spoke on this issue in another debate and I made the point that the clock starts ticking for this particular Government at the end of this Budget. After the May 2009 Budget the clock will start ticking for this Government because that is what we will be judged on. We will not be judged on what we inherited—Budget 2008 the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update or the things that were not in it the half-year update or even the Budget Policy Statement which is an indication for the next year’s Budget. We will start to be judged on the accounts as they are put before this Parliament when the Hon Bill English presents the Budget in 2009. That is when the decade of deficits—and they are looking horrible at this moment—will be revealed. That is when the true state of the accident compensation numbers which a previous speaker started to allude to—or even to deny if I am allowed to say that—and the true state of the New Zealand accounts will be placed before the New Zealand public. Unfortunately they were not placed before us earlier. 
I acknowledge all of the members of the Finance and Expenditure Committee who helped to contribute to the financial review we have in front of us. There was some robust debate and some good issues arose from it. If members read the review they will see that there are some acknowledgments as to the state of play that was inherited by the incoming National Government. In fact many of the matters that were talked about theorised on written about hui-ed for and consulted on by the previous Government were not put in place and that is the key. Actions speak so much louder than words. 
Another member opposite kept talking about the structural deficit. I will be very interested to hear another speaker talk about that. It is obvious now that there has been a structural deficit in New Zealand’s accounts for quite some time. The risks inherent in New Zealand’s accounts have not been portrayed as accurately as they probably could and the accounts have not been portrayed as conservatively as they probably could and we will see the results of that when the May 2009 Budget is released and put on the Table by the Hon Bill English. The previous speaker also talked about the superannuation fund which Dr Cullen was the architect of—we all acknowledge that quite deliberately.