Tirikatene Rino: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 28 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10424. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Talofa lava—in recognition of Samoan Language Week—to all of our folks who are out there watching. I am pleased to rise to oppose this dreadful Budget. We have had 5 years of this National Government and when it came to power we heard all the promises about the brighter future and that it would be creating jobs lifting wages growing the economy and making New Zealand a better place to live. Well those promises have turned out to be absolutely false. After 5 years John Key has let New Zealanders down. But he has not let down all Kiwis. No he has looked after the movie moguls the casino operators and those with capital and a wealth base underneath them—and that is the base of the National Party. But he has not looked after all Kiwis and that is why National has created this two-speed economy.The speakers opposite have spoken about how they have got this momentum going and that we on this side of the House are going to be sending New Zealand backwards. Well that is totally misinformed because they have got a complete mix-up between speed and direction. If they wanted to turn things round and go forward they will be going backwards and that is exactly where they have taken our country. If we look at the actual failures of this National Government it has been appalling. Members opposite talked about rebalancing the economy and delivering more export growth. That is what we all want; we definitely want more export growth. That is what we need to move forward as a country. We need to get our tradable sector thriving. We need to grow those exports and sell our wares to the world and make some money.But what has happened under this Government? We as a country have seen the worst current account deficit in the whole world—No. 1 in the world. That means we are spending more on imports and on interest than what we are earning as a country. If that is rebalancing the economy well I do not really know what planet Mr English is on because that has been an absolute failure and it is only going to be getting worse. The projections are that that will be getting worse. It is a very dangerous sign for our country and for our economy because as we know worldwide countries are debasing their currencies. We have got asset bubbles that are blowing up all over the place. We have got stock markets that are blowing up all based on printing-press money from the big major countries around the world. This is putting a huge amount of pressure on our whole financial system. Everything is teetering on the edge and this Government does not want to know about it but when the bubble pops—like all bubbles do; they will pop at some stage—it is going to signal a huge blow not only to our economy but to the global economy.I think we need to be mindful of that because members opposite are talking about how great it has been that there have been record-low interest rates. Sure we welcome low interest rates but the reason the interest rates are low is because the world economy and our economy have been so sick. That is why. You lower the interest rates because you want to try to rev up things. The problem is that we have had going on 7 years of record-low interest rates and ours are really high compared with the rest of the world and yet it has not actually generated economic growth because this Government has been more concerned with looking after its own base—its own rich elite select group of the National Party support base—than it has been towards looking after all of the whānau across Aotearoa. So that is a very dangerous situation that we find ourselves in. When interest rates do rise it is actually going to catch out a lot of people.This Government has been so concerned so preoccupied about reaching surplus in 2014 that it has forgotten about the finances of everyday Kiwis. Everyday Kiwis are actually struggling—we are maxed out; we as our current account deficit shows are more indebted than ever—and that is putting huge pressure on families and that is why we have got this two-speed economy.But the two-speed economy does not apply just in terms of household finances; we are seeing it right across the whole country. If we look at it geographically there is definitely a North Island - South Island spread going on there. I am actually quite fortunate in that I cover a huge electorate. I cover the whole of the South Island and there are some regions that are actually doing quite well in relation to their agricultural and pastoral sectors so I commend that. But if you look at the regions in the North Island particularly in the far north—Hawke’s BayIkaroa-Rāwhiti and the area covered by that electorate—there are huge amounts of inequality happening up there. They are struggling and this Government has not had a plan to really help those regions. It has neglected the regions and that is why we are seeing such terribly high unemployment numbers coming through.We also see that the two-speed economy is applicable age-wise. Younger New Zealanders are being locked out of that homeownership. They would like to aspire to owning their own home and getting on that property ladder but the way that the property bubbles are going—again the properties are being held by that wealthy class who have the capital and the wealth base and who want the tax-free capital gains—is preventing young people the new generation coming through from actually getting on that property ladder. It is all because this Government has sent the wrong signals. It has skewed the whole property ownership model because of the fact that it is encouraging property bubbles to occur through the fact that we have had a low-interest rate environment no capital gains tax and the like. Again that does put a lot of pressure onthose young people who want to get there. But the older generation—who are obviously looking out for their own retirement and they want to hold on to and charge the rent on private rental accommodation—want to generate an income for themselves going into the future. So we have a real mismatch there caused by this Government between our young generation and our older generation in terms of property ownership.Then of course what it comes down to is that this two-speed economy is around fairness. We have seen the largest growth in inequality in this country under this National Government. Income disparity is at its widest and it is very much pronounced when we look at the Māori community itself. That is the electorate I represent. When you see the deprivation and the hardship out there it does break your heart. It can be addressed. I know that the Prime Minister made the announcement about providing some support for the food in schools programme. Although we support that why has it taken so long? We had the Budget—what—over a week ago and the Government sort of signalled it prior to the Budget but then there was nothing in the Budget itself and now we have had to wait another week and a half and then something has come out. I think something must be up around the National Government Cabinet table because it has taken too long for that to come through.What it shows is that there is incredible hardship and poverty out there. We have 270000 children living in poverty. That is just way too much. The rising unemployment rates among Māori people are absolutely horrendous. When I look at the unemployment rates for Māori and Pacific Islanders—basically 14 percent for Māori and 15.2 percent for Pacific Islanders—those are horrendous unemployment rates that apply to all of us to all Māori and all Pacific people right across the board. We have to change this Government so we can actually address those issues because I fear that if we continue down this track put down in this Budget it is not going to be able to really address those pressing issues that are really desperate cries coming out from those hard-working families out there.In conclusion I would just like to say that I mentioned before that there is a preoccupation with surplus in this Budget. The Government thinks that by 2014 it can get to the surplus when at the end of the day it has been constructed on bogus numbers—bogus numbers—because we see that there is approximately $3 billion worth of numbers in that Budget that are a complete sham. I am talking about the overcharging from ACC of $700 million the so-called $1.1 billion of extra corporate tax which the Government thinks is going to suddenly appear and I am talking about the tax credits that it has booked in as revenue and no one knows where they are going to come from. So this is a dreadful Budget we oppose it 100 percent and we look forward to getting rid of this Government. Kia ora tātou.