Coleman Jonathan: Budget Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Coleman Jonathan: Budget Debate 
[Sitting date: 29 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2584. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Defence) 
: 
 If that was the intellectual engine room of the Labour Party all I can tell you is that that party is in deep trouble. All that was was a 10-minute personal attack on the Prime Minister. I was really waiting to hear something of substance at the end. Do you know the one idea that came out of that was the capital gains tax. So Labour’s idea about how to get growth into this economy is to slap another tax on hard-working New Zealanders. The problem for them is they actually took that to the last election and it was roundly rejected. It was completely rejected. David Parker is driving their thinktank approach and that is all he can come up with. He said if you do not change anything nothing changes. Well what they need is a change of front bench because unless they get some people there with some ideas and some drive—some people who appeal to the average New Zealander—we are not going to hear much more from them. We are going to see more and more editorials from the co-leader of the Greens the real Leader of the Opposition Russel Norman.  
This is a great Budget. It is a great Budget for the times and it has been well received by the people of New Zealand. To produce a Budget like this in a time of international economic turmoil is a great achievement on the part of the Minister of Finance Bill English and the Prime Minister. I think it shows that the country’s finances are in very sound hands. What has been delivered here is over $4 billion of new expenditure over 4 years which is going to pay for the vital services and infrastructure that New Zealanders need and want. I defy Labour to tell us what it would have done. What it would have done is borrow more money. 
Phil Twyford 
: Rubbish. 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Phil Twyford says “Rubbish.”—it would not have borrowed more money. But at the same time it would not have gone for a mixed-ownership model. Well you cannot do both. You cannot fund the new infrastructure that New Zealand needs if you do not either do what we are doing which is go for that mixed-ownership model and free up $5 billion to $7 billion of new money or borrow money. We know what Labour would do. It would borrow. Where would that lead us? It would lead us down the track of Greece Spain Portugal and Ireland. That is true. Mr Parker denied that the Christchurch earthquake had any effect on Government finance. He said to stop using it as an excuse. Well I can tell you that it is a miracle that the Government’s finances are in such good shape considering what we have had to deal with over the past few years. And to think that there is new money going into health! There is $1.5 billion over 4 years—$1.5 billion. There is $33 million of new funding going into cancer treatment and there are 500 more operations a week under this Government. You can see that those members have fallen silent because they have no answer to that.  
Today Tony Ryall the Minister of Health announced the new emergency department statistics: 93 percent of patients being seen within 6 hours in emergency departments. It was very very bad under the Labour Government. We took action and now it is much much better. I mean look at the economy: 3 percent growth for the next 4 years 60000 jobs created over the last 2 years and 154000 new jobs to be created over the next 4 years—major achievements there. One of the key things though is a $197 million surplus for 2014-15. That is a huge turn-round in the face of a very difficult fiscal environment.  
There is new money for education: $512 million over 4 years. It is interesting to see that those members will not agree with the $59.8 million investment into teacher quality. They are happy for things to just continue as they have. If you look at it teacher numbers have gone up 12.5 percent over the past few years and school rolls have gone up 2.5 percent. But attainment and intellectual achievement—the way our kids are going—have actually plateaued. And they over there have no answer. They were very happy for things to just continue on as they always had. So under this Government there are 27000 more elective operations 2000 more nurses 800 more doctors and 1000 fewer back-office positions. The health situation has been majorly turned round. There are 600 more police on the beat on the streets of New Zealand. There are 3500 more early childhood education places. Forty-eight thousand State houses have been upgraded and there are 12000 more tertiary education places under this Government. So you can see there is major progress major achievement going on. There are 41000 more homes that are warmer and drier through the Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart programme. In terms of welfare reform we are actually focusing on dealing with that huge iceberg— 
Hon Member 
: Yawn! 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Look Labour members laugh about this. They yawn about it. They do not care. They were happy for things to continue as they ever did. But the fact is we are identifying the tough issues and we are tackling them.  
I just want to speak briefly about defence. We are very proud I think—right across the House actually—of the New Zealand Defence Force and the work that our men and women do overseas. There is a very concerted programme going on to achieve savings of $350 million to $400 million over the next few years which is going to be reinvested back into the capabilities that the New Zealand Defence Force needs. I can say it is very pleasing that that vote has been retained. But the fact is we are going to be able to fund more and more of the capabilities that our men and women need to succeed at the front line over the coming years. Of course our men and women are coming to the end of their time in Afghanistan; the SAS has done an excellent job over the time it has been representing us there. New Zealand was also represented very well overseas in East Timor and in the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands. Our men and women in the New Zealand Defence Force deserve excellent support and this Government is determined that they get that. You can see that in the capabilities that we are going to be funding over the next few years. It is quite an achievement in a tight fiscal environment to be able to maintain that vote and to achieve the savings and reinvest those savings back into the capabilities that are required.  
It was very interesting though listening to David Shearer’s reply to the Prime Minister’s Budget speech a couple of days ago. I was looking at David Shearer during the Prime Minister’s speech and it was quite evident that he was taking no notes which I thought was interesting. I have never seen that from a Leader of the Opposition before. But what was quite evident is that he had not listened to the speech at all. He had a pre-prepared message. He was not going to think on his feet. He was not going to rebut the arguments. The fact is that this is a party the Labour Party that is not interested in rebutting the arguments because frankly it knows it has lost them. It lost them long ago. It lost them at the ballot box in 2011 and it is continuing to lose the arguments here in this Chamber and in the public domain.  
So really it is quite irrefutable. This Budget is the right one for the times. But not only that we have managed to get that $4 billion of savings $4 billion pulled together from areas where wasteful and ineffective spending was going on to actually fund the things New Zealanders want: the health the education the policing the growth in the economy the investment in ultra-fast broadband the investment in science—major investment in science going on—research and development and innovation. Steven Joyce is doing a great job in pulling that all together. So for Labour to try to make out that there is no path to the future well I can tell you that just does not stack up when you look at the facts. I can tell you if Labour had given this Budget you would have seen more buying of votes more borrowing but at the same time a decline in our international credit reputation a decline in our international reputation and Labour knows that—those members know that.  
I want to hear the next Labour speaker get up and actually tell us their plan for balancing the books because they say they could balance the books but frankly I do not believe it. Frankly the public of New Zealand does not believe it. What the public of New Zealand does believe is that John Key is the right man to be running the economy of New Zealand. He is the person with the record. His sound stewardship is getting this country going in the right direction and that is the actual fact. We are on track for surplus in 2014-15. We have got a whole lot of new spending $4.4 billion over 4 years. It is all working well. It is getting us going in the right direction and most important the public of New Zealand are confident that we are going in the right direction. This is a Budget that has their support and I fully support it. Kia ora.