Henare Tau: Budget Debate 
Henare Tau: Budget Debate 
[Volume:654;Page:4245] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 Is it not good to listen to Labour members talk about how much they care for superannuitants and poor people? We have just come out of 9 years of surplus upon surplus. 
Hon David Parker 
: Which that member opposed every year. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh here we go! I hear the crocodile crying again. In a nutshell this Budget documents the appalling economic legacy of mismanagement during the last 9 years. That is the first thing it does. Every economic commentator from the top of the North Island to the southernmost tip of the South Island across to the Chatham Islands and back again to Taranaki says that it is a documentation of mismanagement and poor economic literacy on the part of the previous Labour Government. 
I start by making the point that there is a difference—I point this out to the former Minister who just resumed his seat—between superannuation and the Superannuation Fund. I rode in a taxi last night and the woman asked me about her super and whether she would still get it at 65. I said that absolutely she would be paid her superannuation at 65. She asked about what the Labour Party has been saying over the last week about the Government not putting money into the Superannuation Fund any more. I said to the taxi driver that that had nothing to do with superannuation; they were two separate things. She was over the moon that somebody had actually explained it to her. She also said that Labour members were a pack of mongrels for scaring the community. She said they were a pack of mongrels for going out amongst old people in our communities and saying that the National Government had cut superannuation. 
I have seen campaigns of misinformation before but this takes the cake. I tell members why it takes the cake. No one can jump on the superannuation wagon like Winston can but even he would not have had the temerity to go out and put fear and worry amongst the people in our community. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Are you sure? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Well I am pretty sure. Here are some facts for David Parker and Clayton Cosgrove. Between 2000 and 2008—I just want to do some maths—labour productivity grew on average by about 1.3 percent a year. Let us now add that fact to the fact that Government spending grew by nearly 50 percent. Then let us put that alongside the current account deficit which was near record levels. What do we get? New Zealand being left dangerously exposed to the overseas financial markets. Without a very hard Budget in very hard times the IMF would have been knocking on our door. We would not have been have been knocking on the IMF’s door; the IMF would have been camped outside. They would have been knocking on our door if Labour had come anywhere near the Treasury benches for a fourth time. 
David Parker said the pretence was over. I have to agree with him. The pretence of the last 9 years is finally over. Labour dined out on its third way theory for 9 years. But that third way put us in a perilous situation. All it needed was the world economy to start failing and we would be in a serious situation. We are. I congratulate Bill English on what is not a slash-and-burn Budget. Many people accuse him of having a slash-and-burn mentality and many people out in our communities requested a slash-and-burn Budget. He and Cabinet were able to deliver a middle-of-the-road “steady as she goes” “tighten your belt” Budget. It did not have everything for everybody but it did have things that will set us on the road to recovery. 
Here are just three little policy points as a diversion. The first is the cycleway. Instead of seeing it as some sort of individual programme I see the cycleway as an opportunity for small provincial areas and Maori communities to get into the tourism market and as an opportunity to build businesses around their communities rather than leaving those small communities for the bright lights of Auckland Wellington Christchurch and maybe Dunedin. The 9-day working fortnight should not be seen as just some sort of gimmick. It should actually be seen as an opportunity—certainly in Maori quarters—to use the 10th day of the fortnight to learn the Maori language. The boot camp idea should not be seen as a punitive measure against young people. Instead it should be seen as an opportunity to rekindle the service and sacrifice of the 28th Battalion. The premise is changed in the way these policies are done and I think we are on the road to recovery as Mr English said. 
Clayton Cosgrove said that the last 10 years—he pinched an extra year; Labour was in power for only 9 years—were 10 years of certainty. The funny thing is that Labour railed against the Hon Pita Sharples about how he was not delivering anything for Maori. Let me tell the House that at least he made a Budget bid. When we had lots of money when there was surplus after surplus the former Minister of Maori Affairs did not even bother to turn up. He did not even bother to turn up to the office of the Minister of Finance and ask him for some money. He spent all of his time down at McDonald’s. How dare Labour members say that there is nothing in the Budget for Maori! The previous Labour Government did not even bother. It was not that its Minister of Maori Affairs forgot; he did not even bother to make a Budget bid. Yet he and Labour have the gall to get up and have a crack at the new Minister of Maori Affairs who is only 6 months into the job and has delivered a package as best he could given the appalling economic situation that faces this country. 
I turn very quickly to congratulate my friend from the Green Party Metiria Turei on her elevation to the party co-leadership. I also want to send my commiserations to a very very good friend and I know a true working-class hero Sue Bradford.