Finlayson Christopher: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFinlayson Christopher: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 22 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18271. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Attorney-General): I want to begin by paying tribute to Shane Jones. He was an opponent not an enemy. I very much enjoyed getting to know him when we both went to Israel together on a parliamentary exchange in 2007. He was a great orator he was a staunch defender of growth and progress and he was a very hard worker. He was what I would say was a great social democrat in the Peter Fraser tradition as opposed to those in the Labour Party caucus today who are lefties in what you could call the Michael Foot or Tony Benn tradition.Sitting on the left-hand side of Shane yesterday was Hone Harawira who is hopefully about to accept the torch from Shane to work hard for his people in the north but I do not really hold my breath for that. Shane really did work extremely hard for the good folk up in the north and I want to acknowledge publicly the tremendous assistance he gave me over my 5½ years as Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations in TeHiku o te Ika and more recently withNgāpuhi. Hone Harawira comes down to Parliament and gives hellfire and brimstone speeches but in contrast to his reputation as a headline hussy Shane really got stuck in and worked well behind the scenes because he knew the potential benefits of Treaty settlements in the north. I want to say to his successor Kelvin Davis that I will be very happy to work with him in a bipartisan way to see a settlement withNgāpuhi.I say also to Mr Little—one of the few on the other side of the House whom I happen to respect—that I do think he has absolutely ignored the regional benefit assistance that comes from Treaty settlements. If you look at the Taranaki region for example and if you look at the forthcoming settlements withNgā Ruahine and TeĀtiawa you have got almost a couple of hundred million dollars going into the New Plymouth region. That sort of money is not to be sneezed at. Moreover iwi are playing a very important role in housing—for exampleNgātiWhātua’s Weymouth social housing project. An important aspect of our regional development from a Māori affairs point of view is the work that we are doing on the reform of the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act. If we get that right then it will be worth billions of dollars to the country. So all this pro forma Labour Party research unit nonsense about how we ignore the regions does not stand up to any kind of scrutiny regardless of how you look at it.This Budget has been accurately described as a Budget for families. That is clear from the extensions to paid parental leave and the increase in the new child tax credit. The Budget is most important however because Mr English has kept the home fires burning—indeed he has fanned the flames. He has made New Zealand a better place toraise a family again. He is bringing New Zealanders home. Under the previous administration a football stadium - full of New Zealanders—over 40000—were leaving for Australia every year. Now not only are more New Zealanders staying; with net immigration to Australia only 200 in April we are seeing the return of sons daughters brothers sisters and grandchildren who had never seen their grandparents before.This is a Budget that will be welcomed by families and its benefits are clear—support for parents and the reunion of loved ones. I can fully understand why the Labour Party is not all that happy with it. In fact the other day in the House on Tuesday afternoon I said to Paula Bennett my bench mate that the Labour Party members seemed very unhappy that afternoon. She said: “Well they’ve just had a caucus meeting—they’ve had to spend a couple of hours in one another’s company.” I think that is the truth of the matter. All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.Andrew Little for example is very unhappy because he wants to be Labour’s candidate in the marginal seat of Rongotai and enjoy my company in the campaign and of course because he wants to be leader. Under the previous leadership of Phil Goff David Shearer and David Cunliffe they have all been unhappy. Every time they dump their old leader and anoint a new one there is a fresh wave of new tribulation. David Cunliffe is unhappy because Shane Jones is jumping ship. Phil Goff is unhappy because he did not jump ship a little while ago. I must say that I am not a psychiatrist so I do not understand why Trevor Mallard is always unhappy. Labour used to be unhappy that the Greens were fringe extremists tarnishing their centrist brand; now Labour is unhappy that the Greens are about to overtake it as the party of Opposition. Labour used to be unhappy under Phil Goff and David Shearer. Labour was being led by a man under the thumb of his advisers afraid to be himself—Sue Moroney: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I appreciate that the member has run out of good things to say about his own Government’s Budget but this is the Budget debate and I have not heard in the last 3 minutes—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! Look there have been some wide-ranging views expressed in the last 14 hours. The Minister is coming to a conclusion—oh no he is not—but I invite the Hon Christopher Finlayson to continue.Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: David Shearer was a man under the thumb of his advisers and constantly undermined by Grant Robertson—well that is the one constant thing in the Labour Party. But the Labour Party wants me to talk about policy. I have been talking about Treaty settlements the reform of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act.Let us come on to an area that Holly Walker and I are interested in because Grant Robertson was not interested in it as the Labour spokesperson. It was nice to see Jeanette Fitzsimons in the gallery this afternoon. Those were the days when the Green Party was the nice party. I regret it has descended to be the nasty party but I have to tell you that it is also the erroneous party. I want to say—Hon Tony Ryall: Why do you say that?Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: Why do I say that? I say that because for example on Budget day Holly Walker tweeted that the regional museums’ funding had been cut by 25 percent. No she was wrong. She had simply misread the appropriations and did not realise that last year’s actual spend included money carried through from the previous year. The actual annual regional museums’ funding is exactly the same. I called yesterday—I have to tell Holly Walker—for applications for over $6 million in funding.She also tweeted that the heritage funding was down by 23 percent on Budget day—wrong again. She had misread the appropriations. She did not realise that heritage wasnow in two separate appropriations with one dedicated to the World War I centenary commemorations and that the amount had increased overall. World War I commemorations are among the most important pieces of work that I am working on at the moment. I know the Greens do not like any kind of recognition along those lines but these are important matters and it is important I say to Holly Walker that we look after this particular period in our country’s history very carefully. I have to say to Holly Walker that the arts continue to go from strength to strength. It truly is a golden age of the arts. Te Papa has received further capital spending from the Future Investment Fund recognising the national museum and art gallery but Holly Walker ignored this. We have provided $8 million in capital spending this year after the neglect of the previous Clark administration to deal with important issues of depreciation and we are working steadily on the Te Papa North concept which is going to be fabulous as well.The National War Memorial Park is being fully funded. This is going to be exciting. The extension is nearly complete along with the under-grounding in order to provide a peaceful and contemplative place and to stop car fumes from polluting Mt Cook School as had been envisaged by the previous Government. I will say to Holly Walker and she should listen that the National War Memorial Park will also have numerous cycle paths. I know how important they are to the Greens. This Budget really does have something for everyone.This golden age follows on from the successful reform of the Arts Council recently and of the Historic Places Trust and in my outreaching and bipartisan way I acknowledge the contribution of Catherine Delahunty there. There is the review of the orchestral sector the partnership between the Government and the Film Archive—which Holly Walker ignored—and the fiscal implications of that New Zealand’s tremendous guest of honour year at the Frankfurt Book Fair and the saving of the film sector from trade union thugs and making it internationally competitive. There is so much to talk about in the arts and that is why I was so disappointed that Holly Walker’s figures were all wrong. She has ignored the fact that the arts are doing very very well under this Government. If I have got any advice to offer Holly Walker for whom I have enormous affection and respect may I say that she would be much better off concentrating on her lobbying legislation rather than wasting the time of the House raising ignorant and incorrect facts about this wonderful area that I am so very proud to be the Minister of.