Bayly AndrewANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): That hope expressed by Michael Wood will be a forlorn hope. It is a pleasure to be talking on the Budget Policy Statement but before I do so I just want to turn my attention to the events that are unfolding in my electorate of Hunua. They are also happening in Coromandel and Waiheke and that is the extent of the flooding that is occurring in my electorate which covers the areas of Hunua Clevedon Beachlands Maraetai Kawakawa Bay and Ōrere Point.There is significant damage but I have spent the afternoon talking to the fire chiefs and the police. They are doing a fantastic job in terms of helping those communities. Luckily the 350 children who were at two camps have been rescued safely and no one has been injured with the help of not only the fire brigades and the police but also the army. We have also had a number of vehicles recovered including the police vehicle that was reported on by the media. That has now been recovered by the Clevedon Fire Brigade. But the hard work that all those five fire brigades have been doing has been fantastic. Since midnight last night they have been out helping everyone and I just want to pay my tribute to all their hard work.There are still a number of road closures although I have just been made aware in the last few minutes that the road from Kawakawa Bay to Clevedon has now been opened. But the area of Ōrere Point south to Kaiaua is still closed and we have got the closure of a road around the Maraetai coastal route. The extent of the stock damage and loss of property is terribly significant. Luckily everyone is in good order but we do have more rain forecast and we are all hoping that everything will be OK. My only words of wisdom and guidance are: Make sure you look after your neighbours. Check them tonight. Don't use the roads unless you have to. Keep safe and we will all get through this together."I now want to turn to the Budget Policy Statement. I have got to say this is a great statement at any point in time. If we were in any country everyone would be holding up this statement saying: "These are great results." When you look at the average GDP growth rate for the next 4 years—well over 3 percent—that is fantastic given the international context that all countries are currently operating under and we are well aware of those pressures that we are seeing across whole swathes of countries overseas. We have got an unemployment rate of 5.2 percent but Treasury is now predicting that is going to reduce to about 4.5 percent over the next few years. We are generating surpluses and it is interesting that the financial statements of the Government just released—just released—show that for the 7 months to the end of January we reported a surplus of $1.14 billion which is miles ahead of the budget that Treasury forecast which was close to about $440 million.That is a significant advancement and a lot of that is coming through higher taxation revenues and prudent management—and of course we do have to acknowledge the fantastic work that our Prime Minister did as the finance Minister but it will continue under the new finance Minister the Hon Steven Joyce. I think this is all about managing an economy appropriately and with fiscal responsibility. So our debt level is below what we anticipated. It is 24.1 percent. And as everyone knows I believe—hopefully across the House—we are trying to get to 20 percent by 2020 which is very low by comparative standards.So why does all of this matter in terms of economic outcomes? Well what it provides is money for investment and I just want to look at three areas. The first one is around infrastructure. It is interesting that if you look back over the last 5 years this Government has invested $18 billion into infrastructure projects. That includes things like modernising our hospitals all around the country. It is about upgrading our broadband—and only in February we announced another major initiative so that we are seeking to get 85 percent of all New Zealanders connected to ultra-fast broadband by 2024. That is a fantastic achievement when again you compare that with other countries around the world.We have got schools. What the Hon Nikki Kaye is doing in building new schools is phenomenal. I have got one just announced this week Flat Bush South and I have also been and visited a brand new school that opened in Ormiston just in early February and it is a fantastic building.And of course roads and I heard the previous speaker talk about roads. Well actually the plan for the next 10 years is $43 billion to be spent on roads. Although that sounds a lot of money—it is—it does not always deal with all the pressures that we are experiencing. But in Auckland we have still got the Waterview tunnel coming on stream in operation in the next couple of months. We have got the commitment to the Pūhoi to Wellsford road we have got the Government taking over the Onehunga road—about a $700 million road—triple laning down to Papakura and the electrification of the rail line down to my electorate in Pukekohe. This is all good stuff but we also are seeing massive investment in roading all around the country. The Hon Simon Bridges seems to be constantly out there opening new roads which is great and that is what New Zealanders demand and want.The other thing is that there is a significant investment in social infrastructure. There is the work that the Hon Paula Bennett and the Hon Anne Tolley are doing around this and obviously now with the changes we are making the work is about changing the culture around vulnerable children and putting the child at the centre of how we organise ourselves. That is a courageous move it is a tough move it will be hard to achieve but I am glad that people like Anne Tolley are doing that.There is also the $350 million that we put up for social housing initiatives to help vulnerable people particularly women with young children. It is appropriate that we put money up and a substantial amount of money to look after them and keep them in safe places until we can find them proper homes. There is also the $2 billion that we spend every year—$2 billion that we spend every year—supporting people to rent properties all around the country. The $2 billion is so that they can have good houses and look after themselves and their families.The other thing that we have heard reference to is the $500 million that has just been announced into policing and that was a great announcement in January. There will be 880 new sworn officers all around the country. Also on top of that there will be all the people who will be hired to help with forensic scientific investigation around crime—all that good stuff. That is phenomenal and of course all of us would like to see it happen earlier but we do have to go and recruit 220 new officers every year to achieve that outcome. Of course what we are trying to achieve is to make sure that every New Zealander lives within 25 kilometres of a manned police station in New Zealand. That is a great thing and makes our communities feel much safer.I have got to say that yesterday we witnessed a dismal display. In fact I was quite shocked. One of the important roles of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is to deal with tax matters and we had a whole lot of proposals we were working our way through with regard to closing tax loops: stopping foreigners using certain vehicles stopping base erosion profit shifting and interest rate charges and use of branches—a whole raft of things. Also more recently we have discussed the changes to the way that small companies can pay their tax as they go.What we heard from members of the Labour Party was in fact the complaint that we were doing too much—the complaint that we were doing too much. I could not believe it. I was absolutely appalled. I listened to the Opposition spokesman on finance as he sort of robotically rode his way through a debate speech that seemed to be of interminable inconsequence. I was horrified. Where is the Labour Party of old? Those members are the ones who should be holding a Government to account in terms of making the tax system fairer but no.And then we turn our mind to some members of New Zealand First. Mr Fletcher Tabuteau has been a good member at times but you know that when we came to this issue and working through the detail where the real work takes place—who did the heavy lifting? Who? It was the National Party members on that Finance and Expenditure Committee and it was dreadful to hear the Opposition members talking about too much too fast. Well what I say is: bring on the hard work because we want to achieve great outcomes for New Zealand. Bring it on."