Ryall Tony: Budget Debate 
Ryall Tony: Budget Debate 
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Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 There comes a time in the life of a third-term Government when as Mike Moore once put it the phone gets taken off the hook. I think that for Labour after 8 years in office the phone is off the hook. New Zealanders have come to the conclusion that this Government is not listening any more. Nothing could sum that up more than the headline in the  
New Zealand Herald  
a week or so ago that stated: “Government says NO to personal tax cuts”. What made that even worse was the headline a few days later stating that the minimal tax concession provided in the “chewing gum Budget” was also going to be wiped. There comes a time in the life of a third-term Government when the people have taken the phone off the hook. I think the phone is now taken off the hook well and truly with this Labour Government. 
What was lacking in this Budget was a sense of purpose and a sense of direction for the future of our nation. This is a time when New Zealanders are looking to Europe and to Australia to see the success of economies there. They see the economies of countries in “new Europe” that have pulled themselves up by the bootstraps and are becoming countries that many people want to live in. Even then this Government cannot provide the sense of purpose and vision that New Zealanders want. 
Labour’s purpose and vision is completely discredited. Do members remember the Prime Minister saying we were going to get into the top half of the OECD? The fact is that under Helen Clark we have dropped from 20th to 22nd; Portugal Hungary and the Czech Republic are snapping at our heels and Slovenia and Slovakia have overtaken us. They are countries that only 10 years ago were considered basket-case economies. Here in New Zealand 700 people a week are moving to Australia. In an article in the  
New Zealand Herald  
this morning Mike Moore the former Labour Prime Minister bemoans the wasted opportunity of New Zealand in the last 8 years and that in Australia incomes are now 50 percent higher than they are in New Zealand—in Western Australia the figure is 75 percent. Those are figures that should be damning and worrying for this Government because the risk for New Zealand is that the people here whom we need to drive our recovery are being attracted elsewhere. 
There are great benefits to living in New Zealand: the lifestyle and the opportunities for the young people in the future are fantastic and should be recognised as such. But they are not enough to keep our people here in New Zealand any more when they see the opportunities in Australia. Australia has rewarded hardworking Australians by allowing them to keep more of their money in their pockets with 5 successive years of tax cuts. Look what that has done to the economy! It has put Australia on to the fast track to where it is right up the OECD levels; I think it is something like seventh in the OECD. Members should remember that Australia started this decade at just a couple of points above us—I think at about 18th. And now they are seventh. We were 20th and we are now down to 22nd. We are losing. We are losing because this Government has no sense of purpose and no vision. 
After 8 years of Labour in Government what does this Budget present? What in the Budget would be the thing that New Zealanders would say shows us where we are going? Retirement savings? Is that providing the vision to get the economy moving? Retirement savings? A little bit of money for household insulation? Is that the sort of big-picture item that says to young New Zealanders: “Stay in this country and get ahead.”? Young New Zealanders see that this is a Government that is running an economy based on high interest rates a high exchange rate and low returns for workers. This is being cemented in by what this Government is proposing with KiwiSaver. 
Did you hear what the finance Minister said Madam Assistant Speaker? He said that workers in the future will sacrifice pay increases to pay for the employer’s KiwiSaver contribution. That is incredible when only half of the workers will be in the KiwiSaver scheme according to the Government. The other half who will not get any benefit from KiwiSaver will sacrifice pay increases to pay for employers’ contributions. How unfair is that? But that is what this Government is proposing. This Government has really lost touch with the people who brought it here. 
This is a party that says it represents ordinary people but it is led by a couple of university lecturers who probably talk to fewer ordinary people than does anyone else in this House. They are so completely devoid of representing the people they claim to represent. They have no sense of purpose for this country and they have no aspiration for the future of our nation. 
Instead of trying to grow New Zealand’s capacity and lift its productivity this Budget was focused entirely on the Labour Party’s legacy. We know that it was because Labour’s own pollsters UMR Insight Ltd has been ringing people and asking them what Helen Clark’s legacy is. This is true—UMR Insight Ltd has been ringing people and asking them what Helen Clark’s legacy is! Well I think we know what the answer is. That is the reason she is desperately trying to find one. The public wants the Government to cut taxes but the Labour Party has cut taxes just for a few businesses. Everyone will feel the effect of Labour’s petrol price rise. New Zealanders also want lower interest rates. 
R Doug Woolerton 
: When did National cut tax? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: National cut tax in the 1990s on a number of occasions. New Zealanders want lower interest rates but they will get higher interest rates for longer and an extra $4 billion in mortgage payments so far. New Zealanders want an economy that can provide better jobs better incomes and a better standard of living but the Government is completely bereft of any ideas to improve those areas. 
Members should look for example at the health budget. Today the Parliament learnt that despite $4 billion in extra spending on health fewer people are getting to see a specialist in a hospital. The Minister of Health says: “Oh it is because everyone is healthier. They don’t need to go and see a specialist any more.” Well tell that to the tens of thousands of people who were culled off the waiting list to see a hospital specialist. Tell that to the general practitioners who are finding their patients turned away from the front door of the hospitals while they try to get a specialist appointment. 
The real shame is that many New Zealanders who need an operation need to see a specialist to be put on the waiting list. But the Government wants to run down the availability of those specialist appointments so people cannot get referred into the elective surgery waiting lists. Members should also look at the fact that despite the $4 billion fewer people are getting elective surgery. We know that because the Minister has given answers in the House through written questions that confirm that fewer people received elective surgery in the last year compared with 6 years ago. How can that be? Well it is to do with the issue of productivity that is spoken of so often in this House. 
The real reason why we are putting so much money into health and not getting the extra services that people want is the massive explosion in bureaucracy. There is a strategy vision hui or consultation document for everything in health under Labour repeated 21 times. In the last 7 years there has been an increase of over 2000 hospital managers and administrators—2000. That means that for every one doctor that is employed in the hospital system we have more than one manager appointed—for every one doctor in the hospital system they have also employed one extra manager plus. That is incredible. That is where the money is going. That is why people are finding it so hard to get to see a hospital doctor. 
In the North Shore for example we have so many cases going into the offices of electorate members about people being turned away from seeing a specialist about people being culled off the hospital waiting list and about people being unable to get the care they need on the North Shore or in Waitakere. That is shameful. It is shameful that so much money is put in and so few people are benefiting. 
The lack of vision in health has been repeated throughout this Budget. What does this Budget do for ordinary New Zealanders? What does it stand for? If we went out on Lambton Quay today and asked people what the Budget stood for they would be very hard-pressed to answer. As I said there comes a time in the life of a third-term Government when people take the phone off the hook. We have been there; we recognise the signs. It is so clear that this is the second to last Budget of this Government. Frankly it is a Budget that should never have been delivered because it is a huge wasted opportunity reflecting on the 8 years of wasted opportunities from a Minister of Finance who is very uncomfortable in his own skin.