Coleman Jonathan: Budget Debate 
Coleman Jonathan: Budget Debate 
[Volume:639;Page:9558] 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (National—Northcote) 
: 
 The House is still reeling from the vicious personal attack on the member for Piako but what was interesting about that speech was that it was a real flashback to the old Labour thinking of the past. 
There is no doubt that this is a bad Budget for the people of New Zealand but there are some people for whom this will be a good Budget and they are here in this House. It will be a great Budget for Shane Jones and for Maryan Street because after the performance of Michael Cullen and the inept performance from front-bench Ministers for whom we have seen everything go to pieces over the past couple of weeks those members will have to become the future of the Labour Party and they will have to become it pretty quickly. 
I can tell members now that Michael Cullen is gone. That was his last Budget. He has blown it. Budget 2007 signalled the point at which he gave up on any prospect of growing the New Zealand economy. It is now all about dividing up the pie. Michael Cullen and Helen Clark said that they would take New Zealand back into the top half of the OECD. There will be many more members— 
Jill Pettis 
: What have you been smoking in those cigars? 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: —like the former member for Whanganui who will be leaving this House. She will be out. She should be looking pretty closely at KiwiSaver because it will be the reason for her demise. It is pretty unlikely that list member Moroney will be back either on the back of that performance. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Speakers’ rulings 26/6 and 26/7 state that members must use a member’s full name. Thank you. 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Ms Sue Moroney is pretty unlikely to be back. 
Simon Power 
: What about Lesley Soper? 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Frankly I do not know why Lesley Soper even bothered turning up again; she was here 5 minutes. She is a member the Labour Party just cannot get rid of—she keeps on coming back. Hopefully the next election will be the end of it. Mita Ririnui is laughing but there is nothing in the Budget to laugh about for Mr Ririnui because he will be going too. There will be an all-out cull and at the end of it very little will be left. There will be the bare bones of an unlikely future renaissance of the Labour Party. 
Dr Cullen has had 8 long years in the job. He promised so much to the people of New Zealand. He was going to take us into the top half of the OECD. What has actually happened? We have gone backwards two places. That is what he has delivered. We are now down with Iceland Hungary and the Czech Republic. There is nothing in the Budget that provides any incentives for New Zealanders to stay in this country to build a career to build a business and to lay down a future here. We have heard about closing the gaps and carbon neutrality. They were empty slogans and they have gone. They are empty slogans just like economic growth. 
Jill Pettis 
: Why aren’t you out taking people’s temperatures? 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: People who are at home can hear the soon-to-be-former list member from Whanganui carping away again. The lack of sense this woman makes really reflects the poor quality of people that the Labour Party is able to attract to come into Parliament. Andrew Little has it right. He is not coming in. He said no thanks to standing for Labour in 2008. He did not want to come and join this mob. He said that maybe he would in 2011. No one wants to join this sinking ship because everyone knows it is going down. 
We talked about the failed effort to get into the top half of the OECD. Government members have given up on that. Mr Barnett may be contemplating contesting the mayoralty in Christchurch again before too long. The reality is that labour productivity has more than halved since this Government came into office. So much for raising productivity levels. Jill Pettis talked about raising labour productivity levels; it just has not happened. The basic fact is that under this Government economic stewardship has gone down the drain. 
The Government has brought us tax-bracket creep. We heard today that 15 percent of taxpayers now pay the top tax rate in New Zealand. Michael Cullen said that it would never get above 5 percent but it has. The reality is that we have people finding themselves in the top tax bracket and paying more and more tax even though they cannot afford it. We have had an increase in fiscal drag. No adjustment for inflation has been made to the tax brackets. The people of New Zealand are labouring under a heavier and heavier tax burden. 
The reality is that there is a growing wage gap with Australia. In the last 6 years in Australia the average after-tax income has grown by 33 percent. In New Zealand it has grown by 18 percent. That is underperformance and New Zealanders know that. As we know 700 New Zealanders are leaving for Australia every week and they are not coming back. People do not need to ask us about this; they can just ask Mike Moore. Mike Moore wrote an article in the  
New Zealand Herald  
today asking why 100 talented and smart New Zealanders are leaving this country every day. He says that it is difficult to accept but Australia is doing better than New Zealand. The reality is that since 1990 Australia has gone from 17th to seventh in the OECD. Australia is going forward; New Zealand is going backwards. With Australia’s per capita income a third higher than New Zealand’s it is no wonder Kiwis are voting with their feet. 
The reality is that this is the Government’s last-legs Budget. Helen Clark and Michael Cullen have given up on economic growth. They are now worried about how they will go down in the history books. I can tell the House that they will not be remembered for a heck of a lot. That is what KiwiSaver is about. They literally want something to write on their tombstone: “We brought in KiwiSaver”. Well it will not be enough because Labour has absolutely ignored one of its core constituencies—low-paid hard-working people. 
When the lady from Waikato was giving her rant before she said: “It’s going to be great. Low-wage hard-working people can put aside $30 a week.” If anything shows us how out of touch some Government members are with the real people on the streets of New Zealand that statement does. Thirty dollars in the hand is a lot of money for those people. They do not have $30 to put into KiwiSaver. We know that 50 percent of workers will not be able to enter into this scheme because they cannot wait until they are 65 to get the money. They need the money to feed their families now. They need money to put food on the table. 
What is in this Budget for older workers? There is nothing at all. I will read a quote from the  
New Zealand Herald  
website. It is from a lady just north of Auckland: “In regard to Kiwisaver. I am 61 and am trying to work towards being as self sufficient as possible by retirement. I have little money and have purchased a property … At present I have to pay my mortgage … insurance power rent … my share of expenses petrol & car maintenance … I don’t go out I buy secondhand clothes.” She said that she does not have $20 left each week to put into anything and that she is sure a lot of families with young children do not have $20 spare in their budget either. 
It is all right if one is a list member from Whanganui who comes here does nothing collects a fat salary and frankly does not do anything in one’s constituency—for which reason that member has been replaced by Mr Borrows—but it is not so good if one is like the lady I quoted living on the breadline working hard but getting nothing from this Government apart from being told she has to save with KiwiSaver. 
The 50 percent of people who cannot go into KiwiSaver will not get a wage rise from their employers. They will be cross-subsidising all those who have gone into KiwiSaver. So those people will have no wage rise no tax break and they will not be able to go into KiwiSaver. 
Does Mrs Pettis know what she has done? She has carved out a great new constituency for the National Party. Low-paid hard-working blue-collar workers whom her party has completely shafted economically through the health system the education system and the law and order system will turn to National in their droves. I will tell members what will happen. Those who sign up to KiwiSaver will say thank you very much then go into the polling booth and tick “National”. You will be out on your ear—it will be the end of you. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Not you Mr Assistant Speaker. I was referring to Ms Pettis. 
If people are living in northern Auckland in my electorate—now a National electorate—they will also be paying a fuel tax of 10c a litre. Two-thirds of that will go to trains. But we do not have any trains north of the bridge. So members can imagine how happy people are with Maryan Street and the crowd at the electorate office of Labour North—not that they are ever there. One can imagine what they think: Labour is gone; it is not coming back. 
In conclusion I say that with this Budget Labour has totally given up on growth. The Budget is a vain last attempt at a legacy. The 50 percent of people who are the poorest workers will not be able to afford to go into this scheme and they will have less in the hand. This scheme is carving out a whole new constituency for National. As I say the 50 percent who do go into the scheme will be taking KiwiSaver saying thanks to Dr Cullen then voting for National at the next election. It is the end of the line for this mob and the sooner it comes quite frankly the better.