Sio William: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 27 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:4055. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): Talofa lava Mr Assistant Speaker. Talofa i lau afioga le fofoga fetalai. Talofa fo’i to the members of this House and I acknowledge all of those members who have been able to contribute to Samoan Language Week. Le vaiaso o le gagana Samoa i lenei vaiaso. Faamalo le tapuaiga a le tatou Atunu’u Samoa i itu e fia o Aotearoa. Fa’amalo foi le tapua’i i le itumalo o Magele.The theme of Samoan Language Week this week is “Tautua nei mo sou manuia a taeao” meaning serve now for a better tomorrow. Although “tautua” means serve it also means to be a servant to others but the operative words here are do it now for a better tomorrow. I think that is quite fitting when we are debating this Budget because we are talking about what this Government is doing and the ramifications that its actions will have on the future of this country on the future of our young people and on the future of the next generation of the workforce in Aotearoa New Zealand. Although the Budget promises so much—and we heard on Thursday Friday and Saturday how this Government just enjoyed crowing and shouting from the rooftops about those particular promises—I think when we start digging a little bit underneath those promises and try to identify the detail of those promises we find that the Government is woefully short on the things that it needs to do for a better tomorrow.I want to say that it is woefully short because National ran last year’s election promising us that there would be a surplus this year. National convinced all of us and convinced the New Zealand public that if National returned to Government we would have a $300 million surplus. That was the promise that National made to New Zealanders at the last election. Well what do we get—what do we get? Now Government members are saying “What’s in a surplus?”. They are trying to blame us for the Government’s deficit. The reality is that a surplus is important because it is a sign of an efficient Government. It means that the Government can invest in the future. It means that the Government can pay off debt. Right now we are in hock for $83 billion paying $10 million in interest. There is no vision for the future because of the fact that the Government has failed time and time and time again 7 years in a row to achieve that surplus. Every time we try to hold the Government to account Government members say “We’ll do it next year.” They promise it for next year. Now I think the New Zealand public has got wind of this.The Government has now have created a pattern for itself of making promises that it never intends delivering on—empty promises. Let me just give you an example—when we talk about the details of this Budget and the lack of vision for the future. I spoke at a school assembly in South Auckland on Monday to launch Samoan Language Week this week. That school belongs to a cluster of schools called the Auckland Samoan Bilingual Education Cluster. The principal whispered to me that they were really disappointed that there was nothing in this Budget whatsoever to recognise Pacific bilingual language to recognise the value of Pacific bilingual language to students and the value of the teachers who work in these units. They said to me that in the last 4 years they had been engaging with the Ministry of Education with this Government to try to get it to recognise the value of Pacific bilingual language. What did they get? Zilch—zilch nothing.What this Government has done for Pacific bilingual language education is cut the resources that these units required. Remember the Tupu series? Remember the Folauga journals? The Government cut the development of them. Not only that it removed Pacific bilingual education as a goal in the Pasifika Education Plan 2013-2017. The Government removed that and there is nothing that is in this Budget today that gives any hope any inspiration to the next generation of bilingual students in South Auckland that this Government recognises the value of languages. The foundation of cultural identity of self-respect of self-responsibility and of self-discipline is in the language and this Government continues to fail to provide for that.This Budget continues to fail to eliminate the growing inequalities that we face as a country. It continues to fail to recognise and address the housing crisis. It continues to fail to provide any hope whatsoever to hard-working ordinary New Zealanders who are day in day out just doing it tough and struggling to make ends meet. It fails to provide any inspiration that someday if they work harder they will be able to buy a house of their own. That dream has become virtually impossible for the low and middle-income bracket in our communities. It fails to provide any inspiration.The Budget did provide some band-aid fixes. I call them “band-aid fixes” because they provide no long-term solution to the issues that we face today. For example Government members crowed about the $25 that the Government is giving to the beneficiaries. They crowed on Thursday Friday Saturday—we got sick and tired of them shouting from the rooftops—but when you look underneath the details they say that they are concerned for the poor but we do not get the $25 now. We have to wait a whole full year to get it. They have to wait till next year to get it. What then happens while we are waiting? Is anything being done for the poor? No. They remain in Struggle Street. But in the meantime that paltry $25 a week gets swallowed up by the increases in rent the increases in petrol prices and the increases in power prices. Woe unto those people during this winter. It is going to be a cold cold winter.The other thing is that the Government thinks that people on benefits want to be on benefits. It thinks that people on benefits love that lifestyle. That is not a lifestyle choice. The majority of people on benefits find themselves being there through economic and social conditions out of their control. I have never come across somebody on a benefit who dreams of remaining on a benefit. Pacific people do not want handouts. They want a hand up. Sure the Government said that it was going to try to get people into jobs. Forcing solo parents when their child is 3 years old into a job that does not exist is not a work plan. The best welfare support for communities who are done by is to get them into jobs—high-value jobs high-paying jobs jobs that can enable them to support and sustain their families jobs that can enable them to contribute to the community through various activities in schools etc.So let me just make that point: people do not want your handouts which are short-term band-aids. Yes it has been welcomed by many but that is because Kiwis generally have a sense that we have an obligation to look after those who are unable to help themselves. To think that the Government is forcing people solo parents in particular to find part-time jobs—show me flexible employers that are willing to work with and support those young solo parents. Show me them in our community. There are some but members opposite are expecting every one of those beneficiaries to get into jobs that will not be there without a comprehensive plan to ensure that they get those jobs.I have heard speakers here say that the Government is raising incomes. That is a crock and that is the softest way I can say that. Flexible industrial laws fire-at-will industrial laws and eliminating good faith bargaining are all the signs of driving wages down and keeping them low. That is the Government’s mantra.The housing sell-off—Pacific people want to own their own homes. They do not want to be renting for the rest of their lives but it is becoming impossible under this Government. The selling-off of State houses which we rushed through this House on Friday and Saturday is not a plan to make housing affordable. How on earth does the Government intend to create more houses if it is selling off State houses? Pushing people into the lines of social housing is not a plan to ensure that people have some dignity and are able to achieve sustainability and respect for themselves. But that is what the Government intends to do. Its plan is to keep the money in the hands of the few and ensure that the rest of the New Zealand population continues to wallow in the poverty the inequalities that the Government has created the mess that it has created because it has failed over and over again to achieve that surplus which is a sign of efficient Government. It is not an efficient Government. It does not matter what Government members say; it is not.