Gilmore Aaron: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
Gilmore Aaron: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
[Volume:661;Page:9567] 
AARON GILMORE (National) 
: 
 Today is St Patrick’s Day. No one has mentioned that so I would like to pass on a blessing that was passed down to my family: “May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow and may trouble avoid you wherever you go.” That is probably a good adage for the Labour Party today. 
Phil Goff was the first Opposition speaker today but he did not talk about the economy or about the Budget Policy Statement and he would not let David Cunliffe speak first on the Budget Policy Statement. What does that tell members? Annette King was worried about tax cuts migration and wage gaps. Russel Norman talked about peak oil again. Sir Roger Douglas talked about the need for 29 percent Government spending to GDP and I will get to all of this in a minute. David Cunliffe was so frustrated with Steven Joyce all he could do was call him names. He fixated on Steven Joyce’s hand on the brake. David Parker spoke about how he believed this Government has done nothing and current account deficits have skyrocketed. All I can say is that dreams are free. 
This Government outlined through the Prime Minister’s statement and the Budget Policy Statement six key pillars for the future of our country. National will reduce red tape improve infrastructure change tax bring in some innovation and improve trade improve the skills in our country and achieve some public sector productivity. What are we even doing so far to get there? Let us talk about a few of these things. National set up a whole bunch of task forces but I must give some credit to Labour for the first one. Labour set up the Capital Market Development Taskforce during its time in Government. Good on Labour! It was a good piece of work to initiate but National finished it. The task force has pointed out a bunch of changes to our capital markets. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: You did nothing. 
AARON GILMORE 
: Well we will see. What else came out? National set up the Tax Working Group. The Tax Working Group came out with many changes to suggest our tax system is broken—76 percent of our tax is paid by 10 percent of New Zealanders and that cannot continue. What will happen? Good young people will jump on planes and go overseas. That is what happened under the previous Labour Government when it was in power. Thousands of young people left this country and did not come home. What has happened in the last 6 to 12 months? Twenty-two thousand more people have come home from overseas. They believe in a National-led Government and in John Key as Prime Minister. That is the signal that shows the changes that people believe in. 
We have seen reform and changes as announced as part of the Budget Policy Statement put into action in a large number of other areas. There are major changes to the management of the Crown balance sheet accident compensation KiwiRail and student loans which were all an absolute mess and needed some changes. We have outlined a series of areas for change to bring those things back under control. In relation to KiwiRail essentially we paid $1 billion for a trainset. The only one who was happy about that was a gentleman in Australia who made headlines about it. We are trying hard to fix those things and to fix accident compensation. We inherited billions of dollars worth of problems around that. 
Last week we had the pleasure of hearing some further announcements of changes to science and innovation particularly in the Crown research institute sector. We need to increase and lengthen the contracts that exist and give Crown research institutes a bit more flexibility in some arrangements. I think that is a wonderful thing. Last week the Prime Minister announced that the world-leading players in our science sector would receive over $1 million from the Government. I have spent a bit of time with those people and talked particularly about the development of superconductors. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: You taught them most of what they know! 
AARON GILMORE 
: Not exactly but in Mr Mallard’s electorate this has been a wonderful development for the good people of Industrial Research Ltd and I thank them for that. We have announced some major changes to the electricity sector to stop the 87 percent price rise that occurred in the last 9 years under a Labour Government. 
What is the problem with Labour? Its members are suffering from what I believe my good colleague Tony Ryall called “relevance deprivation syndrome”. They do not want to talk about the Budget. They do not want to talk about the future of New Zealand. They want to nitpick about little details and argue amongst themselves. The three triplets were sitting here but I notice they have all gone. The three triplets of Labour Party doom were all sitting there worrying about the leadership ambitions of the Labour Party and worrying about nitpicking issues of bus trips and naughty kids. Yesterday a leading Labour backbench member criticised the behaviour of children on planes. That is all those members can talk about—children on planes. They are not worrying about real family issues. They are not worrying about the important things that matter to New Zealanders. That is why when members go out and talk to the people—not go on a bus trip with five mates—they will hear members say they care about what matters in people’s homes and to individuals. They care about the economy they care about their future and they care about their families. 
We heard that Labour members are worried about jobs and things like that. I will give members an example of what occurred recently in Christchurch. Under Labour aquaculture was stuck in a rut. There was 9 years of doing nothing at all; nothing was going to get approved. In recent months approval has been given for an offshore mussel farm—the first ever in New Zealand’s history—in Pegasus Bay. That farm will create 200 jobs and $60 million a year worth of exports to New Zealand. Labour sat there for 9 years because it did not want to do anything. This development will create 200 more jobs that those members did not care about because they did not want to do anything. That is another example of what Labour did. 
National has announced some big changes in welfare reform as part of the Budget Policy Statement and I will touch on one in particular. We have this great policy called Community Max. Some wonderful things and projects have happened in my part of town but Labour members were running around and criticising Community Max as a waste of time and a wasted effort. Well I would love to see whether the member for Rimutaka Chris Hipkins actually thinks that. I quote from this article where he said that anything that gives people a second chance at education is a wonderful investment. He went to a camp last week on Community Max to learn about people’s achievements and he said what a wonderful thing that was. That was from a member of the party that has been running around criticising our policy openly in this House but at home in his community he thinks that Community Max is a wonderful thing because it works. It works and we have seen Mr Hipkins turn round and prove it. 
The Government is worried about jobs and unemployment but the key thing is getting the private sector to invest and create jobs. They are good companies like Holcim Cement based in Christchurch. It is looking at spending over $550 million on a new cement plant down in Oamaru in my colleague Jacqui Dean’s electorate. Under the previous Labour Government that company would not have done that. It was going to shut up shop and leave the country. Well I can tell members that I spent some days with people from Holcim Cement during the adjournment. I am pleased to say that they are very keen to invest in New Zealand under a National Government because they like our six pillars. They like the fact that we are happy to invest in infrastructure. They like the fact that we will reform the tax system and bring in some more innovation. They like the fact that we are happy to invest in public sector productivity. They love the fact that we will invest in national standards that will bring in a more skilled workforce for our country. Those are the things that really matter to mum and dad out there in the community. They are not worried about nitpicking about where kids sit on a plane or about who will be the next leader of the Labour Party. I will touch on another aspect that I think— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: It’s a great Facebook group. 
AARON GILMORE 
: I will leave my long-suffering colleagues over there in Labour alone. The Green member Russel Norman said that he was worried about oil. Well I am pleased to say that in the last few years oil has become one of the leading exports in New Zealand. I think that is a wonderful thing. Long may the oil price continue while we continue to pump out 50000 to 60000 barrels a day from the new oilfields. In our party we believe that one of the great things to get our economy growing is selling the stuff that comes from underground to our good friends in China and India who are very happy to buy it because over there— 
Grant Robertson 
: Things under the ground in the national parks? 
AARON GILMORE 
: We see the Opposition members run around and hear them talk about mining in national parks. Well it was that party in Government that approved one of the most successful operations in Pike River Coal on the West Coast of the South Island. There is a word to describe that but I will not talk about what it is. 
Our wealth of natural resources has the ability to create a massive number of jobs. I know particularly that in the oil sector alone we have the ability to triple our exports and create thousands of jobs up and down the country both in the South Island and in the North Island. Right now companies are drilling for oil up and down our coasts and it is a wonderful situation. 
I will sum up by talking about what we have heard about this Budget Policy Statement being another plank and a wonderful step in creating a brighter future for New Zealand led by our wonderful Prime Minister John Key. It is so good that the public of New Zealand has endorsed it through giving us our continued high poll ratings and by their lack of support for Labour. Those members over there cannot even get to see more people on their bus tour than the number of their own MPs whom they have wandering around the country. Long may that situation continue because I look forward to spending many years on this side of the House hearing members on the other side of the House whinge and moan. Thank you.