Brown Peter: Budget Debate 
Brown Peter: Budget Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3411] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 The “National Front of Australia” is sitting over there. I have heard speech after speech in this Budget debate from National Party members telling us how marvellous Australia is. I invite National Party members—if they think it is so marvellous—to go there. 
Hon Member 
: Where did you come from anyway? 
PETER BROWN 
: I think the member is touching on my background. I tell the honourable member that I am a New Zealander by choice. I came here and I was picked. I was not inflicted on this country like the member over there. 
Darren Hughes 
: An accident of nature. 
PETER BROWN 
: The member says it was an accident of nature. I say it was a disaster. 
I was so intrigued by the National Party members’ assertions about tax levels in Australia and how they compare with New Zealand’s that I did some research and checked the figures. I will not bore the House with the figures—because there is quite a number of them—but is fair to say that lower to middle income people earn more in Australia when tax levels are taken into account. But that is more than compensated for by the New Zealand Government’s Working for Families legislation which New Zealand First is delighted to support. Having said that I do not want to leave members over there in any doubt whatsoever that we have a few reservations. The legislation might be a little too generous at the top end but it does serve a very very important need by helping hard-working families get a start in life and we applaud the Government for that. 
In terms of Australia and higher pay if one looks at the tax levels one can see that higher-paid people are better off in New Zealand. But if one compares apples with apples—and members over there know what an apple is—that is if one compares Australian wage rates with those in New Zealand one can see that Australian wages are significantly higher than those in New Zealand. 
Darren Hughes 
: Why is that? 
PETER BROWN 
: That is a good question; it is one I ask myself. It is because legislation was brought into this House in the 1990s and passed. That legislation was the Employment Contracts Act. That legislation drove down wages. I do not know a country in the Western World where wages actually went down. 
David Bennett 
: Did you vote for it? 
PETER BROWN 
: No I did not vote for it. I was not in the House but when I came here I did my level best to get the Minister of Labour at that time Max Bradford to modify the legislation. Had he modified it National would probably be in a stronger political position than it is right now. New Zealand First never voted for the Employment Contracts Act. 
On top of that legislation that drove down wages National opened the door to unlimited uncontrolled immigration. It let anybody come in to New Zealand to compete for jobs at the lower levels. 
Anne Tolley 
: Show us the evidence. 
PETER BROWN 
: If National members do not believe me they should go and check the figures themselves. It is something they should be totally ashamed of. I saw that happen in the UK many many years ago and the National Party used the same tactics here. 
New Zealand First is delighted with aspects of this Budget and no more so than with the funding that is going into roading. We are the only political party that has said for many a year—since our inception in 1993—that all the money taken from road users vehicles or whatever should go into roading. I know the Government has not tagged the methodology of what is taken for roading but according to this Budget it is putting in fractionally more than it will take. 
David Bennett 
: National was going to do that. 
PETER BROWN 
: The honourable member tells me that National will do that. Let me tell members what National did in 1995. I am glad the member raised the subject. In 1995 there was a member’s bill entitled the Road Transport Revenues Fund Bill. It was brought to this House by the Rt Hon Winston Peters and the Minister of Transport at the time the Hon Maurice Williamson—the Minister in the National Government—said: “The first thing is there would not be enough roading projects out there to do or enough contractors to do them.” Now Maurice Williamson says we need to put money urgently into roading. But it started in 1995. That is when National could have started to address the roading problems of this country. 
It had a second opportunity. In 1998 the Treasurer the Rt Hon Winston Peters started— 
David Bennett 
: Oh rubbish! 
PETER BROWN 
: The member does not believe me but he can check his facts. The Rt Hon Winston Peters started transferring money from the Crown’s consolidated account into the roading account at the rate of 2.1c per litre per year. Had that process continued a further $2.5 billion would have been in the roading account by now and it would have advanced our roading and public transport at costs current in the 1990s rather than costs in 2006. This year the cost of bitumen is 30 percent higher than in recent times the cost of oil products has gone up and the cost of concrete has gone up. 
National had a second bite at addressing the roading problem in 1998. In 1999 after New Zealand First was dispensed with and put out of the coalition National—[ 
Interruption 
]—oh I can see that the truth hurts—reneged on that. And last year in 2005 when Don Brash announced the National Party’s voting policy at the Automobile Association convention he had the audacity to stand and say that Labour had closed the door on the transfer and had cancelled it. But Labour did not do that. What Don Brash told the Automobile Association was a blatant distortion of the truth. 
David Bennett 
: Oh no! 
PETER BROWN 
: The member was not there; he does not know what he is talking about. I say to those Opposition members that if that money had been continuously transferring across there would still be money in the Crown account that Treasury could have. But let me ask them three questions because I can see they are taking this seriously. If that had occurred would the country be economically better off? That member opposite is screaming for roads in Hamilton. That would have been done a long time ago. Would the country be socially better off? The answer to both those questions is yes. Would there be people alive today who have died on our roads because they are not up to pace? The answer to that too regrettably is yes. Those members should not brag about what they have done for roading or transport in this country. They should be hanging their heads in shame because New Zealand First is the only party that from the very beginning from its inception has said that all the money taken from roading and vehicles should go into roading. At long last the Government has listened to us. 
I do not think anybody wants to take a call after this speech and the members over there are learning quite a lot so I seek leave to continue until the House rises in another 3 or 4 minutes. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Leave is sought to extend the speech by 3 minutes. Is there any objection? There is. 
PETER BROWN 
: Yes and no. They are not united even in that respect. They cannot make up their minds on a simple thing like that. 
New Zealand First has fought hard to get 1000 extra police. We tried it with the previous National Government. When we were in coalition with National we had an agreement for a few more police but it wanted cardboard cut-outs and a computer to address the law and order system in this country. I ask myself time and time again what has happened to the National Party which was once led by such distinguished people as Robert Muldoon Jim Bolger Jim McLay and Don McKinnon.