Brownlee Gerry: Budget Debate 
Brownlee Gerry: Budget Debate 
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GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) 
: 
 Well that was an interesting speech from the leader of the Progressive Party who spoke on behalf of the Progressives. The reality is of course that he is the only Progressive member here. I just want to consider his record in the last 9 years. Interest rates have doubled house prices have doubled food prices have more than doubled; Government revenue has more than doubled Government spending has more than doubled household costs across the board have more than doubled and fuel prices have gone through the roof astronomically. The one thing that has not risen in the last 9 years at the same level of costs for New Zealanders is income. Indisputably that is the case. Almost every other cost faced by households in New Zealand that anyone might like to look at has doubled or more but incomes have not. 
What really irritates me is that Jim Anderton comes in here crying crocodile tears for people whom he talks about as being on the average wage and below. Well there will always be an average wage as Madam Assistant Speaker the Hon Marian Hobbs would know from her past in education. There will always be an average. The question is where that average is set. How adequate for living is that average? The problem the current Government has is that that average is no longer adequate. That average has not kept pace with other costs that New Zealanders have to face. That is why there is anger out in the community at the failure of this Government to understand and listen to what New Zealanders need. 
We will go into an election later this year. At that time there will be an intense discussion about the future of this country. Labour members will not look back in 5 months’ time as Mr Anderton said to the Budget of last week because it will seem quite embarrassing to them. As New Zealanders recognise it all that that Budget said to them was that the future is a block of cheese today and another one in a couple of years’ time. 
There is interesting speculation that anyone might like to get into around the date for the election. Mr Anderton indicated 5 months. I am in possession of a document signed by a Minister that indicates that Cabinet has considered this matter and has set a date for the passage of a bill by a particular day prior to the rising of the House. Interestingly the date in the letter is nominated as 6 September which is in fact a Saturday. I thought: “Well that can’t be right.” Then I thought: “Yes that’s what they’ll do.” They have this spare billion dollars in the Budget that is for the election lollipop. Look at all those members over there quietly putting their heads down and wondering whether the benefit will be spread around their particular electorate or in their particular part of the electoral spectrum if they are list members. I think we will see legislation brought into the House over that last week from Tuesday 2 September and rammed through all stages in urgency with the House lifting finally for the year on 6 September making the election date as has been well predicted by many exactly 18 October—a comfortable 6 weeks. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Oh! 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I tell Mr Mallard that I am not surprised given the recent record that the Prime Minister has not told him. But I have to tell my friend that she has clearly told the Hon David Cunliffe because he is telling anybody who wants to know that that is the date that the House will be rising for the year to go into the election. 
 As we get closer to the election there will be of course a lot more intense speculation about policy and the future of New Zealand—there is no question about that. But what New Zealanders are telling us and what by implication they are telling Labour is that they are sick of Government waste. They are sick of being told that a block of cheese today and another one in 2 years’ time is as good as it gets. They are sick of being told that they cannot have quality infrastructure that one sees in any other Western country. They are sick of being told that it is OK for 79000 New Zealanders to walk out of this country every year because we are replacing them with people from other parts of the world. They are sick to death of finding out that there are shortages of doctors and teachers and that there is an inadequacy of core Government services throughout the communities up and down the country. 
If people needed to know whether the current Government is out of touch they would only have had to watch the exchange this afternoon between my colleague Phil Heatley and the Minister for Housing Maryan Street. I cannot believe that a Minister of the Crown in a Labour Government that claims to be on the side of the depressed and the downtrodden can say that a $250-a-night luxury conference at Tongariro was quite acceptable and that it was quite acceptable to spend $250 a night for each of the 94 people who went to that conference. It would also seem from the figures she gave today that in 2 days they consumed $23000 worth of food and alcohol. That is what it looks like from the figures that Maryan Street confirmed in the House today. That is quite outrageous. 
The worst of it was that she then turned around and said that the figure represented a value of only a 1.5c cut in taxes. Well we did a little bit of maths over here and worked out that if the total cost is $65000 and that could be accumulated from just 1.5c of each taxpayer’s tax liability then we would have an incredibly small tax base. Perhaps that gives an indication of why the Labour caucus has not challenged Dr Cullen about what is possible at the present time in regard to tax relief for New Zealanders. Quite clearly he has led them up the garden path when they revert to rather silly stories like that. 
You know the Minister tried to justify this conference at the luxury Tongariro Lodge by arguing that the people attending had to be there to discuss strategies aimed at the better delivery of Housing New Zealand Corporation services. When an agency has a waiting list as long as Housing New Zealand Corporation has then there is absolutely no need to discuss strategies for delivery; there is simply a need to come up with policies that will put people in better housing. 
The Minister also went on to say that these are the people who will deliver retrofits and insulation to thousands of State houses over the next few years. Anyone would expect that a portfolio like that is going to get retrofitted. Some of it is 60 and 70 years old so naturally it is going to be retrofitted. One would expect that in this day and age when the country is facing energy shortages and everything else insulation would be going into these houses. So I ask whether those people were taking DIY courses. Were they taking a DIY course on how to fit insulation and how to retrofit houses? If we ended up with 94000 tradesmen out of this then the $65000 would be a pretty good investment. But everyone knows that that is not the case. They were there as they said in their own brochure for the fine dining the log fire and the gentle discussions in the evening about the activities of the day. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: What about the team building exercises? 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: There will be more to come on that. I spoke at the start about the reasons why this Government is out of touch and I will state them again. Interest rates have doubled on the Government’s watch. Food prices have more than doubled under the Government’s watch. House prices have more than doubled under the Government’s watch. Rents have more than doubled under the Government’s watch. The Government revenue take has more than doubled under the Government’s watch. Other costs like fuel and electricity which are faced by households in this country have more than doubled under the Government’s watch. 
The one thing indisputably that has not doubled in the last 9 years is the incomes of New Zealanders. As I said before that is why New Zealanders are angry it is why they have had enough and it is why they are asking whether this Government is seriously telling them that this Budget is supposed to be about the future when all it talks about is the little that New Zealanders are able to expect. Where are the expansionist policies that we might expect as we go into the year 2009? I look forward to 6 September when as David Cunliffe has announced the House will rise and the election will be quite predictably on 18 October this year. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker.