Duncan Helen: Budget Debate 
Duncan Helen: Budget Debate 
[Volume:626;Page:21069] 
HELEN DUNCAN (Labour) 
: 
 This Budget is from a Labour-led Government and this Budget is about Labour values. It is about maintaining a strong and credible fiscal stance. It is about being fair and inclusive. It is about helping Kiwis to build a stake in their country and it is about building the conditions for growth. This Budget is about securing our future for the nation as a whole and for New Zealand families and New Zealanders individually. We are focused on improving the long-term economic and social health of all New Zealanders and our careful financial management to date means that we can continue to invest in the important areas of health education and social services. This is our sixth Budget and it builds on the strong fiscal position that we have created. 
Budget 2005 commits additional resources to health which will total over $1.09 billion by 2008-09. That is a fantastic amount of money. We have never spent so much money on health in New Zealand before and a good part of that reflects meeting in full the cost of maintaining real population-adjusted spending in the health and disability sector. That is beginning to show in the fact that good primary health care means that tertiary health care costs can then come down. 
We are increasing our investment in early childhood education. Everyone who cares about education knows how important that sector is. It sets the tone for everything that follows. Our investment in early childhood education will increase by $152 million over 4 years. That is a staggering amount of money and we will continue to deliver on our commitment to make early childhood education more affordable more accessible and of the highest possible quality for all New Zealand families. Our commitment too to provide more and better-paid teachers in our schools continues and there is a total investment of $1.43 billion since Budget 2004. That is a lot of extra money that is going into education and it is being felt in our schools where the number of staff over and above those needed for roll growth just continues to grow. 
We have also put in place what I think is a wonderful new initiative to help New Zealanders to save and build a stake in their country. The new KiwiSaver scheme will come into operation on 1 April 2007 and it will be linked to a new scheme to assist modest to middle income families with the deposit for a first home. There will be encouragement for all New Zealanders to become involved in the KiwiSaver scheme. Those who have saved for a minimum of 3 years will then qualify for an additional subsidy of $1000 a year up to a maximum of 5 years at the time of the purchase of their first new home. Let us just think about it. We may be able to get homeownership levels back to what they were when we had a Labour Government before. That is what we really need. We need to have New Zealanders owning their own homes and feeling that they have a stake in the future of their country. If a couple are both KiwiSavers they will get $10000 towards a deposit for their first home and that has to be good. 
We are working to make the tax system simpler for small and medium businesses. The tax compliance system is getting easier. I have a son who runs his own business. He started off by employing two people and he now employs six. He thinks that the things we have done towards tax compliance for small business are just wonderful. 
Dail Jones 
: Name one. 
HELEN DUNCAN 
: Depreciation rates. The forms are so much easier to fill out now. There are fewer and fewer forms and compliance costs have gone down and down. 
This is a good Budget and it will be good for all New Zealanders.