Upston Louise: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeUpston Louise: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 20 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18097. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): It really is a pleasure to rise and speak in the Budget debate today. On just Thursday last week the sixth Budget was delivered by the Minister of Finance the Hon Bill English and judging by not my personal views but the views of the people I represent in theTaupō electorate and actually wider than that across the Waikato the feedback has been absolutely phenomenal. It is really interesting because the word that comes up time and time and time again is very much and very clearly that this is a Budget aimed at families.What have we heard from members on the other side? The speaker immediately preceding me Phil Twyford talked about housing. The Opposition has this myth about housing. I just want to put two statistics on the table. The first is that if you look at the rise in house prices under Labour’s 9 years in office 96 percent was the increase in the average house price. In our term of office it has been 22 percent—that is 96 percent compared with 22 percent. So I am not quite sure why that side of the House goes on and on and on about housing when actually it had many opportunities and did nothing. The other one is interest rates. During our time in office we have seen interest rates at the lowest they have been in 50—50—years. That is one of the biggest costs that contribute to housing.I wanted to start by just refuting some of the comments by the speaker before me but actually I want to focus my attention on the things that matter to New Zealanders. Comments have been coming back to me over the last few days literally in only the few days since the Budget went out there. It is absolutely amazing how many people have come up and commented on how pleased they are—Phil Twyford: Family members don’t count Louise.LOUISE UPSTON: —particularly about the half a million dollars that has gone into families. You know there are a few little cynical barbs coming from across the House. Well actually let us talk about the real issues. At the Women’s Lifestyle Expo in Hamilton which actually used to be a Labour heartland—used to be—Sue Moroney: Still is.LOUISE UPSTON: No no. I have to tell you that the feedback at the Women’s Lifestyle Expo in Hamilton on the weekend was absolutely amazing. People lined up to get information from the National Party MPs who were there and there were many of us there over the weekend and—Sue Moroney: You mean the Young Nats boys?LOUISE UPSTON: Yes Ms Moroney does not like the facts. Some of us were there for hours on end and yes we were listening to the comments of the people of Hamilton in particular of the women of the Waikato. I can tell you that the thing they talked about more than any other issue was our announcements about families about the fact that we have got free general practitioner visits and prescriptions for children under 13. I can tell you that when I sit in my electorate office in places like Tokoroa and talk to families and constituents they do not want to have to think twice about whether or not they can afford to take their children to the doctor. And with this Budget we solved that issue for them. We have got a fantastically upgraded medical facility an integrated health centre in Tokoroa. But actually we want them going to general practitioners instead of ending up in hospital with severe issues. Where we have a high incidence of rheumatic fever we want those issues addressed by an early visit to a general practitioner rather than having a parent of a child asking themselves whether they can afford to take their child to the doctor today. So that is the feedback that has come from on the ground which I think we should be enormously pleased with.The other issues that got quite a good airing last week were around our 4 weeks of extra paid parental leave and our extensions to the parental tax credit. The thing we have not talked about a lot so far is the extra support for vulnerable children. Again this side of the House has put an enormous amount of work into trying to solve and deal with the most difficult issues of some of our families. Far from what the other side would accuse us of we are tackling with Minister Paula Bennett the hardest end with some of the most vulnerable families. There is $33.4 million extra going into supporting these vulnerable children with Children’s Teams. We have eight additional teams and they are intensive wrap-around and working with children in a way that no other Government has had the foresight to work really—I was thinking of other words to use and there are words that you are not allowed to use in this House so I will not use them. It is so intensive and these are the teams that are working with the most vulnerable children. So while that side of the House tosses out phrases about children living in poverty this side of the House is actually putting money into that and doing something about it.Sue Moroney: But do they?LOUISE UPSTON: Oh but that side cannot cope with that.Another significant area of investment is of course education. There have been many times when I have spoken in this House about the importance of education so it is fantastic that this year’s Budget again has put more money into education investedmore in education. One of the areas in particular is early childhood education. Again unlike any other Government before us we have actually set targets. We have set Better Public Services targets that we allow the public basically to measure our performance on. If we have a conversation about early childhood education and participation we have said 98 percent of children because that is right. If you talk to any teacher in any classroom particularly those who teach new entrants they will say that the biggest difference in their classrooms is having a higher number of 5 and 6-year-olds who have participated in early childhood education. So if we can get them on to an equal footing at the start then they have got the best opportunity of doing well.Actually there were a couple of people on Sunday afternoon who were early childhood education teachers and of course they were thrilled at this announcement. They were absolutely delighted that this money is going into centres—$155.7 million invested directly into early childhood education centres. So no we do not just set these targets; we look at what is needed to achieve those targets where we need to put the focus and what we need to do to make sure that we are lifting our early childhood education participation rates.I am going to give you another example of where this Government has set a target—where we have allowed ourselves to be measured on something. Then I will look at where the investment in this Budget which is so focused on families backs that up. The example I want to give is the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 and our achievement target of 85 percent. It is fair to say that some of the schools from one end of the electorate ofTaupō to the other have had quite a gap to achieving that level—quite a gap. One school for example in 2003 had 28 percent achieving NCEA level 2. Now it is 93 percent. That is a massive achievement—a massive achievement for its students. It is focused on 100 percent and that is what is doing it.So when you talk to schools around the electorate about the additional $284 million for schools classrooms improvements to school properties and putting more money into home computers for digital literacy for those very same low-income families—and this is actually a decile 2 school I am talking about. I am not even talking about decile 5 6 7 or 8; I am talking about a decile 2 school that has had significant achievement going from 28 percent to 93 percent and yes with a high number of Māori and Pasifika students who are achieving who are doing outstandingly well in their results in Tokoroa. Tokoroa High School is just an absolute standout. It knows that this Government is investing in the things that matter to it and it is focusing on lifting achievement for each and every one of its students. It is getting results. It is having stunning results.Another thing that has not had a lot of attention so far and that really does make a difference to New Zealand families is the investment we are putting into cancer services: an additional $33 million. Only a month ago another of my family members was diagnosed with cancer and I have said “another” very deliberately as I am sure that many members in this House have had direct family members diagnosed with cancer. The thing that you want to know is that your family members are able to be treated quickly and swiftly and first of all that they get the diagnosis and then get the treatment they need. So another $33 million—this side of the House is putting money where New Zealand families want it. Thank you.