Adams Amy: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeAdams Amy: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 22 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18266. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon AMY ADAMS (Minister for the Environment): The resounding sense that I am left with in the week after the reading of Bill English’s sixth Budget is the extraordinary contrast that it represents. It represents a contrast between a party and a Government that are first of all united that are effective and that are a team that is 100 percent behind their leader and the Opposition benches. It contrasts a party that is 100 percent focused on the things that actually matter to New Zealanders and to their families with parties that—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member. Can I just advise the House that members who do not have the floor do not have the right to interject on each other while another member is addressing the House. Courtesy is contagious members.Hon AMY ADAMS: As I was saying the Budget contrasts a party and a Government that is 100 percent focused on the things that actually matter to New Zealanders and their families with a party that is content to spend its time focused on trivia on scaremongering and on conspiracy theories. It contrasts that with a country that is back in black after the terrible years of the global financial crisis the terrible economic legacy that we were left by the previous Government and of course the difficulties of the Christchurch and Canterbury earthquakes. It is a country that is back in black after picking up the 2009 Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update in whichTreasury said that thanks to 9 years of Labour we were facing never-ending deficits. Treasury never believed when we took office that New Zealand would ever get back into surplus—ever.Andrew Little: You’re just making it up.Hon AMY ADAMS: Read the pre-election update. Treasury said that we were facing never-ending deficits thanks to the Labour Government and its 9 years of economic mismanagement. But what we have is a country that is back in black and we are back in black in contrast to what we are seeing in Australia. As our Prime Minister has said on many occasions if you want to know what a Labour-Greens Government would do to your economy would do to your population would do to jobs and would do to families it is called Australia which is now facing ballooning Budget deficits and critical slashing of public expenditure. By contrast we are a Government that every year year on year has put more money into education and into health and has seen far better results.This is Bill English’s sixth Budget and did he not do a tremendous job? This Budget is a contrast to the wish list of Labour’s alternative Budget. It is a contrast to the unspecified uncosted waffle that we see from the Opposition. If it had anything serious to offer to New Zealanders by way of contrast it would have told us. But no it would far rather spend its time slinging mud down in the gutter with the rats. You have to wonder when the Opposition parties are going to learn. When are they going to learn that actually the measure of a Government’s success is not how good it is at taking money off New Zealanders and spraying it around? If that was the measure of success if we judged our Governments by how much money they pulled out of the pockets of New Zealanders and threw around then no doubt Labour would be the party we would want. If that is your test of success—who takes the most money out of your pocket and who can spend the most—then you would go to Labour.Andrew Little: Why did you delay the ACC cuts by a year?Hon AMY ADAMS: Actually the reason the polls are telling the story that they are—Mr Little for all your shouting—is because what actually matters is the results you get for New Zealanders. When New Zealanders come and talk to me they do not talk to me about what the non-departmental appropriation in the Police spend is. They ask me: “Are we safe on the streets? Will my kids get a good education? Can I get a new hip or a new knee when I need it? Will my kids get a job?”. Those are the things that they talk to me about. On every single one of those this Government and everyone in it can stand proudly and say “Thanks to 6 years of prudent economic management absolutely your children have a much better chance now of getting a job. Absolutely you have a far better chance of getting a new hip or a new knee if you need it. Absolutely your children are going to be in a much better position of getting the world-leading education that all five out of five of our students deserve. Absolutely you are safer on the streets.” That is what matters to New Zealanders and even in these tough times that is exactly what we have delivered.One of the most important things I think we have done and that you are now really starting to see pay off is setting what we call the Better Public Services targets where for the first time we said to our public sector agencies that what we actually really care about and what we are going to measure you on is whether you are making a difference in the things that matter. We have said to the health sector that what we want to know is whether people are getting elective surgery sooner whether they are getting cancer treatment in New Zealand and whether they are getting breast cancer treatment and rheumatic fever treatment. Are your children getting access to the education that they need are there good reporting standards for parents and are more children getting into early childhood education places? And they are. We have said to the police that we wantto know whether New Zealanders are safer. That is what we are going to judge you on as an agency. They have responded stupendously well. That is actually what matters.Any party that stands up and says “We can do better because we would spend more money.” misses the point entirely. People care about whether we are delivering better results. We can stand here 6 years in and say: “We have absolutely better health absolutely the safest streets for 33 years absolutely better education and absolutely more chance of getting a job.” That is what New Zealanders care about. This year’s Budget now shows a record of more than $15 billion going into our health sector. As Minister Ryall has just said it is not about the number but what it shows you is that we are also getting 40000 more hip knee and other elective surgeries every year. Forty thousand people a year are getting the surgeries that they need but were going to be denied under the Labour-Greens Opposition.I want to talk for a minute about Canterbury the area that I am from. I want to reflect on the fact that Gerry Brownlee is doing a tremendous job in what has to be one of the hardest portfolios in our Government. For a period of time I was lucky enough to act as his associate. I have now passed that responsibility to Nicky Wagner and I know she will do a tremendous job. But let us look at Canterbury. This Budget puts another $50 million into helping the Canterbury recovery. That takes our total to $15.4 billion of support for Cantabrians. We are standing behind our second-largest city. We promised we would and we are. I want to take a moment to look at some of the statistics out of Canterbury. As of now we are looking at 53500 houses fully completed under the Earthquake Commission programme. Another 47000 emergency repairs have been completed. We are currently seeing 90 homes a day completed under the Earthquake Commission programme—90 homes a day. In fact the Government is spending $9 million every day on rebuild receipts in Canterbury—$9 million a day.Let me talk for a moment about the environment because this Budget continues this Government’s real commitment to making sure we actually get results in the environment—not talk not rhetoric not running us down in the international media for political points but actual results. This is a Government that is delivering the most rigorous national system of freshwater management the country will ever have seen. We were committed to that from day one of coming into Government and all the way through it has been a core part of our programme. This year’s Budget commits another $20 million of new funding to making sure that that water programme is delivered and supported. If there is one thing that we have learnt through this process it is that you have got to have good information underpinning good community processes if you are going to get good resilient results.What we have seen from other previous Governments that like to talk about the environment was that they talked a big game but did nothing—nada zero. Were there ever any mandatory requirements on councils to lift water quality? Not one. Was there ever a study of what the allocation picture was in New Zealand? Not one. Did they even ask the question of what water was coming out of our water bodies and what contaminants were in them? No of course they did not. They just sat back and said: “That’s a council issue but isn’t it terrible?”. This Government is delivering. It has put another $20 million inin this Budget alone. This is a Government that is going to see real environmental achievements thanks to the support of John Key the National-led team and Bill English’s sixth Budget. We are back in black and that means that New Zealanders have choices and the opportunity to get ahead and that is why they are continuing to support the John Key - led Government.