Tremain Chris: Budget Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tremain Chris: Budget Debate 
[Sitting date: 12 June 2012. Volume:680;Page:2823. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CHRIS TREMAIN (Minister of Internal Affairs) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Speaker. It is a pleasure to rise after the Hon Nathan Guy as he finished on discussing the 10 extra deployments and the war disablement pensions that he was able to deliver through this Budget 2012.  
As I start out it is interesting to reflect on what has been happening around the globe in just the week that has been. Spain has applied for a €100 billion bailout of its banking system which could see its public debt rise to over 90 percent of GDP. In that country alone Spain nearly 50 percent of its youth—25-year-olds and under—are unemployed unable to find jobs and without a future ahead of them. So to be able to stand here today in the context of what is happening in Spain Italy Greece Portugal—in fact Ireland and the UK as well—and debate this Budget which Bill English has put forward is a wonderful opportunity.  
Let us put it in context in regard to those other countries. This Budget will keep Crown debt below 30 percent of GDP—30 percent. It is about 23 percent now at its maximum rising to 28 to 30 percent of GDP. That is a wonderful position to be in as a country particularly compared with those European nations. Our long-term objective by 2020 is to get that debt back down to 20 percent of GDP. We have set an objective of getting back to surplus in the 2014-15 year and I am confident that that will happen especially on the back of the fact that just last week Minister English announced that this year’s Budget deficit is over $1 billion less than we had forecast. This was for two key reasons—important reasons: firstly increased revenue of about $700 million but also importantly $300 million additional savings over and above what we forecast. That is a fantastic situation to be in.  
On top of that we see an announcement by Minister Paula Bennett saying that there are 20000 additional jobs and that the unemployment benefit numbers right now—today in the middle of very difficult times—are the lowest they have been since 2009. On any basis this is a great space to be in.  
In thinking about this Budget I am calling it the “hard yards Budget”. It is where this Government is doing the hard yards to get us through and back to surplus back to a position where our debt is starting to come back. It is a bit like the forwards in a rugby pack. This Budget is a props hookers and locks Budget where they pick up the ball from the back take just an extra yard and get closer to that finishing line. This is not a wingers Budget or a full backs Budget.  
Paul Goldsmith 
: No show ponies.  
Hon CHRIS TREMAIN 
: This is not a show ponies Budget. This is a hard yards Budget that will return this country back to surplus bringing our debt down. I think that is important.  
Over and above all that what we are seeing throughout the public sector is a revolution taking place. A quiet revolution is occurring. I want to thank public servants around the country for the job that they are doing to assist us in bringing this country back into surplus. But that is happening not only in the Public Service but in NGOs throughout the nation. In that regard I wanted to focus on a couple of initiatives in my own electorate back in Napier. One is around the Napier Kindergarten Association and an issue that came to the table a couple of Budgets ago. We introduced a policy that was not popular at that point in time where we capped the spend on teachers to an 80 percent level of qualified teachers at early childhood education centres. Rightly so at the time the industry was up in arms about that and was concerned about that. I attended an AGM where the association was very concerned about that funding and what it would do to it.  
But today I want to talk about the association’s AGM this year and what it has actually done. A year on from that despite all the dramas that were predicted and all the issues that it thought might come into play these are its profit and loss figures: in 2010 it was fortunate to make a $320000 profit. Given all the concerns that were posed about the drop in funding one would have thought that things would get a little bit more difficult. Well the 2011 financial accounts show a $339000 profit. So I want to congratulate that association on the wonderful job that it has done in very difficult times.  
But here is the interesting point. This is how it achieved that result. I am going to read from its financial manager’s report. It says: “It’s important to note that in taking on and dealing with these issues we are going to do a number of things. Strategies we employed to minimise the impact of the funding cuts included introducing Friday afternoon sessions being open for the maximum number of days available to us diversifying a couple of the kindergartens to all-day licences and”—here is the real kicker—“being prudent with expenditure renegotiating service costs where possible.” My goodness! Is that not terrible! These guys are to be congratulated because what they have done is given the difficult times we are in they have risen to the mark and have delivered. They have delivered the same if not better services with less money. That is something to be congratulated on and I am proud that my kindergarten association has risen to the plate in that regard and delivered these amazing savings.  
Outside of that I want to talk about the ministries that I am proud to be now associated with as Minister and the efforts they are making in that evolutionary process to deliver better services to the public and with less money. I start with tourism where Kevin Bowler at Tourism New Zealand Liz MacPherson at the Ministry of Economic Development and their teams are doing a magnificent job. They have refocused the strategy to continue to drive additional tourists to our nation while the segments around the world—as Europe backs off China rises Asia rises. They are refocusing their strategy reinforcing the “100% Pure New Zealand” brand which is superb. But importantly here is what they have really done which is exciting. They have raised an additional $25 million from the private sector for partnership funding—$25 million. They are using that money to support the promotion of New Zealand and to increase tourism opportunities here in New Zealand. That is fantastic.  
The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management is ably led by John Hamilton and he is doing a wonderful job there. It has delivered a 6 percent efficiency gain to the Government and that will help us to drive this Budget—this hard yards Budget that I was previously talking about. But while doing that the ministry is still delivering superb services. It is focusing on lifting the capability of our 16 regions. Through that I just want to thank those regions that have had to deal with severe weather events since I have been the Minister of Civil Defence particularly Nelson Taranaki and Northland.  
My larger ministry which is the Department of Internal Affairs is a wonderful ministry. It really is the heart and soul of New Zealand. It deals with citizenship on the one side through to censorship on the other. And those guys in the censorship compliance unit as I said when I stood and took a question in the House recently did a wonderful job in bringing those 55 people to task and saving those 12 children. These guys work in a tough environment and are doing a great job.  
One of the wonderful opportunities we have in the Department of Internal Affairs is to deliver on result area No. 10. It is one of the 10 results that the Prime Minister has put his hand on the table and said that we will be held accountable for doing these things such as lifting the level of early childhood education to 98 percent of children and getting National Certificate of Educational Achievement pass rates from around 68 percent where they are now to 85 percent. But result area No. 10 is where I have some responsibility. That is about giving New Zealanders the opportunity to have a much stronger digital interface with the Government and making it easier for them to work with the Government in a digital environment. We have a range of projects that I am proud to see the department delivering on in that regard allowing citizens to have a stronger relationship with the Government. There are a couple that I have announced just recently that will see huge savings. Last week alone we confirmed an IBM contract that will see significant savings in the order of $250 million over a 10-year period. There are huge savings with the one.govt network which will see $400 million to $600 million in savings. I mean this is real money that we can deliver back into education and health and deliver more surgical operations and better education for our kids.  
I am proud of what is happening with this Budget. We are driving revolutionary change and this is an exciting time for New Zealanders. Thank you.