Williams Andrew: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Andrew: General Debate[Sitting date: 15 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:9953. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First): I take a call on behalf of New Zealand First and I ask the question: what do New Zealanders want from the Budget? That is the bigquestion—what do New Zealanders want from the Budget? Tomorrow is a critical Budget and New Zealanders will be watching it with interest.New Zealanders do not want more empty phrases and self-promoting rhetoric. They are sick of that. Their patience is wearing thin. After 4½ years of a National Government they are asking themselves: “OK after 4½ years when are we going to get the brighter future we were promised—when are we going to get the brighter future we were promised?” because they are waiting for it. New Zealanders are waiting for that brighter future. They want to see more than words. They are looking for a Budget that will deliver real improvement in their lives. So what do they want to see?First they want to see a Government that actually has a plan—a Government that has a plan. They do not want to hear comments such as those the Prime Minister made about Wellington when he said that he did not really have any idea what to do to improve Wellington. They do not want to hear words like that. New Zealanders want to know that this Government has a plan. They want to know that this Government is capable and is not just meddling along stumbling along in a piecemeal fashion. They do not want that. They want a plan and they want to know that it is a positive—positive—outlook for the country.But what have they been hearing from this Government in recent times? Basically what they have mainly been hearing about is deals. New Zealanders are getting tired of just hearing about the deals. Typically the deals are corporate deals. They are deals that normally involve foreign interests and foreign interests doing well out of the deals put forward by this Government.Kiwis deserve more than a Government that survives just by doing deals with the likes of Warner Bros China Southern Airlines—allowing visas for high-rolling Chinese gamblers to come to this country—Mighty River Power and the list goes on. Kiwis do not want to see these sorts of deals going on in this country. The Skycity deal is just the latest example of how easily the public interest is traded off in a back-room deal. That deal will create enormous social harm a cost this country will have to bear for the next 35 years.So tomorrow Bill English must present a plan—a real plan with numbers with times and with targets. That plan must address unemployment which is running at unacceptable levels.Simon O’Connor: It’s dropping.ANDREW WILLIAMS: They keep saying that it is down 6.2 percent but out in the provinces in the areas where it is really really affecting everyday New Zealanders such as in Northland—where it is 10 percent on average but for young Northlanders it is significantly higher than that—that is where it is really hurting New Zealanders. It is hurting young Māori and young Pacific Islanders—young people who simply do not have work cannot get work and see no future. They see their only future as being somewhere other than in New Zealand.Right now there are 150000 people who are unemployed. What we do not see is the other similar figure of underemployed people in this country. People who have only 1 hour or more of work a week are classified as having a job. But many of these people would like to work a lot longer a lot more and would like to actually have a decent job but if they have more than 1 hour a week they are not classified as being unemployed. But they certainly are underemployed. In many cases they are on the minimum wage and are not doing particularly well at all.This Budget must deliver jobs particularly for the younger workers. It must deliver on things such as electricity. The Government does assert that the electricity system is efficient but back in the real world Kiwis are struggling with the cost of power bills. The elderly are struggling with the cost of power bills. So in tomorrow’s Budget let ushope this Government does something about the cost of power. Let us also hope that it does something about the fact that there are 40000 fewer manufacturing jobs in this country since this Government came to power—40000 fewer manufacturing jobs. Let us hope it does something about that because we have New Zealanders who are talented and enterprising and we have the climate and the resources in this country. Let us hope that this Government puts something on the table tomorrow with a proper plan and not just cuts cuts cuts and more cuts.