Brownlee Gerry: Budget Debate 
Brownlee Gerry: Budget Debate 
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GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 What a terrible disappointment this Budget must be to all those Labour back-benchers charged with the job of trying to sell it to their constituents. What a terrible slap in the face this Budget is to working New Zealanders. Four out of five families in this Budget have had the boot put into them by this Government. The so-called family support package which effects only one family in four is an absolute disgrace. We have had our finance spokesperson John Key do some in-depth analysis of what this package means and we cannot believe that the Government could have been so foolish as to allow it to progress. 
Let us take a household where there are two parents or two earners. One earns $50000 a year—a reasonably chunky salary—and the other works for just a few hours a week earning $10000 for the year. The effect of this package is that the family that is going the extra distance and finding the childcare to be able to get out and earn that extra $10000 will only increase its household income by $2850 for the year. 
Simon Power 
: That’s hopeless! Why bother? 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: One has to ask oneself the question whether that part-time work is worth it. The fact is that even if it was a job that paid $10 an hour—a very modest hourly rate in today’s world—the effect of this package would be to reduce the pay for each of those hours worked to just $2.60. The question is why anybody would go to the effort of working 20 hours a week and trying to get an extra $10000 into the family’s budget to find out that the Government’s package structure means that each of those hours is worth only $2.60. So much for the Labour Government and its cries about the minimum wage in this country when it is able to bring in a family support package that puts a worker in part-time work under this regime earning about a third of the current minimum wage. 
That is totally unacceptable and it is one of the reasons why as New Zealanders take a closer look at this Budget they will begin to sense this—not only in their pocketbooks—and emotionally disconnect from the current Government. It is not possible to go out and tell New Zealanders that they are better off with Labour when they find on a weekly basis that they are being treated like this. Why would anybody want to better themselves or improve their responsibility levels in a job to get a bit of extra salary when the rewards will be eaten away by the current Government? 
Even in a family where the gross income is $38000 a year—and that is the new benchmark for wealth in this country; families earning $38000 a year and above are considered by the current Government to be rich. Adding in all the extra bits that the Government might like to give that family would take its income up to $42860 a year. Compare that with someone who has made a bigger effort to get better qualifications to move up the job scale to take on extra responsibility and is earning $60000 a year. That family’s gross income will be $45236—in other words only $2376 a year more than the family that has a household income of some $22000 gross less. 
People may get bamboozled by the figures when they are put out like this but when they go to their bank accounts and see the effect of the Government’s package they will not be happy. There is no way that they will buy into Darren Hughes telling them that they are better off with Labour. They will find out very quickly that the problem with Labour is that it does not value work. Labour does not want to respect the dignity of work and does not care that working New Zealanders who are making an effort should receive the rewards they are striving for. It will not happen. 
Over the last three weeks of the adjournment we have got around the countryside to talk to workers in their workplaces and they are horrified when they learn what the package is. If I go to the engineering works in my own electorate where the tradesmen on the floor are currently earning about $70000 a year because they work hard and are well qualified I find that they are very upset when they find that they will not be significantly better off than someone who earns $38000 under this package. 
 In fact the difference between someone earning $38000 a year and someone earning $70000 a year under this package is $2856. Why would someone put him or herself through years and years of extra-qualifying and experience-gaining only to earn $2856 over and above someone who earns $38000 a year? That is not a recipe for a happy workforce and it will see the demise of the Labour Government. What that Government does not seem to understand is that this package is a boot in the aspirational desires of four out of five working families in this country. 
Darren Hughes 
: He’s not very well prepared. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Mr Hughes over there is getting terribly excited and upset by this revelation. He is one of the back-bench members who were dragged up to Mr Maharey and Dr Cullen’s offices and convinced that this was the Budget that would save his seat. Now he is discovering it is the Budget that will confirm his early re-entry into civilian life—if one can put it that way. 
The other aspect of the Government’s difficulties at the moment is the way those members are progressively alienating ordinary New Zealanders. Coming before the House next week is the Civil Union Bill. Why would any Government want to put a bill into the House that it knows at least 20 of its members will not vote for? I say to the Government that it should not try pulling the stunt of making it a conscience vote in the hope that there will be enough votes in the rest of the House to get it over the hurdle. Rather it should make it a party vote and see if it survives. It would simply go down those members know it would go down and they should not underestimate the capacity of the rest of the House to require the Government to show a little bit of fortitude by declaring it a Government vote. 
We are seeing the demise—of my voice actually—but also of the Labour Government before us. This is a Budget that New Zealanders will turn very sour on very quickly. I ask this question: has there ever been a period in New Zealand’s history when there have been such extraordinary commodity prices and apparently magnificent economic growth but such appallingly low growth in salaries and wages? I do not think there has been such a period. At any other time in this country’s history when there have been the same returns from the farm gates salaries and wages have taken a significant leap in the right direction. But this time that has not happened because Labour does not value workers or care for the dignity of work and simply has an ideological bent to make all New Zealanders the same. This Government will be rejected for that.