Lees-Galloway Iain: Budget Debate 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Budget Debate 
[Volume:663;Page:11335] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 I am not convinced that the National Party has fully come to grips with the fact that it is in Government. After listening to the speakers from the Government benches this afternoon one would think they were still in Opposition. They do not have the ability to talk about the Budget which we are supposed to be debating this afternoon. Mr Joyce has just spent 6 or 7 minutes of his speech talking about the previous Labour Government. He tried to create a mythology as to what the Labour Party is all about. He could not tell us what the National Party believes in or what it has in the way of a plan for New Zealand because there is no plan. Instead he spent the bulk of his speech talking about the Labour Party and what it did when it was in Government before 2008. 
Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: Was he right? Yes. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: Jonathan Coleman lowered himself to personal abuse in his speech. He looked along the ranks of the Opposition benches to see who was here and thought that he would have a crack. For most of his speech he talked about Phil Goff. Then he had a go at my colleague Grant Robertson. Then he had a go at me. He reckoned that I did not have a chance of winning my electorate. I can tell the House that my first decision for the campaign at the next election will be to make sure that I do not employ Jonathan Coleman as my campaign manager. I will not have “The Maestro” in charge of my campaign—that is for sure. Melissa Lee tried that and look where it got her. 
Then we heard from Colin King. To be honest I do not think any of us was quite sure what Colin King was on about because he put us all to sleep. Paul Quinn did his best to stay awake and to look enthusiastic. A couple of things caught my attention when Colin King was talking. He went on about what a wonderful thing this Government was doing for research and development. It is part of the big swindle that this Budget is about. In the last Budget the Government took away the Fast Forward Fund and everything that Labour was doing in that regard. Then a year later it said that we could have maybe half of it back. That was the National Government’s big investment in research and development. The only other thing in Colin King’s speech that caught my attention was the great New Zealand sheep revolution. There is a great movie called  
Black Sheep 
 which is about genetically engineered sheep that try to take over the farm and turn into “weresheep”. That was the vision I had of the great sheep revolution rising up against this Government. 
It is no surprise whatsoever that this Government does not want to talk about this Budget because this Budget of broken promises whacks just about everybody in New Zealand. It whacks low-income earners it whacks Maori and it whacks the unemployed. It absolutely wallops most people in this country. The biggest swindle in this Budget is that the people who are getting absolutely thumped are middle-income hard-working New Zealand families. This Government is trying to tell them that they will get something fantastic out of the miserly tax cuts they will receive. It has given a little with one hand but it takes so much more away with the other. It is fine for the few who are wealthy who are doing fine and who are getting by OK because they get to feast at the tax cut table. They get the bulk of the tax cuts. 
Simon Bridges 
: And what will you do with your tax cut? 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: The member asks what I will get in the way of tax cuts. It will be the same as the members gets. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: No no he gets more than you do. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: Does he get more? OK. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: It’s private income. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: Yes of course. The thing is that the member would agree that he was doing just fine before the Budget and he will be doing a whole lot better after it courtesy of what this Government is doing. It gives with one hand and it takes away with the other. 
It is fine for those who are feasting at the table but all the people who could really do with a tax cut—the battlers the workers and the families—get to do is gather the crumbs from underneath Bill English’s seat. The truth is that the Government does not want most hard-working families to have even the scraps. That is the truth. What has the Government done? It has increased GST so that it can take some of that back. GST applies to everybody. Everybody will have to pay more GST but if some people already have a lamb dinner in front of them and somebody plonked down a roast chicken those people would not be too concerned if Bill English came along and nicked off with a leg or wing. That is not so much of a problem. On the other hand if all they get is the crumbs if all they get is a couple of peas off Gerry Brownlee’s plate and somebody comes along and takes those peas away— 
Grant Robertson 
: Gerry probably wouldn’t drop much. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: That is true. If all they get is the crumbs and that is taken away it is a really big deal. That is what the Government is doing to working families. It is giving with one hand and taking away far more with the other. 
The Government tells people to not be jealous if they feel that it does not seem quite right that those who are already well-off get much more. It is not just GST increases that will obliterate the miserly tax cuts that hard-working Kiwis will receive. High inflation high mortgage rates increased rents and hikes in accident compensation levies will each take a little bit more out of the back pocket each week. Kiwi families will find they are far worse off as a result of this Budget. When we take all of that into consideration it quickly becomes obvious just how much of a swindle this Budget is. Heaven forbid that people would be foolish enough to have children! Kiwi families who have children particularly young children will see that tax cut whipped away in one go. Families who have children in early childhood education will see the entire tax cut pretty much whipped away. 
It is another one of the Government’s broken promises. It said it would not fiddle with the 20 free hours early childhood education scheme but it has cut over $250 million worth. That will result in higher costs for working families with young children. Depending on what types of services their kids are in—an education centre kindy or kohanga reo—the increased cost will vary but they are looking at $23 to $31 a week. That is the whole tax cut wiped out in one go. Never mind inflation GST and everything else that will be added on. That is it; it is all gone in one go. From the Government’s point of view this is about quantity and not quality. It wants to diminish the quality of early childhood education. It is dumbing down our children and dumbing down their opportunities in the future. I tell members that that is not good enough for my kids and it is not good enough for anybody else’s kids either. 
This is not happening just in education but also in health. People in my electorate are asking me what on earth is going on in the health sector. Tony Ryall stood up the other day and told the House that the health budget is larger than it has ever been. He said there is more money in health than ever. Yet in my electorate the district health board is looking at cutting district nursing services particularly those that provide palliative care to people who want to die with dignity in their own homes. Those services are being cut. It is looking at cutting sexual health services and diabetes services. The public health services are going to be cut. Rehabilitation services will be cut. 
I get emails and letters every day and at my last count before I came down to the House I had a dozen today from concerned constituents asking what on earth this Government is doing to our health sector. They ask what is going on in their hospital. What really is going on? Cuts in services are going on. When we bury down and look at the supposed increases in funding that this Government is giving us we see that it has increased health’s budget a bit but it needed to increase health’s budget by 5 percent just to stand still. Before 2008 the Labour Government made sure the increases were enough to cover at the very least the current services if not increase them. This Government has given at best a 3.5 percent increase. That is not enough for the health sector to stand still and that is why this Budget will deliver cuts to front-line services. That is another broken promise from National. 
This Budget is quite simply an unfair swindle that hammers hard-working Kiwi families in the back pocket then tries to pull the wool over their eyes and tell them they will be better off. I tell the Government that the people are wise to what it is doing. People are figuring out what this Government is doing and that will burn this Government in the long run.