Ardern Jacinda: Budget Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Jacinda: Budget Debate 
[Sitting date: 30 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2677. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) 
: 
 Is that as good as it gets from the National Government— 
Andrew Williams 
: I seek leave of the House to table a document prepared by the Parliamentary Library  
The Government Operating Balance 2002-12 
 showing the true surpluses and deficits in the last 10-year period which includes 4 years under the National— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! Leave is sought to table this document. Is there any objection? There is objection. 
Andrew Williams 
: Not surprised. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! The member will not comment like that again. 
JACINDA ARDERN 
: Is that still as good as it gets from the National Government’s presumed powerhouse that is Steven Joyce? The best we had from Mr Joyce was a few laminated Durasealed PowerPoint cards of what the Budget has delivered to New Zealanders—some flash cards if you will to remind Mr Joyce of the supposed high points of the Budget that the Government has recently delivered to this nation.  
As we all in this House know a Budget is not just a statement of the Government’s accounts. It is setting out a direction—a plan if you will—as to where this nation is going not just next year but in the years to come. Under those terms this was not just a zero Budget; it exposed to New Zealand and New Zealanders that there is zero plan for New Zealand and therefore zero hope for those who need it. And who needs it? Who needed this Budget the most? Well just today Unicef tabled its scorecard on child poverty and in some respects it simply reminded us of our national shame. Between 170000 and 270000 New Zealand children live in poverty and that is according to international measures much as the Minister would choose to deny those clear statistics. We now rank 20th out of 35 OECD nations when it comes to child poverty. We sit alongside countries like Estonia and Slovakia when it comes to child poverty rates. Those nations too have experienced a recession and economic hard times but those who sit above us in this league table have at least acknowledged that it comes down to priorities and it comes down to leadership with our most vulnerable. This Budget acknowledged neither of those things. In fact for the next generation it has removed their future.  
But this is not the first time that we have experienced this in a Budget. In fact I felt a sense of déjà vu when I sat through the reading of Mr English’s Budget speech. I reflected on the last time that I had this sense of déjà vu. I was sitting in the House last term scanning through Bill English’s Budget speech when I stumbled across a paragraph that stood out more than all the other puffery and that was about superannuation. For me that paragraph was emblematic of the failure of this Government and the whole point of our being here as politicians. Unlike the other side of the House I do not see us as a group of ad hoc board members here to govern New Zealand as part of a career plan. I believe that we are guardians and by definition it is incumbent on us to leave this place better than we found it and that means making hard decisions. On that measure this Government has absolutely failed.  
It has failed the next generation and in what ways? Let us start with its supposed inheritance. Our country currently has a dividend-returning asset base in the form of power and energy companies. That is an asset base that gives us a steady flow of income that we are about to strip away from the next generation which currently owns it. Not only do I find this deeply offensive but I find it deeply personal. I remember the last time that this happened in our nation. I remember the last time that it happened not because I was a mum and dad investor but because I lived in a community that suffered deeply from a Government that forgot why it was there and what guardianship means.  
So now that we are watching the next generation’s inheritance being stripped away what more can it hope for? Social mobility perhaps. There is an idea in New Zealand at least that if you can dream it you can achieve it. After all we pride ourselves on being the country where you can start life in a State house and become a Prime Minister. I am afraid that the very child who achieved that goal in life is now presiding over a Government that is willing to sit idly by while every indicator suggests that the fair and equal New Zealand that he grew up in no longer exists. This Budget did absolutely nothing to fix that and it did nothing to help our kids.  
When this Budget was introduced one in five kids was living in poverty and nothing will change. Two out of five of the kids living in poverty are in the houses of the working poor and after this Budget nothing will change. Notifications to Child Youth and Family have increased to 150000 a year. We know that when it comes to our most vulnerable kids poverty is the cause of the causes and today nothing will change. Preventable hospitalisations have increased due to cold damp houses. Infectious skin diseases are up because families cannot afford hot water and washing machines and today nothing will change. What about our brilliant education system? Sadly 20 percent of kids in that system are failing and the Government’s response to that was to increase class sizes and make it worse.  
Let us be absolutely clear. This Government might think it is on track to reduce the deficit but that is coming at a cost in ways we have not even seen yet. The Children’s Commissioner puts a number on it. He claims that for every child who has a poor start in life it will come at a cost of $1 million per child later on in life. Unicef has added to that figure and that message today; its report stated that “failure to protect children from the impact of poverty … is one of the most costly mistakes a society can make.” We desperately needed things to change for our kids in this Budget and they will not. Even if the Government wanted to ignore the morality issues around leaving a whole generation behind there are of course the fiscal ones. Our population is ageing. We need an educated healthy thriving set of kids to be taxpayers in the future and they need us to be their guardians and to make the right calls on their behalf.  
So what are those hard calls? Well first there are our incoming bills. The Government has decided that the biggest one that we need to worry about happens to be tertiary education. Rather than seeing education as an investment a public good its policy will narrow the eligibility of young people for allowances. I know of a current graduate studying to be an educational psychologist to work with deaf students—an area of serious skills shortage in New Zealand—but she is being left with no choice but to end her studies as a result of the Government’s policy.  
And what reasoning have we seen for this policy change by the Government? It argues it is all about the sustainability of tertiary education. But why is it that if there are sacrifices to be made and questions about sustainability it is young people that it lands on time and time again? If this Government was genuinely interested in issues of sustainability it would look first at superannuation. In 3 years superannuation will cost more than the entire education budget. That includes primary secondary early childhood and tertiary education put together. It will grow to 20 times the cost of unemployment benefits. We need to ask the question of whether the universal age of superannuation is set at the right place. But rather than tackle this big issue for the sake of future generations—future generations who want a secure home a secure retirement and a country with a sound savings plan—the Government has ignored it.  
 This is not just a zero Budget this is a Budget with zero hope and it is also unfair. It has also come at a cost. We cannot burden future generations and not pay for it. That cost is young people lining up at our departure lounges—1000 a week. Everyone in this House will know someone leaving these shores for a job and a better income. Why? Well 52 percent is the increase we have seen in unemployment and that has hit young people heavily. A lot of those are our graduates. They fulfilled their end of the deal. They went out they got educated and they took on debt to do it. The Government’s job was to make sure a job was there when they needed it. On that front the Government is failing.  
At the very least those young people deserved a Budget that produced a plan: one that introduced pro-growth tax reforms so that income is fairly taxed no matter how it is earned; one that tackled the hard issues like superannuation and lack of savings; one that brought back research and development tax incentives to attract more investment into science and innovation; one that brought in new apprenticeships and closed our skills gap; and one that gave a fairer deal to our exporters. But this Budget did not present this plan and it does not present any hope. The result is  
The GC 
.  
This Budget fails our kids. It fails our young people. It is not just that they are being ignored; they are being pushed back and laden down with the cost of this Government’s political expediency. Intergenerational inequity has to stop.