Ross Jami-Lee: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoss Jami-Lee: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 30 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10600. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany): This Budget tells us something very critical about this Parliament. It compares the parties that have a vision for New Zealand with the parties opposite which are visionless for New Zealand. I say they are visionless for New Zealand because they oppose everything this Government tries to do to help grow the economy and they oppose everything this Government tries to do to help New Zealanders get back into jobs.This National-led Government is all about getting on with the job. We are all about helping to grow the economy. We are all about helping to cut red tape for New Zealanders and seeing more New Zealanders get back into work. The contrast on the other side and what we have heard throughout this whole debate is a Green-Labour-led option under which New Zealanders would see a recipe for more debt and more inflation in the economy. Those parties would be printing a whole lot more money to really stymie the economy and we would see even more Government intervention in the lives of New Zealanders.The New Zealand public has shown us through a number of opinion polls now that they absolutely approve of this Government’s proposals for the future. They absolutely approve of the Budget that Bill English has put together for New Zealanders. It is a good Budget. It is a good Budget because it shows us on a track back to surplus. It shows us carefully managing the economy.We like to hear from Opposition members because they are often deluded when they talk about the economy. They like to think that the global financial crisis did not exist. They like to think that Labour has a plan that would have succeeded. Well actually the plan that Labour had which it left this Government with was a plan for a whole lot more debt. It was a plan that would have left New Zealanders with a decade’s worth ofprojected deficit. If Opposition members do not want to admit it they should just look at some of the graphs that came out with the Budget. The projected debt in the 2020s under this Government looks to be about 10 percent of GDP. In the 2020s under the plan left by Michael Cullen and the Opposition debt was projected to reach 60 percent of GDP.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Zero Crown debt—that’s what you inherited.JAMI-LEE ROSS: No no Mr Cosgrove. No no Mr Cosgrove. You need to spend some more time in Waimakariri. Actually debt was expected to be 60 percent of GDP in the 2020s. Have a look at the graphs. He is deluded—he is deluded. He just does not understand. He cannot read a graph.The party opposite left us with a decade’s worth of projected deficits. It would not have been good for New Zealand. We are getting back to surplus next year. David Parker likes to joke around with us and say that actually Labour would have got back to surplus as well. The only way that Labour would have got back to surplus would be with Russel Norman’s printing machine. That is the only way it would have got back to surplus. Russel Norman would have printed all the money that it needed so that it would not have to rack up the debt.Fortunately for New Zealand Michael Cullen had not thought about printing more money but had Labour ever coalesced with the Greens and had Russel Norman as Minister of Finance—which is probably what we will see in about 10 years’ time—there would have been a whole lot more money printed. Yes it might have got us back to surplus but it would have been at the expense of New Zealanders who would have seen huge inflation and it would not have been good.Business confidence is improving in this country. Our companies are becoming more competitive. Wages are growing and inflation is low. We have excellent growth considering the economic circumstances that the world has found itself in. New Zealanders are approving of that plan. New Zealanders are seeing more jobs created. Almost 60000 new jobs have been created in the economy.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Where? Where? Ninety thousand kids unemployed.JAMI-LEE ROSS: Mr Cosgrove wants to ask where the jobs are. Well let us just go through the list of things that Mr Cosgrove and his mates on the other side oppose. These are the job creation schemes that they oppose. Every time we want to come up with ideas for new jobs those members oppose them. They oppose the Auckland convention centre which is going to see thousands of jobs created. They are opposed to that. TheHobbit law—they were opposed to that. That saw a whole lot of jobs created. They are opposed to everything that Amy Adams wants to do in the resource management sector that will make it easier for businesses to operate and that will make it easier for New Zealanders to employ people. They are opposed to oil and gas exploration. If the Greens ever get into Government the whole of Northland will probably be shut down because there will be no road to get up to Northland and everything that the people up there want to do to try to create jobs will be shut down as well. The Opposition wants to see more costs go on to New Zealand businesses through the emissions trading scheme and it opposes jobs being created in many of the manufacturing areas. A Labour-led Government would be a disaster for New Zealand. This country knows that the Budget and the track that we are on are good for New Zealand and it absolutely supports it.I am glad that the previous speaker Denis O’Rourke touched on housing because I am actually quite excited about the plan that this Government has for housing affordability in New Zealand. It has a plan for housing affordability particularly in Auckland through the Auckland Housing Accord legislation. I heard an unusual comment from Denis O’Rourke. He tried to tell us that land supply has almost noimpact at all on house prices. The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment put out a very good document recently. It was about residential land availability in Auckland. It had an excellent graph. I am sure that it will be difficult for members to see across the House. Clayton Cosgrove probably does not have his glasses on. He might want to put them on. The document has a very good graph which pretty much shows that as the land availability in Auckland slowly declined through the land strangulation policies of local government the cost of land in Auckland gradually increased.It is not hard to see that housing supply actually has a very big impact on the cost of land. You know the Opposition likes to think that it is going to be able to provide houses for Aucklanders at $300000 each. Actually roughly right now section costs are about $325000 per section but we are working on it. We are working on it because we recognise that land supply is a big issue. We recognise that we need to have more houses coming on board for New Zealanders.The Auckland Housing Accord that has been agreed with Len Brown and the legislation that is going through Parliament will be hugely beneficial for New Zealanders. I am disappointed—I am disappointed—that some parties in this House are opposed to that because the reality is that we need to build more houses in Auckland. We need to build more houses in New Zealand. At the moment roughly only 3500 houses are being built in Auckland every year. That simply is not enough. We are going to pretty much triple that—actually quadruple that—to an average of 13000 houses per year to be built under the housing accord that has been signed with the Auckland Council.I have heard some comments about the legislation that is going through and there has been some discussion out there. I simply say to those members in Auckland and those members of the Auckland Council who are opposed to the Auckland Housing Accord and the legislation that we just have to get on with the job. We need to stop fluffing around. We need to stop delaying addressing the housing issues in Auckland and actually working together with the Auckland Council is the best way to achieve that. But this Government knows that if local government is not prepared to come on board and work as intensively as needs to be done to address the housing issues in New Zealand then we will just have to box on ahead and get it done for it.New Zealanders do not want to see any more delays. New Zealanders do not want to see the housing issue being left for much longer. New Zealanders and particularly Aucklanders and the types of people whom I represent in my electorate of Botany want to see more houses coming on board. They want to see more land being made available and they want to see red tape being cut. They do not want to see a continuation of the delays and the problems that we have had in the past. Land strangulation policies in Auckland where local government through the Resource Management Act process has deliberately decided it wants to constrain the availability of land for Aucklanders have absolutely led to a lack of supply of land which has led to housing costs increasing which has led to a poor situation for New Zealanders.We are working on addressing the cost of building materials. We are also working on addressing some of the social housing issues that we have got. There is a remarkable programme that Minister Smith is working on to get more bedrooms and more State housing coming on board. We are spending a whole lot of money to insulate housing. We have got a very good story to tell about housing. It is going to be hugely beneficial for New Zealanders in the future. I challenge the Opposition to get on board. I challenge the Opposition to stop saying no to everything. I challenge the Opposition to stop saying no to more growth. [Interruption] I tell Rajen Prasad to realise that New Zealanders want more growth and they want more jobs. They do not want more debt they do not want the printing of money and they do not want a Labour-Greens Government.