Simpson ScottHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): It is usually a pleasure to follow that member from Napier Stuart Nash because normally he is motivated and he is enthusiastic and he is full of vim and vigour and enthusiasm for his party. But today we have had a 10-minute apology of a speech from him on a really important Budget when Labour again has failed to deliver anything in the way of formed policy or debate or initiative or even any sensible opposition to what has been the first Budget produced by the new Minister of Finance the Hon Steven Joyce.My what a great Budget it has been. What a great Budget it has been for the people of New Zealand for families who are working hard for superannuitants for business people for our young people for those people who are struggling with high housing costs and for people who have had tax creep occur. The new tax thresholds will kick in and give them some relief and return back to them some of their own money which is really what it is all about. What a good Budget this has been. This has been absolutely as all the commentators have been saying a Budget that delivers for New Zealand and for New Zealanders.It is a Budget that has come from a National Government in its ninth year of Government after some very hard times early on in that term. In those early years we had the global financial crisis to contend with and we had the situation of the Christchurch-Canterbury earthquakes to consider and to support. We have come through all of that with the careful prudent management and economic steerage and stewardship that came from the now Prime Minister when he was Minister of Finance. It is because of those careful prudent years of steady-at-the-helm guidance that came from the Hon Bill English when he was Minister of Finance that we are in a position with this Budget to be able to make choices about really providing positive impacts for all New Zealanders. This is from a Government that cares. It cares for families it cares for people and it cares about getting things done. People around New Zealand and around the Coromandel electorate have certainly welcomed this Budget. In my electorate—it is a provincial rural electorate and the local economy there is booming. In the provinces all around New Zealand the economy is booming. In fact people are telling me as I travel around my vast electorate in the Coromandel—the beautiful Coromandel—that they have not seen economic activity and economic growth like we currently have since the 1960s and that is phenomenal. It means people are building houses roads are being built bridges are being built all kinds of activity is occurring and we are the net beneficiaries of that in the provinces and in the regions. We have been able to make that huge progress on the economic level and in terms of the social advancements in health education and welfare because as a Government we have got this careful stewardship of the economy that does give us choices. At the very core of this year's Budget is the Family Incomes Package and it is key to the Budget and it is key to what we are trying to achieve. Yet what has happened when the Budget was introduced? The Greens very sensibly and New Zealand First very sensibly voted in support of that and Labour—who one would have thought would be jumping for joy at the opportunity to support struggling families and those in need of some improvement to their Working for Families arrangements—actually voted against it.It was unbelievable that a Labour Party could vote against it. Not only did it vote against it—unbelievably last weekend on TV3's The Nation programme having been invited to attend and present its argument its case its rationale for voting against this very good measure nothing happened. It failed to turn up. It failed to show—no show. It was an absolute no show. I have been watching politics most of my life. I have never seen a situation where an Opposition party in the ninth year of Opposition would fail to appear on one of the country's very good political programmes and it was not there. It did not show. I tell you what: those members were probably still recoiling—Hon Todd McClay: Curled up.Hon SCOTT SIMPSON: —curled up in a foetal position somewhere in the Labour caucus room after hearing Steven Joyce deliver the Budget because they did not think it was going to be a Budget that was going to be as generous as supportive and as positive as it was.Economic growth is predicted to continue at the rate of over 3 percent for the next 4 years. If we are able to continue that growth which I am confident we can and if we are able to continue to produce surpluses through careful management of the economy as I am confident we can then that means that there will be even more jobs for New Zealanders even more opportunities for New Zealand families and even more benefits for us all as New Zealanders.The unemployment rate is expected to fall to below 4.5 percent and our employment rate is expected to stay at the top of the OECD nations. Now that is a dramatic change on where we were at the end of the Labour-Greens Government that was led by Helen Clark when we had a decade of deficits being predicted by their finance Minister. We have managed to turn that around and get the country back on its feet in a way that was simply not ever thought possible by the Labour Party members. And they have no answers. They are bereft. They have no answers no policy no direction and no leadership.I have been given the privilege by the Prime Minister and my colleagues to serve as the Minister of Statistics and there was an announcement in the Budget that I do want to draw the House's attention to and it relates to an investment of $4.5 million to Statistics New Zealand that it will use over the next 3 years in order to fund an investigative programme into transformational census policies and processes. We come from a tradition of having a census every 5 years and the tradition and the policy has been that on a given night once every 5 years a snapshot of statistical data would be collected across the nation and that data would be used to make all kinds of governmental decisions and businesses and individuals would use that information. But of course we now live in an age of technology when information and data has never been more freely available never more accessible and never more able to be analysed and used in ways that actually we could not even think about just a few years ago.In this Budget there has been an allocation of $4.5 million. And what will that do? Well it is going to be used to investigate a transformational census change and that will mean that instead of potentially having census information collected on just one night across the nation once every 5 years that perhaps we can look at mechanisms for capturing data and information on a progressive moving schedule of time and place and that is going to be really useful for the country and really useful for people who want to use that information.I liken it a wee bit to a business that may have used to in years gone by conduct an annual stocktake where it physically counted every nut bolt and widget in its warehouse. It would not take long in the Labour Party warehouse to do a physical stocktake—mind you; there are a few nuts and bolts and widgets over there. But these days many companies no longer do that sort of thing. What they do is a rolling stocktake where they are checking stock and inventory on a progressive rolling basis. This transformation of the census provides that kind of opportunity. So I think that this is going to be money very well spent. I think we will still have a need for a census every 5 years but if we can add information to it progressively on a rolling basis over that period of time that will be all well and good.Just in summary this is a very good Budget. It is a Budget that delivers for New Zealand and New Zealanders. It reflects the hard work that New Zealanders have made over the last 9 years in terms of coming to terms with some pretty tough times and it is a very good Budget. It is the first Budget that Steven Joyce has made as Minister of Finance and I for one am looking forward to him presenting many more to this Parliament—many more good Budgets from Steven Joyce for this Parliament and for the people of New Zealand. Thank you.