Reti Shane: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeReti Shane: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 02 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4184. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr SHANE RETI (National—Whangarei):It is a pleasure to speak to Budget 2015. There were many highlights in Budget 2015 and one of them was clearly the $25 increase in benefits. I want to focus on this for a moment and allay some of the fears of the previous speaker Carmel Sepuloni. I want to focus on the benefit increase because in fact many more will benefit. In fact maybe 100000 beneficiary households are going to do even better than the $25 increase some by as much as a further 30 percent or on average $8 up to $33 a week. The reason for this is that it turns out that a majority of beneficiaries also own motor vehicles. They will also benefit from the good work of Nikki Kaye and her team with the ACC reduction on the motor vehicle and petrol levy which is decreasing by an average of $135 a year. This will apply to 100000 beneficiary households.So let us look at that a little bit more closely. Let us see who and how they will benefit. If we look at New Zealand households and household income from the last census the smallest household income category is $20000 or less. There are 146000 households in this category. It is highly likely that a household with $20000 or less has a number of beneficiaries in it so we could reasonably call that a beneficiary household. When you analyse the data for beneficiary households it turns out that 70 percent of those households across New Zealand also own motor vehicles—54 percent own one motor vehicle 12 percent own two motor vehicles and 3 percent own three motor vehicles. The 100000 beneficiary households will therefore receive the direct Budget benefit of $25 per week and the indirect benefit from the motor vehicle ACC levy reduction. It will be an indirect benefit because unlike the core $25 it will not go directly into their account. It is an indirect benefit because it is a cost they will no longer have to bear; therefore their annualised weekly costs will go down.If we put some numbers around this and add the direct $25 benefit increase and the indirect ACC levy benefit what we actually see is this: 78954 beneficiary households with one vehicle will receive an increase of another $3 a week to $28 a week; 17545 beneficiary households with two vehicles will benefit by $5 a week to $30 a week; and 4386 beneficiary households with three motor vehicles will benefit by $8 a week increasing to $33. For this group that is a 30 percent increase over the core Budget announcement of $25. If we look at that last group—the group with three motor vehicles—a little bit harder and extend that thinking it gets even more interesting. The household income for a beneficiary household with three vehicles—and again there are 4386 of them—is less than $20000. Well it is probably unlikely that one person is driving all of those three vehicles. You could reasonably say that there is one person per vehicle and therefore there are three beneficiaries in that household. There are a few assumptions there. If we work through those assumptions what it means for those 5000 households is this: three benefit increases at three times $25 is $75; three ACC levy improvements at three times $8 is $24. If you put those two together that is a $99 per week increase for 4386 beneficiary households. That is a number. This Budget is good for beneficiary households and the data holds true.In fact Whangarei and Northland will do even better because Whangarei and Northland have a higher vehicle ownership ratio than the average across New Zealand. So they are going to do better. In fact the New Zealand average for one vehicle—just to focus on that—is 54 percent in Whangarei it is 58 percent and in Northland it is 59 percent. So the indirect benefit from the ACC levy decrease is going to disproportionately advantage Whangarei and Northland. That is a good thing for them. The motor vehicle levy decrease will continue to contribute in outgoing years because it is projected that there is going to be a further drop to $120 down from $195 in the outgoing years.The data speaks and people speak and they are saying this is a good Budget. People such as those in the Whangarei Child Poverty Action Group which had its post-Budget lunch on the Friday said what others are saying—that this is a significant start but there is work to do. I get it; we get it. There is more work to do but this is a significant start. I have focused on benefits but there are other things of course in the Budget that are helpful and useful.Transport—Northland is benefiting from the Akerama curves realignment and the loop road to Smeatons Valley. The road changes there the transport changes there are significant. Millions of dollars are pouring into Northland there. What was also announced pre-Budget was funding for the Northland cycle trail. A further $3 million will fund the Pou Herenga Tai—Twin Coast Cycle Trail. That is going to allow the development of the cycle trail from Hōreke in the Hokianga to the Bay of Islands. That will be a total contribution of $7 million.There are so many things in this Budget. I have focused on the benefit increase and made the point that it is going to be way more. In fact it is almost a hidden number—another 100000 are going to benefit more. I make my point again: the data speaks and the people speak. This is a good Budget I believe it is a good Budget and I think Northland and New Zealand are going to do well from it. Thank you.