Ardern Shane: Budget Debate 
Ardern Shane: Budget Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:16506] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki-King Country) 
: 
 We always know that we have a dying Government in front of us when listening to Budget speech after Budget speech the Government members sound more like an Opposition than a Government. I can tell because I was here. I was here in 1999 when this started to happen to the National Government of the time. We used to get up one after the other to try to defend the indefensible to try to win back the votes that were already lost and to try to get the phone which was already off the hook back on the hook. It did not work then and it will not work now. 
I support the motion put forward by my leader John Key that “this House has no confidence in the Government led by Helen Clark because New Zealanders have had to wait far too long to see any changes to personal tax thresholds or any lowering of personal tax rates and over nine Budgets this Government has presided over a decline in New Zealand’s standard of living compared to the rest of the world.” One cannot state it any clearer than that. That is absolutely what has happened—New Zealand is 22 on the list of OECD countries down from 20 when this Government came to power. There were those famous prime ministerial words that the Government would lift New Zealand back up into the top half of the OECD. Obviously Government members do not want to hear those and the list goes on. 
It is incredible that Kiwis have had to wait 9 long years for Dr Cullen to admit that he was wrong in his first Budget when he said that tax cuts would not deliver. If he was wrong then and he has been wrong in eight subsequent Budgets since then why is he right now? What has changed? The economy is actually on the way down yet tax cuts are affordable. Three thousand long days in power before a tax cut and the poor hard-working Kiwi out there gets $16. I know that the Kiwis out there have seen right through that. No Minister of Finance in the history of this country has had the golden weather for as long as this one and has had the opportunities to grow the economy and to really make a mark as this Minister and what have we had? We have had 9 long years with no tax cuts. Let me tell those members because they want to hear from National that we believe in tax cuts we believe in them. We have seen what they have done to the Australian economy and we will make them a top priority. We believe in them. We do not give bland speeches like the honourable doctor who obviously has been dragged kicking and screaming right to the last moment to give a measly $16. We believe in tax cuts. We will bring them in. We will make this a wealthier more prosperous country. 
We know absolutely that a Government has perfected the art of political spin when one can stand in the middle of a beautiful green field in Taranaki and as far as one can look on either side there are beautiful green fields with tree-lined streams a beautiful vista of Mount Taranaki in the background and the sea on the other side yet apparently according to political spin the amount of environmental impact that is going on in that environment is worse and more devastating than what is going on in Queen Street. That is what we have been led to believe; one can stand in a beautiful green field with ankle-deep grass look around as far as one can see and according to political spin that is absolute environmental devastation yet Queen Street or Lambton Quay is the perfect natural environment. “Yeah right!” is what I say to that. How wrong is that? What we need to do is to apply a new idea—an absolutely unheard-of idea in the eyes of the Labour members—and test that theory with science. We need to find out what the environmental impact is with sound science not with political spin and introduce an emissions trading scheme that reflects the sound science that backs up the argument—not the shonky proposal before us which was announced in this Budget. 
I will also touch on another area I am passionate about and I know that you Madam Assistant Speaker have a fair interest in this. That is the area of biosecurity. When we go to the Budget what do we see? We see yet another cut not an increase. Given that we have had 254 new incursions in the last 5 years one would expect the Government to say that this is a serious threat and that we need to do something about this. This is an area of priority in an economy that is dependent on its land-based primary industries. We must do something about this. But oh no there is not a jot not diddly-squat in the Budget. Members should look at the recent importation of cocoa peat from Sri Lanka for potting mix. One would think that it would ring alarm bells. One would think that the member from West Coast - Tasman would wonder why we are importing cocoa peat from Sri Lanka. Maybe there is a good reason. Maybe somebody wants to so perhaps that is a good idea. But that product was not subject to an import health standard. 
In 2002 a review said that the importation looked a bit risqué and could potentially be a breach of biosecurity. What was done? Not one thing nothing not one jot of a thing. What happens? We import 28 new species of plants inadvertently accidentally and release them to all of our nurseries in New Zealand. I ask a simple question. Given that this is going to cost a lot of money to get on top of what would one expect from a Budget immediately after an event like that? One would expect a bit of attention to that issue. What have we got? Nothing—not a single thing. So what would we do about something like that? Well we would look at what is now being proposed and members can guess what it is—an import health standard. Yet in 2002 nothing was done when it was brought to the Minister’s attention. Let me say that the legacy of this Minister for Biosecurity the Hon Jim Anderton is that he will be the “Minister of New Incursions” the “Minister for Biosecurity Failure” and overwhelmingly he will be known as the Minister who potentially put the New Zealand economy at risk—second only to Dr Cullen. 
The Budget has done nothing to address the very serious issues facing the people of the low socio-economic areas of Taranaki - King Country such as Kawhia Benneydale and Te Kuiti which have high Maori populations. But let me say that help is on its way. This Government has missed the greatest opportunity that this country has probably had in three decades to fix a lot of the infrastructural problems that these areas face. Broadband has been mentioned in this debate. Well members should try to get a broadband connection in Taranaki. Why do we not go even a little bit further than that and try to get a cellphone that works there? That would be a breakthrough. If I drive from the north of my electorate to the south I have 3 hours of driving with about 10 minutes of cellphone coverage. How is that? I have 3 hours of driving and 10 minutes of cellphone coverage. One has to know where the cellphone coverage is and stop there otherwise one drives out of the coverage area and one’s cellphone drops out before finishing the conversation. Sometimes that is good. If a member has made a comment to the media and the leader of the party is after that person—he or she will not be found when driving through the electorate. The Criminal Investigation Bureau would not be able to track down that person unless it had a homing device. Let me tell members now that they cannot get cellphone coverage there. National will roll out fibre-optic cables across those areas. We will have this economy transformed in the way that the knowledge wave proposals suggested it could be. 
New Zealand is a beautiful country. We do have a lot of opportunity. Hold your horses: National is on its way and it will transform the economy. People are sick of the way that this Government has missed those opportunities and I can tell members that the Budget definitely did not bring a cheesy grin to my constituents.