Stewart Barbara: Budget Debate 
Stewart Barbara: Budget Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3359] 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 As my colleague has said this is a genuine MMP Budget—one that honours the supply and confidence agreement New Zealand First has with the Government. If we look at the Budget we see that it involves five of the eight parties here in this Parliament. We in New Zealand First are really pleased to see that the policy platforms we took to the country at the last election will actually make a difference to the lives of all New Zealanders—and that is basically what being in politics is all about. The difference between this Government and the National Party is that the Government knows how to operate in an MMP environment and it also gives parties some credit when it implements their policies. 
How let-down those National voters must be feeling given that the Bondi Beach brigade in the form of Dr Brash and others is advocating that everyone should go across the Tasman and get a tax cut. There were no constructive policies and there was no constructive debate; it just ran down New Zealand and put up billboards to advocate that everyone should go across to Australia. I hazard a guess that not one of the National Party team will resign during this parliamentary term to go and live in Australia. Neither will any member resign at the end of the term in order to live across the Tasman. That is rather ironical I believe although I must say that the leader of the Bondi Beach brigade Dr Brash may have the opportunity to go there sooner rather than later. 
New Zealand First fought a lone crusade at the last election to address the plight of our seniors. Other parties were very happy to pay lip-service to senior citizens but they did not decide on any specific actions to help seniors. New Zealand First said that too many of our seniors were struggling and that we were serious about improving their lot in life. Our seniors are entitled to live with dignity in their golden years and this goes hand in hand with lifting the base rate for superannuation to 66 percent of the net average wage. This is the first step for New Zealand First. 
The sum of $126 million went into the aged-care sector. The sector has been neglected for years and this additional sum is a small step towards assisting the sector. We know it is an extremely important sector which will grow in importance along with an ageing population. It is absolutely essential however that the increase flows through to the aged-care sector. Higher wages for the service providers of care to the elderly are absolutely essential. Those of us who went down to the demonstration yesterday know that an extra 51c an hour—the equivalent of one pack of peanuts—is not enough for the workers in this sector. The separate nurses’ claim must be resolved totally independently of this new money. District health boards have already been funded for the Nurses Organisation multi-employer collective agreement and they should pass that money on to those nurses in the aged residential care sector as well as to the district health board nurses. New Zealand First wants better outcomes for our seniors. Of course our golden age card emphasises our concerns for that group and we will be waiting to see that coming through in the next Budget and implemented in the next year. 
We in New Zealand First were very pleased to see an additional $40.8 million allocated to the oral health of New Zealand primary school children. The school dental service is in dire need of this funding and it is very concerning indeed to find that less than 40 percent of eligible preschoolers are enrolled in the service. That is an appalling statistic and one the Maori Party no doubt is absolutely horrified by. However when one actually does the maths for the allocation one finds it is less than $2 million per district health board and I know that district health boards need far more money than that to rectify the situation. Some district health boards have planned for projects that require four times that amount. Those projects will obviously have to be downsized. I hope they will actually be implemented and we will be following that through very closely. 
So New Zealand First celebrates the parts of the Budget our confidence and supply agreement has delivered on. We are very pleased with those because we value investment in New Zealanders and we want to put New Zealanders first.