Hutchison Paul: Budget Debate 
Text is subject to correction 
Hutchison Paul: Budget Debate 
[Sitting date: 31 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2779. Text is subject to correction.] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua) 
: 
 Talofa lava. Chris Hipkins’ contribution just confirms how deeply in denial is the Labour Opposition after that stunning information from the Hon Phil Heatley where he pointed out that the National Government has insulated 150000 homes so far and will go on to 230000 homes—a brilliant achievement after the Labour Government had done nothing after 9 long years including failing to insulate even its own State houses. What did Chris Hipkins do? He denied it. He was in total denial. He did not rebut it he did not say a thing he just stayed like the Labour Party in total denial.  
The day after the Budget John Shewan—[ 
Interruption 
]— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! Members on my left and my right cannot interject on each other without the floor. The interjections are reserved for the person who is speaking.  
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: The day after the Budget John Shewan arguably New Zealand’s foremost tax expert if not the top tax expert said that this Budget is an impressive Budget. He said it needed to be predictable and it was. He said this was a responsible Budget. As so many speakers have said about Budget 2012 it is indeed a Budget for the times. For the Opposition to suggest that this is an austerity Budget clearly defies the fact. As the leader of the National Party the Prime Minister has so fondly pointed out the Labour Party does indeed live on “Planet Labour”. There is also “Planet Green” somewhere up there in the clouds. As my old psychology teacher used to say the difference between a neurotic and a psychotic is that a neurotic builds sandcastles in the air and a psychotic lives in them. When it comes to Labour and the Greens the public can take its pick.  
The facts are that as a response to the global recession this National Government has actually borrowed up to $350 million a week. This is in order to ensure that vital services such as health education and social welfare continue to be well supported and this indeed has been hugely helpful to millions of New Zealanders. This has indeed provided a huge stimulation. If one compares that with what has gone on in Europe where there have been savage cuts to the Public Service where there have been savage cuts not only to Public Service numbers but also to their salaries New Zealand has really come through extraordinarily unscathed. That has been because of a highly responsible and prudential National Government.  
As the Governor of the Reserve Bank pointed out unless New Zealand does manage our finances prudentially we undoubtedly will have a credit rate downgrade. This would have a huge impact on the housing mortgages that so many New Zealanders have and it would have a huge impact on our farmers and our small businesses. Think of the dairy industry which is in the order of $30 billion in debt. There is no question that we do need in this country a Budget that is highly financially prudential and responsible.  
For David Shearer to go on about a “departure lounge Budget” is scaremongering of the worst order. I was over in the Middle East with his predecessor the Hon Phil Goff 10 days ago. It was extremely poignant from that position in that tinder-dry area to realise how lucky we are here in New Zealand and how extremely well our economy has been managed by the National Government. What is more despite the international economic uncertainties New Zealanders can be optimistic for the future because of the clear economic growth plan that this Government has and because the National Government is committed to ensuring that we have a surplus by 2014-15.  
One area that David Shearer said was good about the Budget was the fact that there is going to be a significant investment in science and technology—in all a boost of $326 million for science innovation and research over 4 years. There is no doubt this will be money well spent. We know that countries like Denmark Israel Singapore and Taiwan have consistently invested in both the public and the private sector in the science and innovation and in its commercialisation area and have consistently had much superior growth rates than many other developed countries.  
Here in New Zealand the National Government is doing exactly the same thing. New funding over the next few years includes $90 million operating funding and $76.1 million certified funding to create the Advanced Technology Institute. This will be business-facing and will work with the high-tech manufacturing and service sector. This is $326 million of new funding in the science innovation and research area and in difficult times this is very significant and appropriate. There will be $60 million operating funding for the National Science Challenges to find innovative solutions to some of the most fundamental issues that New Zealand faces. For example we have the world’s largest exclusive economic zone. How best can we use this taking into account the balance between our economic and environmental interests?  
There will be $100 million additional research funding for Vote Tertiary Education by increasing the size of the Performance-based Research Fund to $300 million by 2016. This is particularly important to ensure that we do achieve a world-leading research university in this country. By doing it in this way by having a competitive research fund such as the Performance-based Research Fund we will enable our universities on merit to get there and obviously assist New Zealand in terms of leading innovation and its commercialisation and research and also attracting students. The Government’s total cross-portfolio funding for science innovation and research stands at $1.24 billion up $0.24 billion from 2008. That has to be a very very significant amount in science and innovation over these very difficult times.  
I want to end by just repeating that as John Shewan pointed out last week Budget 2012-13 is an impressive Budget. It needed to be predictable and it was. It is indeed a very responsible Budget.