Foss Craig: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Foss Craig: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:671;Page:17454] 
CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
: 
 The previous speaker today the Hon David Cunliffe issued a statement and it shows why he is destined to be only the Opposition finance spokesman and for quite some time. His statement is pretty scary stuff. It says: “Trying to balance the Government’s budget … is no recipe for success.” How scary is that for the rest of New Zealand? How scary is that for our credit rating? How scary is that for households across New Zealand that are trying to balance their own budgets? In fact balancing a budget is a recipe for success. Showing open transparent intentions to balance a budget is a recipe for success. But to be fair to the previous speaker his statement aligns with the policies Labour has announced so far which I think add up to something like $6 billion or $7 billion of extra spending. We can read from that $6 billion or $7 billion of extra tax or $6 billion or $7 billion of extra borrowing which some day must be paid back—those are the only ways to fund the policies Labour has announced so far. 
The rebalancing of our economy is happening. After out-of-control rampant economic mismanagement after the 9 long Labour years finally the rebalancing is starting to come to play. Households are rebalancing. They are spending less. They are borrowing less. Actually they are saving more. They are responding to our tax switch of the last Budget. In fact they are earning higher after-tax incomes. After only 2 years their incomes—that is their real after-tax incomes—have gone up 9 percent versus the 3 percent over the total 9 years of the previous administration. The Government is also trying to rebalance its accounts and balance its budget. We are working hard but it was because of rampant spending that interest rates in the previous administration were at record highs and floating interest rates were in double figures and those exact statistics squeezed the rest of New Zealand into having to borrow against their own house to start to at least try to live. Labour’s $2.8 billion of extra spending year after year after year squeezed real jobs real families and the real economy and actually has made the job of rebalancing the economy now so much harder. Unfortunately the total bill for the tragic episode in Christchurch has been estimated to be between $10 billion and $20 billion. The cost to the Crown has been estimated to be somewhere between $5 billion and $10 billion. We are still learning about those figures. The previous speaker seems to blame events in Libya and the Middle East on this current Government. Sorry we might want to be able to affect the price of oil and what is going on over there but we cannot. The Government is doing with its accounts what it is asking every single New Zealander to do. 
Every single tax dollar is a precious dollar. Every single tax dollar is a precious hard-earned dollar. It is imperative that households which are rearranging their own affairs and rebalancing witness and watch the Government do the same thing with the money it takes from them in the first place. Every single borrowed dollar—every single borrowed dollar—is a charge against all New Zealanders. Therefore it is imperative we optimise and prioritise all Government spending to get the best most efficient and most effective outcomes in this very capital-constrained world we live in. No one of course wanted the natural events that have come to pass around the world. No one of course wants the war-like events that are happening around the world. But we need a robust economy we need a robust balance sheet and we need robust forward projections to be able to sustain such shocks in the future. 
This Government has found so far $4 billion in savings—$4 billion in savings after only 2 years. That is $4 billion that does not have to be borrowed and it is $4 billion that does not have to be obtained through taxation. We can contrast that with the $6 billion of extra spending announced by the Opposition so far. Labour continues to confuse the cheque book with the balance sheet. Press release after press release after press release seem to say that Labour members must have failed Accounting 101 or sixth-form economics or something. A cheque book is somewhat different from a balance sheet. Those members should take a bit of time to look that up because their promises so far and where they are going will leave New Zealand in dire straits.