Upston Louise: Budget Debate 
Upston Louise: Budget Debate 
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LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupo) 
: 
 Budgets over the years have come in all shapes and sizes and have had names to match. We have had the “black” Budget the “chewing gum Budget” and the “block of cheese Budget”. But a commentator recently said of Budget 2010 that this is the “hip pocket Budget” because that is exactly where people will feel it; in their back pockets where they will have extra cash to assist them in their costs. They will have extra cash in their back pockets. The official name for this Budget is the Budget to recovery which of course is an important step for us having come out of very hard times last year. A lot of my constituents are saying that they are still experiencing the struggle days. That is why the recovery in the Budget to recovery is so vital. 
I want to cover just a few things. I want to cover why exactly growth is important. But more specifically I want to talk about the impact of this Budget on my constituents in the Taupo electorate. I will bring it back to basics and how this Budget will have a positive impact on families. I also want to share with members some feedback. I held seven Budget forums around my electorate last week in a variety of places—Tokoroa Arapuni at the chamber of commerce in Cambridge and in Taupo—in order to get a wide range of views on what people thought of Budget 2010. I thought I would share some of that feedback as well. 
But first and foremost this Budget is about growth. A constituent phoned my Cambridge office last Monday and asked why growth is important. I thought that was a question that many people would know the answer to but obviously not everyone does. Of course growth is important in our economy if we want going forward to be able to afford the things as a country that we believe we should have. It is about improving our quality of life. It is about improving things whether they are health education growing our businesses or growing our export market so that we can afford the things that we want to do. The challenge is that we have some of the incentives in the wrong place at the moment and this Budget is a major opportunity to address those imbalances. We are talking about the fact that we have borrowed too much consumed too much and have had unsustainable increases in Government spending. 
Budget 2010 addresses some of those concerns in terms of making sure that we grow through increased savings exports and investment that is productive. It means also that New Zealanders can get ahead under their own steam because they get to keep more of what they earn. That is such a simple message. When people go out and work hard it is quite simple that they have the expectation that they would keep more of their earnings and that is exactly what this Budget allows for. 
Tax reform is of course one of our key goals and part of the National Government’s plan for improving and fixing the economy. We can look at a couple of key facts. I am particularly interested in the people who are on low and middle incomes. Families in the Taupo electorate have lower incomes than the New Zealand average so that is particularly important to me as their member of Parliament. If we are talking about an income of $48000 a year or less 73 percent of income earners will now pay 17.5 percent or less in income tax. Now is that a fantastic result. If we look at that group of families or individuals we can see that 2 years ago they were paying 33c in the dollar. So for them that is a massive amount of money that they get to keep in their hip pocket and that is how the name has come about—the “hip pocket Budget”. So if we look at families we can see that they will be $25 a week better off which is pretty significant. It is definitely a considerable amount to the families in my electorate whether it is for example someone who is on a pension or someone who owns his or her own home. By the time people have taken into consideration the GST increase and also the increase in their superannuation they are still better off by $11 a week and that is exactly what this Budget is all about. It is about making sure that New Zealanders are better off and that they feel the improvement as a result of this Budget. 
People have asked why we would drop the highest level of tax. Well it is pretty obvious really. We already have major problems with the brain drain from New Zealand and too many of our skilled New Zealanders have left. I give members the example of my own brother who is a doctor. If he did the same job in Australia he would earn three times as much as he does here. So it is really important that we do things like reduce tax across the board to keep those people here. [ 
Interruption 
] It is really unfortunate that members opposite do not want to keep New Zealand doctors here. Well I do want to. I want New Zealand doctors who train hard here to stay. If that means tax cuts across the board well bring it on. That is what this Government is delivering. It is not about just tax cuts for some it is tax cuts for all. But those members cannot handle that. They do not like the fact that we are willing to cut taxes across the board so there are benefits for all. 
One of the other areas that I want to touch on that we have not had a lot of discussion on is the $30 million boost in tourism. If we look at the Taupo electorate aside from agriculture and forestry the tourism sector is the biggest employer. That is why it is really important to me and I was thrilled to see an additional $30 million for that in Budget 2010. It is creating jobs it is providing employment it is providing opportunities and it is providing some certainty. 
A couple of significant events are coming up in my electorate and one of course is the World Rowing Championships which is being held at Lake Karapiro later this year. When we look back at the championship in 1978 there were 40000 spectators; double that number is expected this time. So it is really important in terms of tourism spend that we maximise that opportunity and that is what it is all about. It is about making sure that those who visit here whether they are competitors whether they are spectators or whether they are part of the support or training crew experience the very best that New Zealand can offer. In addition to that we have also seen money go into high performance sport and some of that money has gone into the high performance rowing hub at Lake Karapiro. If we want to do well across the country and if we want to do well in our sport we have to invest more money into it. The remaining funding of $1.8 million has gone into this rowing facility. There are also further conversations about looking at canoeing as another high performance sport that could be leveraged off the existing facilities. That is what this Government is all about. It is about being clever with the money that we spend so we get the maximum bang for our buck and using existing facilities and leveraging off that so that there are more people who benefit. It is important that we support our sport and that the competitors do well. 
Another aspect of the tourism spend that I think is really important—and it is something that I had a look at last week—is progress on the Waikato River Trail which was the first cycleway route that was announced by our Prime Minister and that was under way already with a trust. It has got to the last 25 kilometres and the hard parts which is why the funding into the cycleway is really really important at the moment. Irrespective of the work that has been done before today and what is coming that is 20 jobs just for those who are working on the tracks. So that is why investing in our future and putting money into recovery is so important for my electorate. 
I want to finish by having a look at some of the comments that people made to me or discussed with me when I held the seven Budget forums across my electorate. As I said before they were in very small places—from small villages up to the main centres. One comment in particular stood out for me. It was from a gentleman who came to one of the Cambridge meetings. I did a presentation on some of the main points of the Budget and he was very clear in pointing out to me that he was not a National supporter and he was not a Labour supporter. Each election he makes his decision based on what he believes will be the best for New Zealand. So he has followed a lot of Budgets in his time and he said that Budget 2010 was the best Budget he had ever seen because of what it will provide for New Zealand. 
As a family person I can say this is a Budget that will do well. People who have children the same age as I do know that it is money in their hip pocket which is why the commentator gave it this name. New Zealanders will be better off. There are incentives for them to work hard and stay here and they will reap the rewards as well as this country going forward and that is what is critical. I am extraordinarily proud to be part of the National Government led by John Key which has put together this comprehensive Budget. It focuses on growth. It focuses public spending on the important things and keeps the money at the front line. It reforms the tax system so that hard-working New Zealanders get to keep more of what they earn. I do not think that is anything too difficult to ask. That is why 2010’s Budget will be known as the “hip pocket Budget” but it is also about building the recovery. Thank you.