Foss CraigHon CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki): Can I first congratulate our new finance Minister the Hon Steven Joyce on continuing the hard work that the previous finance Minister Bill English did with his eight previous Budgets. Mr Joyce has delivered for all New Zealanders—families those in need of better healthcare those with aspirations for better education or a more quality education and those who have aspirations for better infrastructure. These have been delivered via this Budget announced by Mr Joyce just the other day.I note that we were all in the House during the various speeches of our Prime Minister Bill English—resting on his years of experience his financial knowledge his fiscal knowledge of how this system of government works and his 8 years as one of the most successful finance Ministers in the OECD. He has been working through and delivering for New Zealanders through the Christchurch earthquakes and the shock that that had to the country's system as well as of course the personal cost to many New Zealanders. He has delivered through the global financial crisis and still delivered a surplus for New Zealand last year in last year's Budget.Mr Joyce has picked up on that has broadened that continued that and has delivered a Budget that touches I would say almost every part of New Zealand. At the very least 1.3 million New Zealanders will benefit from the changes announced for families in the Budget and the legislation recently passed—1.3 million New Zealanders. That is many many families.I have actually seen 12 Budgets in this House and I have never seen a Budget that has put the Opposition in such turmoil. I had 3 years in Opposition when my 2005 class first came in. I listened to Budgets and I listened to Mr Cullen and Labour go absolutely nuts from 2005 to 2008—virtually doubling the tax take creating inflation north of 5 percent and creating double-digit mortgage rates. That is the last time we can compare Labour policy Labour's lack of fiscal discipline with the current circumstances and the current Budget.In fact it was very interesting watching from my new seat down the back of the Chamber the behaviour of the Opposition MPs as Mr Little furiously tried to fill out his time but did not quite make it when he was doing his response. Our Prime Minister totally owned Mr Little—totally owned him. I was watching Mr Little's colleagues rolling their eyes and almost nodding off a few of them when not only Mr Little's batteries in his iPad seemed to run out but his own batteries started to run out.I looked at individual MPs over there—the outgoing MP for Palmerston North for example and I looked at Mr Nash. They are currently the representatives of areas that do have lower wages and some high social problems—that is quite true. I looked at them as the Budget was announced and they were thinking: Wow my area is really going to benefit from this Budget." The people whom Labour members forever talk about—and are looking for some reason to talk about—with the rhetoric about trying to help are helped by this Budget. This Budget delivers for those exact people whom Labour members have been talking about over many many years.I do take my hat off to the political maturity if you like of Mr James Shaw and his putting principles in front of political rhetoric and debate in the House. I am sure he had a fair few robust arguments or discussions in his caucus. I respect the Greens' opinions but I also acknowledge their voting for the recent legislation as part of the Budget that was passed. They were true to their convictions—the kinds of things we have recently heard them talking about—because this Government has delivered to those same people. This Government has delivered to those who are most in need—confident and outward-looking New Zealanders who are in need because of various economic issues affecting their families—be it through the accommodation supplement changes or the changes to the tax thresholds etc. etc.Underlying all of this is the fact that none of this can happen unless we have a strong growing confident economy. Every single Budget that this National Government has delivered over 9 years is driving a more confident and a stronger resilient economy for all New Zealanders. Again there was political maturity shown by the Green Party but Labour is in isolation. Labour's default position—its Princes Street branch—is perpetual opposition. It opposes anything and everything without thinking what it could have done without thinking to join the rest of the House and vote—probably for the first time I think for the leading Opposition party—for a key Budget element to assist those whom it claims to be representative of. Labour members did not vote for it. They missed the opportunity and they are destined to stay in Opposition until such time as they are more true to the principles they espouse again and again.The Budget itself is full of good economic metrics like the 2.7 percent current account deficit. For years through the 1990s through the 2000s members opposite would talk endlessly about the perils and how bad the current account was. I do not hear them talking about it any more whatsoever. It was down from about 6.5 or 7 percent not that long ago. I do not hear members on the other side talking about the 750000 superannuitants who will benefit from the increases in after-tax wages. I cannot see them rocking up to Grey Power this week and next week when they are doing the rounds and saying: "Oh look at the positive impact of this Budget on your superannuation." And it is not only this Budget. In fact every single Budget since 2008 has delivered higher after-tax wages on average for New Zealanders therefore resulting in an increased superannuation for 750000 New Zealanders.Solid economic growth has been delivered and continues to be forecast in and around 3 percent—unheard of for this country. Growing job opportunities for our families come only from that growth and only from the discipline that we have seen not only in this Budget but in previous Budgets. It is about getting productivity out of Government spending to keep inflation low and therefore mortgage rates low for our families. So as we talk about the Budget and as we read the Budget the direct result—the economic metrics etc. etc.—is that families across New Zealand in their homes are benefiting and will benefit from the changes announced in this Budget and the ongoing strength and resilience of the New Zealand economy.We have seen natural disasters and we have seen economic crises around the world be it the global financial crisis Christchurch etc. The Christchurch earthquake's impact on our GDP was I think around 12 to 14 percent or thereabouts of our economy—huge. But of course we all did the right thing by rebuilding Christchurch and we will again if we have to if that happened somewhere else as we have recently seen in Kaikōura. Having a strong balance sheet and a growing economy gives us the ability to deal with a disaster if in fact sadly it comes across our shores be it a domestic natural disaster or some economic event across the world.We have choices now and we have shown those choices in this Budget: changing the tax thresholds for many New Zealanders and changing the accommodation supplement with the end result being that more New Zealanders are keeping more of their own hard-earned salary and wages in their hands. This results in lower mortgage rates for those same families.The Reserve Bank just yesterday put out its strategy report for the New Zealand economy and the New Zealand financial sector. It did a scenario of changes in mortgage rates. It did a 5 percent—which is roughly where we are now—a 7 percent and a 9 percent scenario. For all those New Zealand families who are enjoying the benefits of a strong growing confident economy and country just remember to have a look at your mortgage payments that you make every week or every fortnight and double them—because under Labour those interest rates were double. Your family will suffer tremendously if Labour were ever to implement some of its policies. It should not be allowed anywhere near the strong confident balance sheet and economy that we now have. Thank you."