Street Maryan: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Street Maryan: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:640;Page:10183] 
MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 In speaking in this estimates debate I want to highlight the significance of 1 July which is a day that sees another step being taken in this Labour-led Government’s set of ambitions for this country. I begin by highlighting what we are doing in health as of 1 July. We have cut in half the cost of seeing the doctor and from 1 July all New Zealanders will be able to access affordable doctors’ visits and affordable prescription drugs. These are policies that directly impact on the families that the previous speaker Pita Sharples was referring to. These remain the families about whom the Labour Party and this Labour-led Government care. This is a historic achievement in health that is coming to pass on 1 July and that only a Labour-led Government could deliver. We have invested $2.2 billion in order to make it happen. This is what it costs to make primary health care affordable for all families. 
This investment has reduced doctors’ fees by around $25 and lowered the standard prescription charges from $15 an item to $3 an item. Three million New Zealanders are already benefiting from lower fees and on 1 July they will be joined by people in the 25 to 44-year-old age group. We are just getting started. Lowering doctors’ fees is the beginning. We will be stepping up efforts to improve screening to prevent diabetes and cardiovascular disease and to boost vaccination rates to protect the health of all children. 
Another initiative that will come into effect in its fullness on 1 July is KiwiSaver. This initiative is vital for Kiwis in securing their financial security. There are a whole range of complex repercussions and implications from the KiwiSaver initiative that comes into effect on 1 July. First of all it secures the future. Saving more will secure better futures for our families and it will also help New Zealand companies to access local capital and expand both here and overseas. It is a non-inflationary policy. Savings mean less consumption taking pressure off interest rates—which is in part an answer to the Hon Dr Nick Smith’s comments earlier in this debate. The answers to the problem of high inflation rates are complex but KiwiSaver is a large step in the process of taking pressure off interest rates off inflation and off the dollar. It is a non-inflationary policy. 
KiwiSaver means that we will be investing in ourselves. We will have a larger pool of domestic capital so that New Zealand businesses can expand and grow and our economy can become more self-reliant rather than being reliant on overseas investors who have no long-term interest in the state of the New Zealand economy but are keen to make a short-term profit. 
Another significant impact of KiwiSaver is that it will mean more New Zealand ownership. New Zealand business can grow under New Zealand ownership rather than being dependent on the overseas investment I referred to a moment ago. Profits can stay in the country and fuel more new businesses and jobs. 
KiwiSaver makes it easier for New Zealanders to take the hard step of saving for the future and helps to develop long-term savings habits. In fact KiwiSaver is the best opportunity ever for low-income families to make provision for their retirement and to develop savings habits that in the long term benefit not just them but also the country because of the anti-inflationary effects I mentioned a moment ago. Under this Labour-led Government more people will have better financial security in their old age. 
Further to that KiwiSaver impacts on homeownership. This Labour-led Government believes that all hard-working New Zealand families deserve the best and that if they want their own home they should be supported to achieve that goal. KiwiSaver tax credits and the employer contribution make it easier for New Zealanders to save more and for many to save for their first home. We have made sure that KiwiSaver is flexible enough to be applied to the ownership of a family’s first home and the flexibility around that is a very significant contributor to the future well-being of New Zealand families. 
KiwiSaver gives a helping hand to workers early in their working lives because hardworking young New Zealand families deserve support and it is our way to promote family savings beyond the family home as well. 
July 1 will also see the introduction of 20 free hours’ early childhood education. I want to talk about that for a moment because it is a very significant contribution to education in this country. In fact it is the most significant contribution to education in this country since we saw compulsory secondary education introduced by the first Labour Government. It is a very significant milestone and a very significant step for education and the education of very young children in particular. It means that up to 20 hours a week up to 6 hours a day are free for enrolled 3 and 4-year-olds. It is an excellent policy and the early childhood centres that I have visited recently—including the Inglewood Childhood Early Education Centre which I visited yesterday—are delighted with the policy are applying it in exactly the way it was intended and are confident that they will see more and more parents taking up early childhood education for their children. Staff from the Inglewood centre talked about the benefits to the families in Inglewood and about those people on low incomes in the Inglewood area who are delighted that this will now be within their reach. 
People remember the National Government. Despite the fact that some of the new National members opposite do not remember their own heritage people out in the electorate do. They remember things like the wage and price freeze in the 1980s. They remember the Employment Contracts Act and the increased surcharge on superannuation in the 1990s and the questions are building for National. The questions will come from the electorate. What will National do? Will it rescind prescription drugs charges? Will it make them more expensive and out of the reach of many? Will it take away 20 hours’ free early childhood education? Will it axe KiwiSaver? Will it in fact renege on the doctors’ fee support that 1 July will see made available to everybody? Will it make primary health inaccessible? Those will be the questions for this National Party to answer in the forthcoming election. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker.