Shanks Katrina: General Debate 
Shanks Katrina: General Debate 
[Volume:663;Page:10982] 
KATRINA SHANKS (National) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to take a call in this debate this afternoon. It is very interesting to listen to Opposition speakers say that it will be a bad day tomorrow when Budget 2010 is delivered and that it will be horrific for this country. I tell members this: a million people voted for this Government and they are waiting for this Budget. A million people believe that the National Government is a better economic manager than the previous Labour Government. A million people believe that this Government can deliver a much brighter future for them their parents their grandchildren and their children. A million people want to see their children come back to New Zealand because we offer globally competitive salaries we offer cutting edge jobs and we have cutting edge industry. This Government understands business and knows how to get that growth. 
This country was tricked for a very very long time. It was tricked for 9 years into believing that we were prosperous and that because we were in surpluses we were doing well. But we were not. This country was tricked. This country was held up by excessive Government spending with very poor outcomes. This country was held up with the promise that we were doing better when in fact we were not. One of the key indicators that this country never heard about was our exports and the way they were trending down. For 5 years the Labour Government hid the fact that our exports were declining. What can this country do without exports? Nothing. We borrow and we get more and more into debt. 
This Government is backing businesses in New Zealand. This Government is bringing back highly technical recognised people from other fields to grow our economy. This Government is backing the people and the businesses of New Zealand to make a difference. We will not hide it like the previous Government did. We will not keep on spending and spending and spending because we do not have surpluses. We have responsibility for taxpayers’ money and how we spend every dollar. We want good outcomes when we spend that taxpayer dollar. We know that when people pay their taxes they have worked hard to earn that money. We should give that money the respect that they give it in their own homes and we should spend it as wisely as they do. We should not spend it on pet projects. We should not worry whether it will produce any good for this country. 
This Government in the 2010 Budget will send some very clear messages to New Zealand. It will send the clear message to New Zealanders that we want them to invest we want them to save and we will reward them for working hard. That is the clear message this Government will send. 
The previous Government did not do that. It said that it was fine to spend money: “You earn it; you spend it.” But what did we end up with? We ended up with a country where people believed that they could borrow money off their property increases and then spend it. So a society was created in New Zealand that thought that debt was OK and that it was OK to spend money on consumables when one is in debt when we all know it is not OK. Debt is good if people can get an income off it and if it can create an asset but it is not OK to get into debt to purchase consumables. 
This Government is sending a clear message to New Zealanders that we will reward them if they invest if they save and if they work hard. The Government will show constraint along the way and will look after people’s money but we want people to look after their money as well and we want them to invest wisely. The Government has already put a huge range of regulations in place to ensure that people can invest and feel safe in New Zealand. 
This Government has done a lot of pre-announcements for this Budget which is pretty new such as some research and development announcements. We are growing the economy.