Little Andrew: Budget Statement — Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Budget Statement — Budget Debate[Sitting date: 26 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11335. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition): I hesitated for a moment. I was waiting for Paula Bennett to deliver her budget but we are not going to have that today. I move That all the words after “That” be omitted and the following substituted: “this House has no confidence in a government that has lost touch after eight years in office is too often focused on the few at the very top and which is forgetting about middle New Zealanders who are trying to get ahead.”They said you know make sure you start your Budget speech with a joke but I have had the wind taken out of my sails by Bill English. He started by saying: “I am presenting the Budget today.” That was not a Budget. That was not a Budget for New Zealand in 2016. That was scratched-out patchwork hotchpotch half measures designed to look like an economic strategy and it is not. It does not go anywhere near it. You know you would think 8 years on—8 years those members have been in charge of the nation’s purse strings 8 years to make their mark on history 8 years to add to the legacy bequeathed to them by the many Governments that have gone before them 8 years to make their contribution to building this great nation—and what we have had served up to us today is no answer to the real problems being faced by all New Zealanders all across the land. Eight years they have had to help Kiwis get ahead 8 years to help middle New Zealand and once again in this Budget—Bill English’s eighth—they have failed.This is a Budget that demonstrates yet again that they have lost touch they do not know what is going on and they have no answers to the problems that New Zealanders are most concerned about—the people who as the Minister of Finance says go out each day to work to pay their taxes. They are not helped by this Budget. There are new burdens placed upon them. You just look at how out of touch this Government has become. John Key who says there is no housing crisis—just go and ask Work and Income. Paula Bennett says that there is a housing crisis but she has decided that there is a housing crisis for 150 families who are already tenants of Housing New Zealand and that they need the help. Never mind the homeless living in garages and cars—they get no help. Oh hold on no—there was a second announcement was there not? They might get some help. Those members’ response to one of the biggest social crises facing New Zealand is just an absolute shambles and this Budget does nothing for it.Then there is the Minister of Health Dr Coleman or as they call him in the health sector “Dr No” and it is not helped by this Budget. It is not helped by this Budget. Then we have the Minister of Finance himself who when he talks about the young unemployed 18 to 24-year-olds—whose number has grown by 26000 under that Government—says: “They’re pretty damned hopeless.” And there is nothing in this Budget for them either. We deserve better.Let us have a look at what those members have done on housing. Nothing in the Budget today will make hardly a difference to the real problems in our housing sector. This Government is still in denial about the real problems faced by thousands and thousands of New Zealanders. There is $100 million for new land. Let us put that in perspective. Last year’s Budget provided $52 million for new land and one of the three housing Ministers—they need so many because you know they are really on top of this problem. So last year’s Budget got 13 hectares—13 hectares—and a few hundred houses in 2 years’ time. This Budget allocation will get 25 hectares and then who knows how many houses? So after 2 years we will have 37 hectares and just a few hundred houses to fix a problem that is tens of thousands of houses behind schedule. That is the real magnitude of the problem and this Budget does nothing. On social housing the Government says there is $200 million for social housing. This is a Government that has sold 2700 State houses and has not replaced a single one and those members wonder why we now have people living in garages and cars in Auckland and around the countryside. They have failed and they cannot see their failure and they will not face up to it. That is a disgrace.None of the measures in this Budget will lift homeownership rates in New Zealand. Those struggling people in Auckland who no matter how hard they work and how hard they save cannot get that deposit and will not get that first home—this Budget does not help. It will not solve the crisis. Then in health the reality is that even with the extra money it still does not keep up. And it gets worse because in the subsequent years after the financial year that this Budget covers the money goes down. It is as if the New Zealand population is going to shrink. All the elderly who are going to be retiring—suddenly there is somehow going to be fewer of them. This is not a plan for the future. This is not a plan for a good health system in New Zealand in the future. More New Zealanders will wind up in greater pain for a lot longer because of this Budget and this Government’s failure and this Minister of Health’s failure.Let us face up to the stark reality of education in this Budget. Operational funding is frozen. There is not extra money for every school. There is no money to keep up with the rising costs of running a school and we know what that means. Parents whose costs of contributing to education are already rising 10 times faster than the rate of inflation will pay more. Their costs will go up because this Government does not see that it has to support a high-quality public education system. It is happy to put the money into charter schools but every child in the country attending every other public school—they get nothing extra. This is not a Budget for success for our children.And then the police when so many New Zealanders are concerned about safety and security in their communities in their towns and cities—what do we get in the Police budget? Nothing extra. The Government is going to pay the police to negotiate a pay increase—no extra police and all those police stations that have been closed or understaffed by Judith Collins will remain closed and understaffed.You see here is the thing: the Government is not just out of touch; it just does not care. It does not care about middle New Zealand. It has given up. If you look at the Budget projections if you look at unemployment the Government says it is concerned about people out of work. By 2020 the unemployment rate for New Zealand under the Government’s economic stewardship will still be higher than what it was in 2008. This is not a Budget for the future—this is not a Budget for the future. We need a Government that is going to stop running our economy like it is a school gala day with candyfloss here and a few trinkets there. We cannot have Budget day turned into the quick-fire raffle where there is a lot of spin a few little prizes handed out here and there but you get home and you find that it has passed its use-by date. That is the way the Government is running it—that is the way it is running it and it is time to get past the spin.You see what we have had under this Government is 8 years of the economic gains that have been made—a much much greater share going to those at the very top and those who work for a wage or salary are getting much much less. Middle New Zealand has been missing out for 8 years and now with the eighth Budget under the Government’s belt there is more of the same. We have had 8 years of skyrocketing house prices and there is nothing in this Budget for that. We have had a struggling health system and there is nothing in this Budget for it. Our schools are going backwards. Here is the real injustice: more and more of the cost of our public education system is going on parents and families but our school performance is declining.New Zealanders will be asking after today: what on earth is in this for us? What they will be asking is: where on earth did we go wrong? But they should not blame themselves. Even though the Minister of Finance has announced a new constitutional principle—which is that as the Minister of Finance he is not responsible for every last dollar—actually New Zealanders will see it a different way. I have got news for the Minister of Finance: he is responsible. He is responsible for every last dollar and he is going to be held to account for it.Let us have a look at what is happening in the New Zealand economy. Unemployment is rising—144000 today. That is 40000 more than when that Government took office. Forty-three percent of wage and salary earners in the last 12 months did not or could not get a pay rise and yet the Government talks about economic growth. We have had 2 to 3 percent economic growth and people are working hard and people are trying to get ahead but nearly half the workforce cannot even get a pay rise. That is not fair. More and more of the share of the economy is going to those who are doing very well and less and less to those doing the hard work. That is not right. And we know that that slice of the economy which only a few years ago workers shared in—the effect of that Government’s economic management means that now on average the average New Zealand household this year is $50 a week worse off. That is the Government’s economic management. That is the difference. And we still have poverty with 300000 kids living below the poverty line.I have talked about young people—the 18 and 19-year-olds not in education employment or training. There are 26000 more than when that Government took office. That is not a path to the future. That is not a path to success. And in housing—where do you start? Here is the stunning thing. In March this year as the country was basking in summertime temperatures in what should otherwise have been autumn contemplating their futures houses in Auckland which were sitting there doing nothing were rising in price by $2200 a day—not a week not a month; a day—$2200. That is not a property market; it is a bubble that is dangerous and unstable and is no good in a properly managed economy. That explains why we have the lowest level of homeownership in 65 years and it is why we have people in Auckland and in other parts of the country who can no longer afford to even rent something reasonable. That is why they are living in shocking conditions and this Government has got nothing to say to them about it.I want to say this: the gap between the increase in the value of wages and the increase in property prices in New Zealand is now getting out of control. We are the second in the world for the worst ratio between personal incomes and property prices. We are beaten by one country: Qatar. I am saying to our Qatari brothers and sisters: “Don’t get too cocky. Don’t underestimate how focused Nick Smith and that Government are on making it even worse for New Zealand.” The housing policy is a shambles. Nick Smith cannot do anything. He promised thousands and thousands of houses on 500 hectares. Two years on we will have 37 hectares and a few houses. Paula Bennett is running around trying to rescue the 150 who have a roof over their heads already. There are 4500 families around the country waiting to get a State house and she thinks that the crisis lies with those already in one. It is just ridiculous—it is just ridiculous. The Government is simply not serious; it has given up.Then on education we know how important education is but housing is very important because you have got to get people in a stable house so that when the kids go to school they get to go to that school month after month year after year. This is not what is happening in a lot of schools around the country where schools are reporting a turnover of 25 percent of children because their parents cannot hold on to the same house. They have been tossed out of house after house kids are moved from pillar to post cannot get a stable education and that is damaging them too. The Government does not care about that. You see it does not see it in those terms. It just does not care. The Government fudges and mudges it fiddles and faddles and it faffs about because it does not have an answer. That is the way the Government approaches it.Education is just as important. Education is the great leveller. It is the way you lift yourself up. You get skills you find out what is going on and you get to the end of your education and you are equipped and prepared for the world. That is what we used to boast in New Zealand. We used to boast a world-class education system. We do not any more. We are slipping down the ranks internationally. We used to be fifth in reading in the world and now we are 13th. We used to be seventhin science under the last Labour Government; now we are 18th. We were 11th in maths in the world under the last Labour Government; today we are 23rd. Standards are falling and the Government has got no answer in its Budget today. It freezes funding for primary and secondary schools. It is out of touch and does not care. That is who the Government is. Its priorities are all wrong and the parents are paying more for it.In health we know what the impact is of 6 years of routine underfunding of health which is now $1.7 billion behind. The Government has added another $600-odd million. It will not be enough to keep up and worse its projection is that it will start winding back the funding in subsequent years. It is just plain crazy and it is out of touch. The impact on real people’s lives is that they cannot get the treatment they need. There are 160000 people in the last 5 years who cannot get to see a specialist or when they do get to see one they get specialists saying: “I’d like to treat you but there is no money. We cannot treat you.” So people are now living in debilitating pain spending their days on the sofa or on the bed because they cannot move desperate to get their surgery. They are so desperate in many cases that they now have to raid their retirement savings—that little nest egg that keeps them secure for the rest of their lives. They have to raid that to get surgery that 5 years ago under a Labour Government they would have got. National will not face up to these problems—National will not face up to these problems. National will not stand up for middle New Zealand.But the Labour Party will—the Labour Party will. Everything that the Labour Party will do in Government will be about getting all New Zealanders a chance to get ahead. We will diversify the economy—we will diversify the economy. It will be helped of course by the Our Work Our Future Bill which symbolically was drawn today. If ever there was some sort of you know fatalistic symbol that New Zealanders do really want things to be going in the right direction it is that piece of legislation which harnesses the power of procurement of the Government and actually focuses on adding jobs in New Zealand not overseas. Do they have an answer to that? No they do not care about it. They do not care about it.We will introduce research and development tax credits. We will not have the kind of Steven Joyce sit-on-high system and toss out a little bit of funding here and a little bit there. That is not the way you get economic development going. Research and development tax credits Government procurement that is going to create jobs in New Zealand—we will invest in long-overdue infrastructure spending not the repeated announcements from previous Budgets that we have seen in this Budget. Taranaki is still waiting for that upgrade of State Highway 3—still waiting for their upgrade of State Highway 3.We will invest in more skills and training. Labour’s ideas will kick-start the economy and it will be fair for everyone. We will deliver our fair share for middle New Zealand. And in housing we operate by one principle: we will build more houses. And we will do whatever it takes to build them. There will be new houses and they will be sold to those people struggling to save their deposit to get them. They will be affordable. For those who need a State house or a social house there will be more housing for them too. We will embark on that programme it will be realistic and practical and it will solve the problem. Those who are suffering at the sharp end of the crisis right now—they will have their problems fixed. Nothing less will do.In education we will make sure that more and more of the cost that has been foisted on families and parents right now will not continue and we will have a world-class education system with teachers who are focused on teaching and spending time with the children and on getting the best out of them and helping them to succeed. That is what we need. Because we at least understand that the future of work and the need for skills is changing and is getting more elaborate and sophisticated. We will fund 3 years’ post-school education and training. People will get that for free because that is what a modern economy will demand and it will be way better than what this Government is doing which right now is precisely nothing. We will have a health system again that will be the envy of the world where people who need treatment need elective surgery and need operations can get them. It will be done over a sensible period of time but it will restore the routing that this Government has inflicted on our health system and people will be better off for it. We will have a Pharmac that can provide new lifesaving medications even if it is initially on a short-term basis so New Zealanders can live with a sense of security once again.This Budget has failed to deliver for middle New Zealand. Today will be a day of deep disappointment for most New Zealanders. They will not get their fair share. This Budget will not reduce child poverty it will not lift employment it will not fix Auckland’s housing crisis it will not help our kids to learn better and it will not undo the savage health cuts that this National Government has inflicted on our health system. Here is my message: this Government is not delivering for you but Labour will. We are the party for all New Zealanders to get ahead to have a chance to build opportunity and to have a sense of hope and security for their future. That is what this Budget called for today. It has totally and utterly failed. Labour is ready to serve.