Cunliffe David: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 26 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3979. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn): Imagine that the member who has just resumed his seat Jami-Lee Ross was a plumber or a builder and that you had a leaky roof and it took 7 long years for the plumber to come and fix it and when he turned up he put a few tiles on and left a few holes so that the water kept leaking through. That is about as good as National’s attempt at solving the housing crisis. There is a much bigger problem in this Budget. This Budget is a Budget of broken promises. It is a Budget that has a deficit of ideas as well as financing. In my remarks today I am going to quickly run through the headline promises that have been broken. I am then going to say why this Budget does nothing for the portfolios that it is my privilege to represent: tertiary education regional development and innovation.The No. 1 broken promise in this Budget is the return to surplus. It was a centrepiece of National’s re-election campaign. It had been trumpeted for the last 5 years. It is the reason the Government stopped funding superannuation it is the reason that it has starved pay rises for hard-working New Zealanders and it is the reason that it has short-changed research and innovation. It is the reason that it has done a whole lot of things to get back to surplus but it did not get there. In the seventh innings—no home run. Labour—nine out of nine. I wonder how long it is going to take New Zealanders to ask the question: “If National is so good at managing the economy why can’t it balance its cheque book? What is wrong with the National Government that it can’t balance its cheque book?”. If it took 7 years to get a plumber and they could not fix your roof if it took 7 years to get an accountant and he could not balance your cheque book do you know what you would do? You would get a different one. There may be a lesson in that.The second broken promise: Mr Key said that over the next 2 years the Government was going to create over 150000 new jobs. Well it has fallen 60000 short—60000 short. He said he would raise the average wage from $55000 to $62000. It is $3000 short. It promised that it would retain the $1000 kick-start contribution in KiwiSaver. Hey presto! Next minute it is gone—it is gone. It said that it would not increase any taxes or bring in any new taxes. This is like President Bush: “Read my lips: no new taxes”. Well we got three in this year’s Budget alone. We got a broadband tax we got a visitor tax and we got a kind of a half-pie capital gains tax with a leaky roof. That is three new taxes. Just imagine if it could actually do it properly but it broke three promises. It also said it would increase exports to 40 percent. Do you know what? Exports are going backwards as a percentage of GDP.This amounts to poor economic management—poor economic management. The Government has surfed the upside of the recovery after the global financial crisis. That is the time that you put some money away you run a surplus and you pay back the deficit spending that we accept needed to be done when the economy was in a hole—except the Government did not because it could not because there was no surplus. National staked its credibility on that and now it has none—now it has none. There is a deficit of finance and a deficit of ideas.Part of the reason that National cannot get back to surplus is that our regions are going backwards. Unemployment is stubbornly high in places like Northland the East Coast the Manawatū and the northern South Island. In a lot of our rural and provincial regions unemployment is at 7 and 8 percent. People cannot get jobs and they cannot move because they cannot sell their houses and move to a bigger centre because their house is worth not very much. It is called a poverty trap. The only way to address it is to get jobs and growth in the regions—in every region—so that New Zealanders can work their way to a better future. That is what Labour stands for. The clue is in the name: work. We work to a better fairer future for all New Zealanders. We stand for giving hope and resources and a leg-up to every region.Where is National’s systematic help for the East Coast—Te Tai Rāwhiti—and where is it in Northland? Simon “Bridges” Bridges is here one day gone tomorrow. People are not so stupid. Where is the help in the Bay of Plenty? Where is that harbour project in Ōpōtoki? Where is the railhead to Northport? Where are the breakthrough projects that will drive the high-value manufacturing jobs in New Plymouth where Jonathan Young comes from or up and down in Canterbury? Where is the high-tech manufacturing boom? There is not one because what has National put up in this Budget? A paltry $25 million for one to three so-called regional innovation centres. What happens in the other 20 regions? Irrigation New Zealand—Amy Adams’ friend—reckons it has already got that sewn up. Well nobody else need apply. I see in the Waikato Times that the Waikato thinks it is getting one. Well I do not think so. I think the irrigators have already trickled away the money. There is nothing strategic for the regions. It is a bit of window dressing.What about tertiary education? What is needed is a tangible boost for a sector that has been under a sinking lid for far too long. It is a sector that has been a driver and should be a driver of smart ideas smart graduates and smart jobs that will help our economy and our society flourish; a sector where the hard work and professionalism of both academic and professional staff should be valued and rewarded; and one where all three roles of higher education are recognised—research teaching and its role as a critic and conscience of society. It should be one where students should be supported to be the best that they can be with fair allowances and fair accessible affordable loans right throughout their education not stopping halfway through a post-graduate degree like medicine dentistry or a PhD so that only rich kids need apply.That is not good enough. That is why Labour says that we will extend student allowances and student loans for the full term of post-graduate education including medicine dentistry and doctorates. We are not going to leave our graduate students high and dry halfway through.What is the Government now doing for tertiary education? Well it said it was pumping in $113 million in the Budget. Really? It took away $17 million by limiting fee rises to 3 percent. It took away $13 million which is just unspent carry-overs from last year then takes away $50 million from the reduced number of tertiary students that were forecast to come through from Vote Education and another $20 million from the Inland Revenue Department. And do you know what the result is? It is $113 million in $115 million out—there is no new money for tertiary education. There is no new money for tertiary education at all. That is why Steven Joyce will continue to do what he has been doing. He will simply say to the universities and the polytechs: “Just make do. Pass on your costs to the poor old students and if you really can’t make it get a few more students from China.”That is how the Government is robbing Peter to pay Paul. It may rearrange the deckchairs. It gave agriculture—surprise surprise; the farmers’ friend—20 percent more and it cut funding for a whole lot of other courses. There was no real boost for the really smart stuff: the information and communications technology that will power our economy into the future. Like Oliver Twist students were told to take the crumbs: “Be grateful. Your fees are going up only 3 percent not 4 percent. That’ll save you a whole $60 a year.”Hon David Parker: At a time when inflation is zero.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: At a time when inflation is zero. Well Labour is committed to a full review of student loans and allowances so that any Kiwi kid from any part of New Zealand and any family can get the training that they need to be the best that they can be. It is good for them it is good for their families it is good for our communities and it is good for our country. That is how we become a small smart nation.This brings me finally to innovation. Where is the boost for innovation? In last year’s Budget there was $201622000. In this year’s Budget there is $201622000—no new money for innovation. There is no investment in the step change we need to be a smart country. Broken promises deficit of finance—