Wilkinson Kate: Budget Debate 
Wilkinson Kate: Budget Debate 
[Volume:673;Page:19079] 
Hon KATE WILKINSON (Minister of Conservation) 
: 
 It is an absolute pleasure to speak in support of the 2011 Budget which will help New Zealanders and will help Cantabrians. This year’s Budget is about building faster economic growth around higher national savings setting a credible path back to surplus and repaying debt and rebuilding Christchurch and Canterbury over the next few years. In particular I am delighted to be able to head home to Canterbury and to tell the people of Canterbury that this Government has delivered on its commitment to build their region. This Budget is significant for Canterbury but not only is it significant for Canterbury; it is significant for New Zealand and New Zealanders. However for me personally it is particularly significant for Canterbury because this Budget delivers $5.5 billion for the new Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Fund. 
Coincidentally and interestingly 5.5 was also the force of Monday morning’s aftershock in Canterbury so 5.5 seems to be a recurring figure. The aftershocks keep coming the nerves keep rattling but we will keep supporting Canterbury because we are delivering $5.5 billion for Canterbury and that is not a sum to be scoffed at. It is no small sum because we are talking about spending on local infrastructure spending on social services and spending on roads water schools hospitals welfare support and wage subsidies. There is $5.5 billion going directly into the region and this money will bring with it employment. It will see tradesmen and support services flowing into the region with the locals being the first to pick up the jobs they need. Christchurch will be the construction capital of the country and this National Government is helping to build it and rebuild it. We are talking about tens of thousands of jobs starting this year. Rebuilding Canterbury after two—and now some more—nasty earthquakes will be a long and difficult task. For many the grief remains very real and very personal but we move on and rebuild our lives and our region and the Government is committed to providing the resources to do that. 
To break down the $5.5 billion a little bit more: $1.1 billion has already been allocated for local infrastructure $85 million for assets such as schools and hospitals and $521 million for welfare and emergency support with $3.2 billion remaining in the back pocket for future decisions on issues such as land remediation and as needed for further infrastructure. 
It goes without saying that everyone would prefer that we had never had to endure either the September or the February earthquake. We would love to spend a sunny autumn day walking down Cashel Mall and eating lunch in Cathedral Square—both now in the red zone—but our reality and our normality have changed and now we get on with what needs to be done. This Budget delivers the necessary tools and resources that will see Cantabrians getting back their lives. 
I repeat that $5.5 billion is allocated for the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Fund to provide certainty for rebuilding Canterbury—no small sum. Earthquake bonds are being established to help Kiwis fund the recovery and provide investors with a new savings option which is a win-win. The Budget provides 4500 places for construction-related training including 1500 new places worth a total of $42 million $25 million for the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority over 2 years to help the authority lead the rebuild and $10 million for social service agencies and counselling support for Cantabrians rebuilding their lives. The Canterbury Labour MPs—shame on them—will be voting against this. They will be voting against $5.5 billion going into our region which needs it so much. 
I remind the House what has already been committed and spent in respect of Canterbury: 63000 Cantabrians and their families have been supported by our $200 million wage support and job-loss cover package $6.8 million to help earthquake-affected Canterbury businesses get back on their feet $4 million to help exporters reassure partners that Christchurch is open for business—and it is—and $625000 for Christchurch and Canterbury tourism. And the Canterbury Labour MPs will vote against it. 
But this Budget does much more than that. It sets the country as a whole on the path it needs to be on. We cannot keep borrowing as we have been. It is not sustainable. We know it businesses know it and the public know it. The only people who do not know it are sitting opposite because under their plans we would end up spending $45 billion more in the coming years and that would all be paid for by hitting New Zealanders with more and higher taxes. Stuart Nash even wants to introduce a tax on turnover. Well that will work! Labour’s emissions trading scheme alone would end up costing farms about $35000 to $40000 per farm to operate. What would that do? It is quite simple. It would put the prices up. It would up the price of milk butter cheese meat and bread. Those prices would go up because of Labour’s plan. 
What is Labour’s other plan? It is to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. What would that plan do? It would cost up to 6000 jobs. On day one up to 6000 jobs would be gone because Labour ideologically wants to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour which we would all love to see but which is not sustainable. It is pure ideology—6000 jobs down the gurgler just like that if Labour had its way. 
But it gets worse than that because if Labour had its way it would also throw away the 13000 people who were assisted into jobs by taking advantage of the 90-day trial period. That is the benefit of the 90-day trial period to date. So Labour’s plan is to get rid of 20000 jobs—yet Labour members say they care about the working person. It is absolute rubbish. They have no plan. They do not know even how to spell the word “sustainable” let alone what it means because if they did they would have more sensible policies than they have. 
This Government has instead produced a realistic and pragmatic Budget which aims to have us back in surplus by 2015. That means getting spending under control putting a curb on the “good time” policies that were putting this country’s finances under huge strain and directing money into the areas where the public need it. Health gets $2.2 billion in new spending over the next 4 years. Just as some examples: $68 million is spent on more elective surgery—and that has to be good for the country—$54 million for maternity care $20 million in medicines and $18 million for 40 more places in medical schools. Education gets $1.4 billion including $550 million to increase access to early childhood education. 
This is a remarkable Budget an absolutely remarkable Budget. It is an austere Budget but it is what New Zealand needs to bring it back on to a sound economic footing after the devastation the previous Labour Government left us some years back. Annual inflation when Labour left office in 2008 was 5.1 percent. It is now 4.5 percent. Our tax reforms mean that 75 percent of New Zealand taxpayers now face a top marginal rate of only 17.5 percent. Average after-tax wages have increased by 7.1 percent in the past year—faster than the rate of inflation—and in real terms by 4.5 percent. Increases in after-tax wages have flowed through to superannuation for our older people. Superannuation has increased $166 a fortnight for a married couple since September 2008 an increase of almost 20 percent. This is good sound economic management. This is a great Budget. This is a particularly great Budget for Canterbury and I would be ashamed if I were a Labour Canterbury MP having to vote against it.