Wong Pansy: Budget Debate 
Wong Pansy: Budget Debate 
[Volume:639;Page:9640] 
PANSY WONG (National) 
: 
 That was the Minister responsible for Climate Change Issues but did we hear anything on climate change? No! Did he answer the question posed by our very learned colleague the Hon Nick Smith? Will the Minister give foresters their carbon credits? They are waiting for his answer so that they can start planting trees. Will the Minister give them the credits? No. 
I detected in that speech made by that Minister a really worried tone. He was very defensive about the Labour Government’s 2007 Budget because he knew that it will be remembered as the “Michael Cullen Swansong Retirement Budget”. Apart from Friday’s news coverage—1 day’s news coverage—there has been no more news coverage of the Budget apart from coverage of KiwiSaver which I will come back to. Nobody is talking about the Budget. The Labour Government’s Budget this year—the year before election year—is meant to get people excited and talking about it for days and days. But we the politicians are the only group talking about it and that is because we have to. The Budget debate happens to be a set-piece parliamentary debate; otherwise many of us would like to talk about something more urgent or exciting. We are like the rest of New Zealand: no one wants to talk about the Budget. 
The other thing I found really strange coming from the Minister responsible for Climate Change Issues was his saying how under the Labour Government’s leadership New Zealand is doing so wonderfully well. I hope the next Labour speaker will enlighten us and the public of New Zealand by sharing with us how come if we are doing so well after 8 years of a Labour-led Government New Zealand’s OECD ranking has gone down from 20 to 22. How come that is the case? If we are doing so well why are we not returning to the top half of the OECD? 
I want the next Labour speaker to comment also on why under this Labour Government New Zealand’s productivity is the lowest it has ever been. How come in terms of the statistics we are not doing very well? Actually the only sector doing well is the Government’s public service sector. It is the only sector that is growing. Members should think about it. The Inland Revenue Department is to have 400 new staff just to implement the first phase of KiwiSaver. With all the complications introduced by last Thursday’s Budget I would hate to think by how much more the staffing of the Inland Revenue Department alone will increase. 
I have been listening intently to the debate and I find that Labour members’ speeches on the Budget have a common theme going through them. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Panic. 
PANSY WONG 
: Apart from panic they cannot stop talking about the incoming Prime Minister—National’s John Key. They keep on asking what John Key would do in relation to tax cuts. What tax cuts would John Key announce? How would John Key fund tax cuts? What would John Key do with KiwiSaver? One would think they would want to talk about their leader Helen Clark and about what she thinks. They do not care what she thinks; they know it is more important to hear what the incoming Prime Minister has to say and what is on his mind. All the speeches I have heard are about what John Key is going to do and how he will do it. 
The good news is that they are not the only ones who want to hear from our leader John Key the incoming Prime Minister. Last Monday John Key visited Waiheke Island. I invite all members to visit Waiheke Island with its growing tourism and wine sectors. Well the  
Gulf News 
— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: A good cross-section of people there. 
PANSY WONG 
: Absolutely. Nobody can accuse  
Gulf News 
 the local newspaper on Waiheke Island of being a right-wing newspaper—no way. This is what it says about the visit of our National leader John Key to Waiheke—an island with growing National support. He went to a women’s network luncheon at the Goldwater Estate winery. There were many people on the waiting list. Capacity was a problem. That evening he addressed a capacity crowd at the island’s Rotary club. But I am keener to share what the good sensible women on Waiheke Island wanted to discuss—not many people talked about the Budget by the way. The first thing they wanted to know was how John Key felt about the lack of opportunities for their children. They were worrying that their children were going to Australia and they asked whether John Key could do something to stop it from happening. They want their families to be together—to be united in New Zealand. They said that because of low incomes and student debt their children cannot afford to stay in New Zealand. 
John Key shared with them that indeed that was true because in the last 5 years Australia’s after-tax income has increased by 33 percent. Guess what New Zealand’s after-tax income has increased by? Half of that! That is why youngsters are leaving for Australia. Our country has a population of 4 million people. One million New Zealanders live overseas. Australia has a population of 22 million people and only 800000 Australians live overseas. Those women were not asking questions about the Budget; they were interested in opportunities for their children. 
In one of the answers John Key gave—and I want to share this with our listeners because I got the same message from the university students I talked with—he talked about education about having a skilled workforce and about creating opportunities for our skilled youngsters to grow into. He talked about the importance of education and the importance of striving for excellence. In talking with university students I was told that their big concern was the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). First of all they said they regretted that when they were going through high school they did not work as hard as they should have because under NCEA they could receive only “Achieved”. They were not rewarded for putting in additional effort. They regretted that because the jump from high school standards to university standards proved to be really hard. Secondly they found it really hard undergoing the examination system in the universities after not being used to such a system at high school. These are the types of issues that people out there are concerned about. 
Another issue is safety. Can anyone blame young women in the universities for talking about safety? They do not feel safe. We need only to look at all the scandals and scams in our prison system. On the television news just today we heard that a mother and her child have had to move from their home because a young sex offender under the watch of Child Youth and Family had returned to the community and was able to move around freely and terrorise people. Where is the victim’s right? A mother and her child have had to pack up and leave their community while a sex offender is free to live there. What happened to victims’ rights? I think New Zealand First members talk tough but they have never got Labour to deliver on those policies that they think are important. 
I understand why Labour members keep wanting to know our leader’s opinion on tax cuts because after the next election if Labour cannot hold on to its minority Government status they will be out there joining the workforce and they will want a tax cut to make sure they have more take-home pay. I also predict that next year Labour will finally introduce tax cuts in its Budget. We know that it has already adopted the policy of our leader—the incoming Prime Minister—of removing the tax cap on donations to charity so we can look forward to tax cuts in the next Budget.