Gallagher Martin: Budget Debate 
Gallagher Martin: Budget Debate 
[Volume:639;Page:9665] 
MARTIN GALLAGHER (Labour—Hamilton West) 
: 
 I listened to Dr Paul Hutchison with a huge sense of sadness that his career should have led him to this House today to be negative when secretly in his heart he wants to be positive. He knows in his heart that this is a fantastic and wonderful country to live in. I just feel for members on the other side who must feel deep depression that that they have to stand there and belittle. 
 I was talking to my good colleague Barbara Stewart before and I know that in her speech she mentioned a Jane Clifton article. I do not always agree with Jane Clifton but gee she was right: “Budget envy is a perfectly reasonable reaction but are we really worse off than our Aussie neighbours? Over the past five years a new fixture has been added to the political calendar: the annual Australian Budget snivel-fest. It’s becoming not only an embarrassing development in our national character but also it’s infantilising.” Believe you me there is no snivel-fest on the Government side of the House because we are proud to be New Zealanders. We are proud of this country. We will not sell it down because it is a great great country. It is absolutely amazing. I just cannot believe the constant stream of negativity that has come from the Opposition side of the House. 
Chester Borrows 
: Oh yes you can. 
MARTIN GALLAGHER 
: The National members of the Law and Order Committee which I chair are excellent members of that select committee. Chester Borrows Kate Wilkinson and particularly Simon Power are very positive members. If members come to our select committee they will see those members in a positive light because they are doing very constructive things. All of them seem to change when they come into this Chamber. They change into the dour negative beings that they have become tonight. I feel for them because in their heart of hearts they want to be positive about this country. 
Talking of positive events as the member for Hamilton West I made a submission a few days ago to the Hamilton City Council draft annual plan and its 10-year plan. I took the opportunity at that meeting to pay great tribute to the outgoing—now former—mayor Michael Redman. I take this opportunity in the House as one of the representatives of the city of Hamilton to compliment Michael Redman on his outstanding and superb leadership of that city. I want to commit to the record of this Parliament that he has been an excellent leader. I wish Michael Redman and his wife Kelly all the best for the future and I acknowledge the very excellent role he will play as the city’s chief executive. We have exported our very good former chief executive Tony Marriott to the good city of Christchurch. Hamilton produces some very fine quality people. 
Tonight my electorate manager was at the Hamilton City Council meeting and I take this opportunity to wish Bob Simcock all the best—as would I am sure all members from both sides of this House. Tonight he has been appointed mayor of the city of Hamilton. I wish Bob Simcock and Anthea who is our new mayoress all the best for the next few months until the mayoral election in October. I am sure I join with all the Waikato members in saying we will continue to work with him and the council to promote and advance our wonderful and great city. 
I also take this opportunity to congratulate Councillor Pippa Mahood who has been selected as the deputy mayor of our city. She has an outstanding record of service to our city over the years. She is a good friend and colleague and she will continue her good work. Councillor Daphne Bell who is a relatively new councillor has now taken over as the chair of recreation and community services. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Members ask what this has to do with the Budget but I am talking about a city that has benefited from this Budget. That is what I am talking about. I am talking about a relationship between central government and local government that is not one of sneering and dismissal—as we had under the previous National Government—but one of mutual respect of mateship and of getting on with it. In Hamilton we see excellent and fine civic leadership and I am very surprised that when I am acknowledging the leadership of my city members opposite should belittle that by waving around a document. 
But it is appropriate that they should wave the Budget 2007 document because that Budget is the reason why my city and region are on a roll. It provides the building blocks. Let us take the special transport package put into my city in large part because of the excellent lobbying done by Government members working together with the local authorities. Let us pay full tribute to the fact that an extra $145 million has been put into the State highway budget to keep that State highway project on a roll. Let us pay tribute to this green Government to this really environmentally sensitive Government for electrifying Auckland metropolitan rail. Why should I as a member for Hamilton be enthusiastic about that? I will say why. Because even someone who has studied just Economics 101 knows that if the Auckland economy is working then of course the Waikato benefits. Obviously conversely if the Waikato economy is working then Auckland benefits as well. I join with my council in saying that we continue to be very enthusiastic about the potential for a commuter rail link between Hamilton and Auckland and no doubt the massive improvement of rail infrastructure in Auckland will support that. 
I went to primary school in Hamilton to Whitiora School and Maeroa Intermediate School. I was at primary school when Keith Holyoake was in Parliament. I remember meeting him at the Founders Memorial Theatre years ago in 1963. Keith Jacka Holyoake was a bit of a hero of mine. He was a wonderful constructive Prime Minister. In those days we had the Post Office Savings Bank Squirrel account. We saved. What is its successor under this wonderful Government? It is called KiwiSaver. The sad remnants of the National Party do not deserve to be mentioned in the same breath and be in the same room as Keith Jacka Holyoake and the vision he had for this country. 
Indeed I like the statement “Budget for the battlers”. Yes Budget 2007 is a Budget for the battlers and nothing more exemplifies that than the wonderful KiwiSaver programme. It is a wonderful incentive to get our people saving. Comparisons with Australia are all very well and all the people over there on the Opposition benches try to make some sort of comparison with Australia but they totally ignore all the various taxes that the Australians pay. They forget also that Australia when compared with New Zealand has a much better concise savings record and has a much greater focus on saving for retirement. 
I believe that KiwiSaver will be the circuit-breaker this country has been looking for. It is about vision. I come from a visionary city. I am so proud to be part of a visionary Government. It is about vision. KiwiSaver is about vision. The reality is that when the history books are opened the people opposite will be but a footnote. Michael Cullen and the Rt Hon Helen Clark will have chapters and chapters of New Zealand’s history dedicated to them this Government and their leadership. This Budget is about leaving a legacy for our children grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I genuinely have a sense that we are in historic times and it is such a pleasure to be part of the wonderful building blocks. 
The Budget has done a whole lot of other great things. I have talked about the advances in transport. But the one thing that really gets me excited is KiwiSaver. I reflected very deliberately on the time when I as a primary schoolkid along with so many other primary schoolkids had a Post Office Savings Bank Squirrel account I think it was called. We were putting something away for the future. It was about a vision for the future—something that Keith Holyoake and an earlier National Party had. Sadly the National Party has lost that vision under the bunch of money traders who are now running it today. KiwiSaver is about vision; it is about putting away for the future and giving New Zealanders security in retirement. But there is a warning. We are getting hints already that if the other crowd becomes the Government somehow the retirement pension will be whittled away. Labour guaranteed a State pension hence the so-called Cullen fund. But in addition we want to encourage as many people as possible to save through KiwiSaver to supplement their retirement income. I think that is a great step forward. 
In the few seconds I have left I want to say how proud I am to represent the city of Hamilton. I again congratulate our new mayor and deputy mayor and say it is wonderful to be part of such a positive region that is benefiting from such a wonderful positive Government. 
Debate interrupted.