Tremain Chris: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
Tremain Chris: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14860] 
CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 Members of the public will be highly interested to know that that was Mark Gosche a senior member of the Labour Party who spoke then. He is not only a senior member of the Labour Party but a member of the Finance and Expenditure Committee. The reason I know that is not only that I am on the select committee myself but also that Mr Gosche’s name is in Appendix A of the Budget Policy Statement which is in fact the reason for this debate. 
This debate is to discuss the Budget Policy Statement and one would have thought that Mr Gosche being a senior member would focus on the Budget Policy Statement and on the wonderful accolades he would be giving on behalf of the Labour Government. But did he talk about the Budget Policy Statement once? Did he discuss the amazing things it is doing? Not once. Why would one not take that opportunity to discuss one of the Government’s key documents—to advocate for the wonderful things the Government is doing? Why would one not take that opportunity? Whom did Mr Gosche spend the entire time focusing on? He spent it focusing on National’s leader. You know when a senior Government politician spends his entire 10-minute speech focusing on the Leader of the Opposition instead of on a document that should be a key document for the entire Labour Government setting the vision for it then we know the Government is in trouble. 
 Why did Government members not focus on that document? Here are a few questions that show the key reasons for that. Why after 8 years of a Labour Government are we paying the second-highest interest rates in the developed world? Later on I will explain why that is the case when I focus on some of the expenditure listed in this document. Why is the wages gap between New Zealand and Australia and other parts of the world getting bigger and bigger? Mr Gosche did not focus on that issue. Why does Labour give tax cuts only in election year? Tax cuts are budgeted for in these accounts but Mr Gosche did not want to focus on that. He focused on the National Party leader. Why are grocery and petrol prices going through the roof? Mr Gosche did not want to talk very much about that either. Why as Mr Groser asked are hard-working Kiwis unable to afford to buy their own home? 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Why not? 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: Because the cost has moved from 41 percent of the average take-home pay to 81 percent. In no way did Labour speakers want to focus on that issue. 
Why when Labour has an aspiration that New Zealand will become carbon neutral are our greenhouse gas emissions continuing to rise at an alarming rate? Government members did not want to focus on that but the Budget Policy Statement has key issues around the cost of Kyoto now and going forward and around what needs to be budgeted for. And why has the health system not improved despite billions of dollars extra being poured in? 
The answers to those key questions are revealed in this Budget Policy Statement seriously and if we look at page 36 and go forward to the summary of financial indicators we see costs going up and up. That is why that senior Government member did not want to focus on the Budget Policy Statement. 
When the Minister of Finance Michael Cullen came into office in 1999 he had high aspirations about putting a lid on spending. He made a virtue of declaring that the Labour Government would achieve the lowest level of spending as a proportion of GDP since 1978. Yet by 2005 the ratio of spending to GDP was higher than in 1999-2000 when the Government came into office. Although Dr Cullen had good intentions at the start core Crown expenses have risen significantly under this Government and have continued to rise. The Budget Policy Statement shows a $53 billion spend for 2007 projected to be $70 billion in 2012. On top of that core Crown expenses are expected to increase by almost another percentage point of GDP. Expenditure is going through the roof. 
In the remaining minutes I want to focus on another set of accounts that were obtained in January. They show how much expenditure the Government has taken on. This is a year-on-year perspective; it is a comparison with last year. The January 2008 accounts a full year on from those for January 2007 show total core Crown expenses have gone up from $29 billion last year to $32 million—a 9.7 percent increase. Inflation is floating at around 4 percent a year. The key expenses like those for core Government services are up from $1.2 billion to $1.7 billion—up by 33 percent in just 1 year. This Government is incurring massive increases in spending and it is no wonder that Mr Gosche did not want to focus on this Budget Policy Statement but spent his entire speech focusing on John Key.