Bennett Paula: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett Paula: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 07 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11752. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PAULA BENNETT (Associate Minister of Finance): If you had been listening to the Opposition members over the last few days since this Budget you would think the country was all doom and gloom. They have just had a wedding and yet they are already out of the honeymoon phase. The honeymoon is over.I want to stand up and put on the record in no uncertain terms a huge congratulations to Bill English for what I think is an absolutely awesome Budget. It is a Budget that is sound it is a Budget that is solid and it is a Budget that is actually delivering for New Zealand and New Zealanders. Actually you still hear that doom and gloom from the Opposition members. I almost think they have done what I thought was kind of impossible—and I did not think was actually possible too much—they make Bill English sound positively optimistic and bursting with positivity which of course that man is. And why should he not be when we are looking at growth rates of 2.8 percent when we have projections of another 170000 jobs coming on board and when we are seeing the average wage rise to $63000—that is real money in real New Zealanders’ pockets making a real difference for them and their families—and when you have got projections of unemployment falling to below 5 percent?We should take a moment for this in all seriousness. You see Bill English actually when we needed it in this country—when we were in the global financial crisis when we were seeing Christchurch need it—and when we were in deficits of $18.5 billion turned that around last year to surpluses. We have got surpluses projected of $700 million and then going right up to that 2.5 percent. That deserves a round of applause for Bill English and the work he is doing.He is paying off debt as you would expect as many households do themselves. When they can they spend that money that they have to but then they actually start paying it back as they can. We are well on projections to have our core Crown deficits below 20 percent by 2020-21 peaking this year at 25.6 percent. I think that that is pretty extraordinary and it is unsurprising that it is the envy of many in the world when you can see those sorts of numbers.Let us get to numbers and there is one that I reckon has not perhaps had the attention that it could have—and quite frankly I blame some of it on Dr Coleman because his health budget things were so great. We are seeing such big numbers in health and we are seeing such big numbers in new schools being built but I do just want to concentrate just a little bit on that $761 million package for Innovative New Zealand. If I can put my Minister for Climate Change Issues hat on for one second and just say that $411 million invested in science and innovation is actually investing in our kids in us right now and in our futures and what is coming through. Equally you can see that investment coming into climate change and you can see that making an absolute difference in that area.Tertiary education is getting its fair share of this money and I think it is making a huge difference when it really comes down to it. The list goes on and I know Opposition members get a little bit bored with it—but it is because there is so much happening. Let us go to public infrastructure. I mean it is massive. We are talking new schools we are talking new classrooms we are talking over $880 million—investing in our children and their education. I have heard much rhetoric from the Opposition—lots of little different bits chipping in about how this is not about the kids and their future—and then we see numbers like that which make a real difference.Let us move to health—Hon Members: Oh!Hon PAULA BENNETT: —$2.2 billion. Thank you. [Interruption] Unnecessary—unnecessary honestly. But the actual health budget in this does deserve a round of applause—those members are absolutely correct. Let me get my numbers right: we have got $1.6 billion going into district health boards and another $169 million going to disability support. We have got ambulance services; mental health is getting more money; we have got bowel cancer screening which is literally lifesaving; we have pharmaceuticals coming out—which of course we have heard some incredibly sad stories about and it is a privilege to be in Government and able to put that money in so that we can help those people who really need it; and we have the elective surgeries and the numbers that are going on there are absolutely massive.I would also like to talk about the money that is going into housing—Hon Members: Oh!Hon PAULA BENNETT: —and that is extraordinary. Thank you. I am just—it is lovely. Are you feeling it? I am feeling it. I am feeling the glow. Thank you very much.This is the Government that for the very first time is actually putting money into emergency housing. [Interruption]There is $41 million going into emergency housing. They can make as much noise as they like but Labour never put funding into emergency housing and gave them certainty of funding to keep their doors open when they needed it. They can carp on but the truth is that it is this Government that is delivering for all New Zealanders.We are seeing $200 million more go into social housing to pay for those houses—more than 750 new houses on top of the more than 1000 that are currently being built and are making a genuine difference for those people who are in need. We can hear rhetoric or we can see a building programme that is making an actual difference and that is what you are seeing on this side of the House.What I also want to touch on is the social investment package. I do want to touch on the social investment package because it is very very important. More than $650 million is going into those more vulnerable children and their families and making a substantial difference for them. That is new money that is going into those very kids who are doing it the hardest in this country. It is about actually targeting your funding in the right place for the right length of time. That will make the right difference.If I can pick up on how you can see the difference that is happening within that social investment spend—and let us get to some real numbers here. When we did the first valuation of welfare liability it was at $86 billion. The latest valuation under Minister Tolley is now $68.4 billion. That is an $18 billion difference. They might not say that that is about real people but it is about real people. What that means is we have 55000 fewer children—that is the population of Rotorua—who are no longer growing up in welfare-dependent homes. They have got hope their parents have got jobs and they have got real opportunities—and that has happened under this Minister and this Government and it is absolutely making a difference.We can do better; we can always do better. When you look at social investment and you start pulling in the spend from health the spend from education and the spend within Child Youth and Family the spend and the data that come together you recognise the hardship of those families and that they have not got there overnight. It has been decades of neglect quite frankly and deprivation that has led them to where they are. This is the Government that is stepping up that is putting the money in where it is actually needed and that is making the biggest difference for those more vulnerable families.We are seeing the benefits of last year’s Budget. We are seeing the extra money that went into beneficiaries’ pockets for the first time in literally 40 years and which made one of the biggest differences that we have seen.This Budget this year is a Budget about infrastructure. It is a Budget about investing in our future when it comes to Innovative New Zealand. It is a Budget that gets to the heart of New Zealanders for the health the education the justice the law and order and the education and social welfare that matter the most to them. It is a Budget that actually delivers in the future when you look at growth and you look at debt coming down. It is the hard work and dedication of people like Bill English who tirelessly work for this country giving people security and sensible policy and options in a Budget that fundamentally makes the biggest difference. Alongside a leader like John Key who backs him with that kind of commitment that we see for this country this is a Budget that has delivered. I commend it to the House.