Mackey Moana: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
Mackey Moana: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14861] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 What a typical Tory speech that was from Chris Tremain. There was no policy and not a single thing about what he might do if he ever got a whiff of the Treasury benches. There was nothing. I say to that member that if ever National manages to grab the Treasury benches he may well learn how easy it is to pick holes in everything and how much harder it is to be a serious Government planning for the future of one’s country and planning to make sure that all citizens are looked after—in their youth middle age and old age. That is the challenge of a real Government and that is what this Government is doing. 
I put my support behind the announcement made yesterday of $700 million up front—and with interest added to it it will be nearly a billion dollars—being put up by this Government for research in pastoral and food sciences. That is the single biggest investment we have had in this area. It is an area that we know we have to get smarter in. It is a risk area for New Zealand in the future. As other countries come on with high-volume low-cost products we need to be doing things better than everyone else and we need the science to back it up. This money will go a long way and not just that; it will be matched—dollar for dollar—by industry. Two billion dollars over the next 10 to 15 years is an extraordinary investment in the science capability of this country. 
We heard from the Food and Beverage Sector Taskforce that New Zealand needed to do better in this area. We heard from the Pastoral 21 research consortium that we needed to do better in this area and last year at the Primary Industries 2020 Summit run by the Hon Jim Anderton in Christchurch we heard again that this was an area that industry felt we really needed to get serious about. That is a forum by the way that the National Party opposed. National asked why money was being spent on the forum because of course National does not think it needs to talk to anyone else about these issues. National thinks it knows everything; it knows best and it does not need to listen to the sector. 
That is extremely evident when we see that the National Party is opposing this funding. Every single other industry group in the sector supports the funding; every single other industry group in the sector says it is long overdue. In the words of Dr Andrew West the head of AgResearch it is a paradigm shift in the way we fund science. I welcome that. I want the people of New Zealand to know that the National Party has said it will scrap this fund. John Key said on Radio New Zealand: “New Zealand does not need such a fund.” I suggest that National might want to go out and talk to the rest of the industry—the agricultural pastoral and food sector—and to the people on the ground about what they think they need. I know what the answer will be. 
National has announced another policy which my colleague Mark Gosche touched on briefly. National has said it will cut the number of public servants. We have been hearing for a long time—about 9 years—that National will fund tax cuts by cutting the fat out of the public sector. It will cut the number of public servants. We heard a speech made by John Key today who stood up intending to be forceful. He was asked whether he would cut the number of public servants and he said: “Ah we don’t know. Maybe not; we’re not sure. We’re going to review it then we might look at it then we might focus-group it a little bit and see kind of where the public wind is shifting to. Then we might keep numbers exactly the same but then we might cap them.” That was interesting given that every single member of the National Party caucus is currently travelling around the country telling people that their projects will be picked up and paid for by Government departments. I do not know who National thinks does that work. I think like Mr Tim Groser said they think it happens in some parallel universe where they put an idea up and somehow magically the policy forms itself. 
Also it is important to point out what the Prime Minister mentioned in question time today. National talks about the growth of public servants under this Labour-led Government but 85 percent of them are front-line public servants. We are talking about doctors teachers nurses police and social workers. If the New Zealand public think that those jobs are not under threat then they need to think again. History tells us that this slippery National Party will say anything to get into Government and then do exactly the opposite once it gets there. I ask members opposite to name the types of public servants that they think are useless and do not need to be there. They should name those who are sucking off the public teat not doing any work and not providing any benefit. 
Chris Tremain 
: We said we’d cap them. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: Mr Tremain should name which ones. He should get beyond the rhetoric stop being slippery and name the public servants that National thinks do not need to be there and are completely superfluous. Maybe they are the people in our public hospitals who are booking operations so that the doctors and nurses can get on with being doctors and nurses. 
I am proud of this Budget Policy Statement. I am proud of the work Michael Cullen has done. This country is in fine hands and it will continue to be beyond this election.