Cosgrove Clayton: Budget Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cosgrove Clayton: Budget Debate 
[Sitting date: 29 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2587. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour) 
: 
 The member who has just resumed his seat the Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman talked about the fact that he did not want to tax “hard-working New Zealanders”. Well I know we are not supposed to refer to the gallery but I suspect there are a few hard-working New Zealanders who are just leaving the gallery now. They are the age of cleaners—you know cleaning out the butcher shop—paper boys and paper girls. They are doing those after-school jobs earning 45 bucks or less per week and I would consider those young people are hard-working New Zealanders. I would consider like most of their parents would that that is the ethos they actually want to instil in their kids: to get a job not just for the pocket money but to get those work ethics such as turning up on time contributing etc etc. Actually was that not the sort of entrepreneurship that the “brighter future” of these guys over here in the Government promised? Was it not supposed to be encouraging entrepreneurship encouraging people into getting off their backsides and getting a job?  
That member the Minister of Defence is the man who is responsible for sacking Defence Force staff. I am told and it has been reported in the media that the cost of sacking them is more than their salaries. He stood up and said: “I do not want to tax hard-working New Zealanders.” Well in this tinkering spin little Budget which deals with none of the big issues the first piece of legislation that we addressed of course last week was to tax every dollar that those hard-working young New Zealanders will earn doing their paper rounds doing the cleaning and those sorts of things. But he does not consider them hard-working New Zealanders.  
As I said last week in a speech for many of those young kids it used to be a bit of pocket money. It used to be 45 bucks a week to maybe go to the movies or go out with the mates or whatever. Now for many of those hard-working young New Zealanders the 45 bucks a week that he is going to cream the tax off is not pocket money any more not in South Auckland parts of Christchurch parts of New Zealand. Actually what the 45 bucks a week is is a contribution to the family budget forced on them because the family have to make ends meet. He talks about the great plan that National has. Well let us go through it. We have already dealt with the sort of mean-spirited pickpocket-like measure in the Budget taxing the paper boys. That is the first thing and that is going to generate a massive 14 million bucks over 4 years. What a huge amount of money that is in the scheme of things! That is the big issue that that member the Minister of Defence said his Government is dealing with.  
Then on the other side of the generational divide we had the sort of mean-spirited scrimp away have-a-crack-at-elderly rest home care and the asset testing around that. We know the record of the National Government yea unto the Middle Ages in respect of its conduct with elderly New Zealanders who are some of the most vulnerable going back to the Muldoon days coming forward to the Bolger days and now this Government does it again. So we carve a little bit off the paper boys we nip a bit out of the old folks and then the other big great part of the plan or mosaic is of course flogging off assets—State-owned assets that give an 18.5 percent return as opposed to a debt-servicing cost of around 4 percent. If you are in business you would label the great “Maestro” and his ilk as nuts.  
And they talk about borrowing. They talk about borrowing $300 million a week or has that member forgotten what he passed in his own previous Budget? It is $300 million a week in the middle of the global financial crisis not to fund capital or hospitals or schools or the things that are critical to growing a nation but of course to provide an across-the-board tax cut where his mates and his ilk—the top few percent—get the vast majority. So that is the great plan: kick the paper boys in the guts kneecap the old folks give your mates a big tax cut borrow and hope and then because you have got no money and no plan to grow the economy borrow $300 million a week. That is the grand plan. Then you bundle in increasing class sizes. Does anybody in this Chamber believe that parents will believe that their kids are going to get a better education if class sizes increase? If you can find a parent in this country who believes their kids are going to get a better start in life as the class sizes increase then put up the ante I say to that side. 
Then the next step in the Budget of course we know is cutting teachers. Hekia Parata—I agree with Trevor Mallard—had a damned good shot at becoming the next leader of the National Party. Now there is hope for Mr Coleman of course after she blew apart in the last 24 hours because of— 
Phil Twyford 
: He looks good. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: He looks good? Yeah well I would not say that. Her promise of course in the Budget— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Leave the cigar out of it. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Well he is blowing smoke up all sorts of places is he not? Hekia Parata of course in her own budget said that schools could lose around six to eight teachers. Then suddenly she comes back into the Chamber and says: “Oh no intermediate schools I guarantee will lose only up to two teachers over 3 years.” A big backdown and the Budget is only a week old. So we have got increasing class sizes we have got cutting teachers and we know that exports are down even though Mr Key thinks they are up because he cannot read the latest Statistics New Zealand information.  
Then we have Paula Bennett’s legacy: 50000 more on the scrap heap of unemployment and nothing done about that and 53000 Kiwis leaving our shores every year over 1000 a week when Mr Key promised he would get that down. That is the report card of the National Government and their grand plan talks about asset sales kneecapping kids and old folks and tinkering around the edges. Like David Shearer I will concede that the money provided around the science and innovation area is good stuff. But it is not good enough; they should never have reversed the research and development tax credit which our Government in Government put in place. But I have to say to be fair let us call it as it is: it is good stuff. But the problem National members have is that they try to scrutinise us. The great “Maestro” forgets that he is in Government he gets a quarter of a million bucks a year and a BMW he has a warrant and he is responsible for this Budget. It is incumbent upon that member and his Cabinet and his caucus to convince New Zealanders that this is the right course of action.  
Actually if you read the papers people are bored with this. They know there is no plan. The Government is under fire from the business community in Auckland who know there is no business strategy to grow our entrepreneurial sector to grow jobs and to grow exports. There is nothing in this Budget at all to do that and the great diversion is to ask what other people would do. Well here is the problem Mr Coleman I say through you Mr Assistant Speaker. In Government the problem is that if you want the warrant the BMW the big fat salary and the cigar you have actually got to be accountable for your Government and your Budget. They have a plan that flicks a few dollars—a lot of dollars—off the old folks a few dollars off the youngest and most vulnerable and flogs off our assets needlessly. And with their own logic they have not been able to sell that one to the public; 80 percent of New Zealanders say “We do not want our assets sold.” So as the old “Smokeball” over there grins away his head sort of nodding that is the problem he has got when 80 percent of his own constituency do not agree with asset sales because first they know it is illogical and second the Government has not even been able to make the case for it. In fact its advice to the community has been contradictory.  
So that is the grand plan for New Zealand. That is the grand plan: a bit of spin a bit of smoke and a bit of tinkering around the edges. That is the grand plan for New Zealand and that is where it ends with this Government. That is where it ends with this Government. The brighter future the innovation and encouraging our entrepreneurship—I thought we wanted to do that for the really young. I thought we wanted to embed those in the mind-set of our youngest kids at school so they had the work habits as they grew up. But oh no not with “Uncle Scrooge” over there old “Goldfinger” and the rest of his people. That is not innovation; that is not the brighter future. They have sold out New Zealand. This is not a Budget of hope; this is a Budget of despair and surrender from the National Government.