Foster-Bell Paul: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFoster-Bell Paul: General Debate[Sitting date: 14 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17841. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PAUL FOSTER-BELL (National): Kia ora Mr Speaker. I am very excited that tomorrow our superb Minister of Finance the Hon Bill English will be delivering his sixth Budget under this National Government. It will provide momentum to keep this country moving forward and will stand in stark contrast to our poor cousins across the Tasman who have had to face harsh austerity measures and heavy cutbacks in the investment on their public services. The reason that the Australian Government is in such a poor state and that its finances are sliding downhill is very very simple—that is years of Labor and Greens misrule. The Labour and Green parties here in New Zealand similarly offer no real substance no real alternative. They can only sling mud.I am sure that the New Zealand public will welcome this sensible sound and stable National Government taking steps to lock in the very hard-won progress that the households businesses and in fact all hard-working New Zealanders are achieving. The public also want to see this Government’s accounts back in surplus back in the black instead of the decade of deficits that was the inheritance of this Government from the previous Labour one. We are starting to see the pay-off from National’s good work. Good GDP growth rates have meant that 84000 new jobs have been created in the economy and real wages are rising. And the future is brighter yet. Here in Wellington in the home of the core public services things are going well. Unlike the Opposition I do not disparage our hard-working public servants who are innovative in finding new ways to deliver on improving services to the public whilst operating in an environment of constrained spending.Obviously the lion’s share of new measures will be announced in the Budget tomorrow but there have been a few announcements already made that I would like to refer to. I support any message that helps grow New Zealand’s exports of innovative products and services. Wellington is a creative hub for New Zealand be it movie making software design or even our craft beer industry. So I am delighted that as part of the Business Growth Agenda the Prime Minister and Minister Groser have announced an extra $69 million over 4 years for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise toboost New Zealand’s trade support teams in China South America and the Middle East. Trade and Enterprise the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and those other agencies that support New Zealand firms selling their products offshore deserve our congratulations and our thanks for the increases in trade that they have achieved alongside those hard-working people in the private sector over the past few years. As an ex - Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade employee who had a couple of postings to the Middle East I think it is absolutely fantastic that the Government is investing in giving even more support to exporters in these challenging but highly lucrative markets.I also welcome an excellent measure that supports some of the most dedicated servants of State who have often taken huge risks to safeguard our country—that is the veterans of the armed forces. Today’s announcement by Minister Woodhouse of a $60 million investment in veterans support services is simply wonderful in my view. Extending the veterans pension to every single one of those who have served once they reach 65 years of age is the right thing to do. An extra 16000 veterans will be recognised for their service to the country. I say to Labour members opposite that it is an utter disgrace that they are considering raising the age of eligibility for the veterans pension to 67 years of age. There are members over there who know that that is the wrong thing to do and they should be standing up to their leader on that particular issue for those who have sacrificed to ensure our freedoms.Another announcement that I particularly welcome is the extra $10.4 million over 2 years to support front-line sexual violence services. For those members who do not think that such issues as human trafficking are a problem in our country I would invite them to read this paper by Shimal Sataiya and Mark Calderwood of Waikato University:Critical Analysis of Child Trafficking in New Zealand. We need to take urgent action on this scourge. The situation in Nigeria with Boko Haram is not unique to that area. There are issues here in New Zealand. We are investing in that area. That is the right thing to do. I welcome that initiative as will New Zealanders tomorrow. Thank you.