Mark Ron: Budget Debate 
Mark Ron: Budget Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:16477] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 It gives me great pleasure to make a contribution on behalf of New Zealand First in this 2008 Budget debate. I guess it is worthwhile recapping a couple of the comments that have been made throughout this debate by principally the National Party whose leader seems to call himself the Leader of the Opposition. I always have a problem with that. I really think it is time that this Parliament started being more open and transparent about its Budget. We need to examine whether we have a case of fraud in the House. Under the Standing Orders Mr Key is designated as the Leader of the Opposition. I do not see anywhere in this Budget any reference to his leading an Opposition. He leads a gaggle of 48 lemmings—those things that go over cliffs—and no one else. I have never seen anywhere in the country’s accounts any account of any board meetings held between Mr Key and the other leaders of the Opposition. No minutes are ever taken. But I do see about $7.5 million worth of expenditure coming out of the taxpayers’ coffer to support a man who drives around in a limo. He chastises Government Ministers for driving around in a BMW 7 Series when he himself careers around the nation in a limousine. 
It is about time we had some transparency from the National members who tell everybody there is a huge wastage of taxpayers’ money while being very silent about their own expenditure of $7.5 million of taxpayers’ money on looking after their own interests. Is there another party in the House that gets that sort of funding? 
Jill Pettis 
: No. 
RON MARK 
: No I do not think so. What could we get for $7.5 million? 
Jill Pettis 
: 37 staff in the leader’s office. 
RON MARK 
: Crikey it is bigger than some of the Pacific Island economies that Winston Peters has been talking about. 
Let us take a look at what New Zealand First has secured for the Maori wardens. We are over the moon that once again we have an allocation for Maori wardens. We are over the moon and very very happy with the talks we brokered between the Minister of Police the Commissioner of Police the Maori Wardens Association and the Maori Council with a view to getting the Maori wardens up and functional and back operationally in our communities because we know the work they can do. But in fact Mr Key spends three times the amount of money that the Maori wardens have been allocated. The Maori wardens get $2.3 million out of this Budget which is fantastic. It will go towards capital costs to help them do their job and to re-establish themselves in some communities where they have virtually died out. That is good because in Rotorua alone we have seen a 29 percent reduction in crime as a direct result of New Zealand First’s initiative supported by the Government to reinstate Maori wardens in Rotorua and have them back on the streets and the results have been immediate. 
We could do three times as much if we had the amount of money that Mr Key and his caucus are spending whilst tripping around the country and staying at flash hotels when they have their caucus retreats. We know they need to retreat. We know they are heavily on the back foot. We know they are in serious trouble. We know they are in disarray—Kate Wilkinson has already let a little bit of it out of the bag. I think we need a little bit of openness and transparency about the expenditure of taxpayers’ money. 
Let us look at what New Zealand First has received for superannuitants with the golden age card. “Granny Herald”—the  
New Zealand Herald 
—which is not seen as a great favourite of New Zealand First has finally admitted that superannuitants are the one sector group that is now ahead of its Australian counterparts. So I guess we will see a whole bunch of superannuitants in Australia coming back home because they can do better here with their totally free transport. The other day I heard the prattling of some National Party member asking what free transport would do in the provinces. Well let me tell members about the Wairarapa. I live in Carterton and it costs about $10 a ticket to take the train from there to Wellington—in brand-spanking-new carriages I might say. People can plug in their 230 volt laptop and work in total comfort for the 1 hour trip. It is a great ride. The Government has made a great investment in buying back rail. People can come across to the Wairarapa for a little over 10 bucks. Wrong! Superannuitants can come for free. If they want to travel to Wellington and back three times a week that is 60 bucks free per week. And the National Party wants to take it off them. Well it has a fight coming. If it tries to do that cost-cutting exercise and whack into the superannuitants New Zealand First will be right there to stop them. National should take on board that it is not going to cut those areas when it finally gets into Government—if it gets into Government. 
I want to talk about the police. National members call what is in the Budget for the police a gimmick. They should go and talk to the communities that now have the benefit of more police officers on the beat and with the third tranche rolling out more community police officers. There will be more police going into rural communities. The Budget allocates $180 million towards that. If I have a criticism of Labour it would be that it should stop putting its members on television who are telling people that Labour raised the minimum wage when it was made to do that by the Greens and New Zealand First. I hope that in future when Government members are on television doing these interviews they will say they raised the minimum wage because of an agreement with the Greens and New Zealand First and that they reduced corporate taxes because of an agreement with New Zealand First and United Future. Labour members should stop hogging all the credit when in fact they would never have done those things had they been left to their own devices. They did it because they wanted power. They did it because they wanted to be in Government. They did it because they wanted to be Cabinet Ministers. They did it because they needed our votes. We have honoured our agreement and so have they. Let us be honest with each other and recognise it. That is my only criticism of the Government. 
Let us talk about something else that is great news: the RSA. Through discussions with the Rt Hon Winston Peters in New Zealand First it became clear to us that the RSA was short of a bit of money so we made a pledge to it that we would do everything we could to help. It wanted $1 million. Well holy heck! If we look at the Budget we see that $1 million has been appropriated to the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association to help it with its welfare services fund. We are proud of that. We are pleased with that. We have just had the President of the RSA Robin Klitscher congratulate us and thank us very much on behalf of the association. My question to National member colleagues over there is that if they get into Government and they are looking to cut Government expenditure will they take the money back off the RSA? I want a clear emphatic answer from the next speaker. Just simply say no and we will all be happy. Say nothing and we will not. 
The National Party cannot roll out policy or give any answers when its members go on television day after day. I have a message for Television New Zealand. It should save some taxpayers’ money and stop putting John Key on TV until he is prepared to roll out policy. If all that the taxpayers see on television interviews is John Key saying for half an hour: “We’ll tell you later. We haven’t decided yet. We’re still working on it.” then there is no point in putting him on television.” It should put Rodney Hide Jeanette Fitzsimons Winston Peters Peter Dunne or Jim Anderton on. At least they have policy so they do not have to go to other people’s websites and steal it. 
The office of the leader of the National Party is staffed by 37 people yet the party is still doing its best research on other parties’ websites. There are 37 people in the leader’s unit. It has 48 members of Parliament and 138 staff in this building. That costs taxpayers $7.5 million and the best National can do is steal policies off other people’s websites. We say to cut out the middlemen save $7.5 million give three times more to the Maori wardens and let us be better off. Get rid of them! If that is the sign of a new Government’s innovative forward-thinking vision then people do not have to go for the pirated copy. They should say no to stealing DVDs and to stealing party policy. They should vote for the original even if it is the Greens; even if it is the Maori Party. They should vote for the original. They should not buy a pirated copy particularly a tardy and scratched old DVD such as the one we are looking at. Talking about that I say that Nick Smith Maurice Williamson Lockwood Smith Bill English and Tony Ryall are the old hacks of this House. They should get out and let some of those backbenchers come through. When Chris Finlayson and Chris Tremain come to the front bench we might then see a little bit more transparency out of that party.