Jones Shane: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeJones Shane: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate[Sitting date: 26 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11308. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Supplementary EstimatesHon SHANE JONES (Labour):That was the sacrificial lamb to John Banks otherwise known as Mr Goldsmith who I think is now the chair of our Finance and Expenditure Committee. If that speech is reflective of how that committee is run I can see why Winston found it far more interesting to talk about Peter Dunne. We need a far greater and more spirited delivery from the putative Minister if he wants to follow the track of other former very important formidable personalities who have chaired that committee.Hon Craig Foss: That’s correct—yes.Hon SHANE JONES: Yes but I have to ask myself why was the senior whip of the National Party not promoted recently? Rather than going for the sitting member from Rotorua I think that that party needs to address why it continually passed over talent such as the member from the Taupō area who was unfortunately as we say in Māori put to the side—not quite to pasture; that is for the pompadour down there on that side of the House.Let me come back to this Budget. Firstly if there is an area where the Budget fails miserably it is on jobs. That failure is shared evenly on that side of the House although the Minister of Māori Affairs—and we had him at the select committee today—I think is particularly responsible for failing to advocate and influence the actual thinking and prioritisation amongst that side of the House because if there is an area where unemployment stinks it is amongst the young Pasifika and Māori. It is so bad that the recent OECD report—not that I am often taken to reading such dry narratives about the New Zealand economy but where I find it agrees with my thinking of course it deserves to be amplified—goes on to say that the transition from school to work notably amongst ethnic minorities is woeful and it is actually hindering the development of the country’s human capital. Why is the Government going to go and bring 30000 Filipinos into New Zealand and leave thousands of young Pasifika and Māori decaying on the unemployment scrap heap? The Minister of Māori Affairs boasts that as a consequence of a $2 million initiative he is going to address that wasted talent amongst the tangata whenua yet this Government is preparing to manipulate immigration laws and bring in swathes of overseas workers at a time when our own people need to be incentivised—and I say in my area of the north forced—to go into training and take up those jobs. But no it is so much easier to import labour with all those challenges and watch our home-grown talent get lost.There is nothing in the Budget that deals with these intractable issues but what is in the Budget—and on this side of the House I join my colleague Mr Parker in sayingthis—is that there is definitely a case for being very judicious about maintaining current levels of expenditure and ensuring that until such time as our export markets flourish to our benefit we need to be very judicious about tracking expenditure going forward. So there is no inordinate disagreement there about what the Government is seeking to do to ensure that our creditors continue to see us as a safe bet. Where this Government has failed in that regard is that it has all of its priorities wrong—totally wrong. There is far too much energy far too many trophies being hunted from a selected narrow caste of economic Titans—not the least of whom are those in Auckland in the casino industry. That has been traversed and we accept that the contract is probably going to be put in place. Legislation as I understand it is probably going to wend its way through the House but that is not going to change the fact that it has caused a great deal of stink and I hope that comes to rest on the people responsible for that—not the least of whom are Mr Joyce and Mr John Key.Today we witnessed an extraordinary event: Labour policy yet again being pinched by the current Government as it moves forward. I would like to see whether it takes the money out of the Mighty River Power sale proceeds to fund the rail loop. I should imagine that that is the only place it is going to get the capital. So what it is going to do is cause New Zealanders—in a diminishing number I might say because the majority of them will drift overseas—to buy the State-owned enterprises and then it will use that dough to fund Labour Party policy. Labour Party policy I say as the former transport spokesperson who actually had a considerable bit to do with the construction of that part of the manifesto which was very pithy and lucid and clearly identified the way to unlock productivity—[Interruption ]; modesty modesty—is to unclog the roads and ensure that we have a modern efficient futureproofed transportation system in Auckland.It is not for me to congratulate anyone but it is for me to acknowledge from this side of the House and amongst our confreres politically speaking up there in Auckland that it has been a long and arduous task which we have followed up. So I am only disappointed that that level of sophistication has not been brought to the Wairoa to Gisborne railway. No if you are in the regions you starve under this Government. If you are in the regions it does not care about taking a strong facilitative approach for the forestry sector. If you are in the north tourism is withering as a consequence of a very niggardly approach being taken to meeting the costs of boosting tourism. I have been told by tourism operators up there in the north that they receive in that part of the country a miserly sum of money. It is given where the National Party believes that it has its stronger friends.Not only do we have a situation where rail has been starved but we have got this half-baked notion that somehow the South Island’s productivity is going to grow by building a new port and destroying Picton and Blenheim in the process. I have yet to hear how Gerry Brownlee hopes in the context of a broader Budget debate to fund this new port—a port that will be inordinately expensive and a huge resource management process—and why he would want to devastate two very pleasant communities Picton and Blenheim in the process. I can only imagine that he imagines he is going to attract international capital to underwrite the costs—if that is the case then fess up about it—or he is going to further raid the transport fund for another pet project.Earlier we heard from Mr Goldsmith that in theory saving was fine but in actual fact it would never happen because Labour proposes to pursue a capital gains tax which will deflate the value of housing. No for the average household with one house seeking to create a home for mum for the kids and for the whānau this policy which he fears is not designed to cause those people to find themselves in “Strugglers’ Gully”. This policy is designed to hit the speculators and those who as a consequence of nocapital gains tax as a consequence of a loosening of financial lending from our major banks for residential purposes have driven the cost of housing beyond the pale. It is our proposal that nothing in this Budget is actually going to influence the cost of housing in Auckland. All it is going to do is simplify the process for a narrow range of landowners who have had the gift as a consequence of no capital gains tax of holding land in certain areas of Auckland and the value of that property will explode. The benefits associated with the provision of this housing will not be shared equally; they will once again fall to a narrow caste. Good on them for being investors but do not imagine perpetually that you are going to be able to get away without having to meet your obligation through paying a proportion of your wealth by dint of capital back to the State.We heard today that the Government has yet to finalise a deal not to do with rail loops etc. but to do with housing in Auckland. I have got absolute confidence that that is going to end in tears. There is nothing that this Budget proposes that is going to simplify the process for your average Kiwi to get themselves into a home because there is nothing happening in the regions that would cause investment to move out of our largest city which is turning into a form of Buenos Aires and actually support the Whangareis support the New Plymouths support the Gisbornes and the Rotoruas which is why as our policies roll out in that particular area more of them will come home to the whare Ropū Reipa. Kia ora tātou katoa.