Ardern Shane: Budget Debate 
Ardern Shane: Budget Debate 
[Volume:639;Page:9635] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki-King Country) 
: 
 That was one of the soon-to-be former members of the tired out-going Labour Government. I say to that member seeing that she raised the subject of pledges from National members that went right back into the dark days of the last century that I have here with me three pledge cards circulated during three elections which were paid for by the taxpayer—illegally in the last case—with pledges that I would love to read back to those members. 
Helen Clark on becoming the Prime Minister of New Zealand said that the incoming Labour Government had intentions to lift New Zealand into the top half of the OECD. That is what she said in her Speech from the Throne when she became Prime Minister. Tonight we are debating the Labour Government’s eighth Budget and where are we in relation to those aspirations the Prime Minister laid out way back when she became the Prime Minister? A massive growth gap has developed between the living standards of New Zealanders and those of our Australian partners. I can tell members one thing that New Zealanders hate—they hate losing to Australia. They love our Aussie cousins but they absolutely hate losing to them. And we are losing big time to our Australian cousins. That is one of the legacies of this Prime Minister. 
We are exporting in this Export Year more people now to Australia than in the history of this country. Despite a huge surplus in the economy the biggest ever surplus more people are leaving New Zealand than ever before. The reason is that in this Budget 50 percent of workers the people that Labour purports to represent get nothing—absolutely nothing not a cent. Their wages are so much lower than their Australian cousins’ that they are saying: “Well Dr Michael Cullen some doctors make you well and some doctors make you sick but when it comes to the Budget you are overwhelmingly in the last category.” Dr Cullen has made this country sick and people are leaving in their droves. 
I tell the members over there on the Government benches that we do not have concerns only with that. Let us look at the latest set of clichés this Government has used which are all about the environment. This Government is now pro-environment like no other Government ever. One of the myths being perpetuated by the Minister for Biosecurity—the outgoing “Sunset Minister”—the Hon Jim Anderton is that we have one of the best biosecurity systems in the world. That is what he says. He says it regularly although I note in recent times he has downgraded that to be “amongst some of our partners” or words to that effect. Well I ask: the best compared with what—countries that have didymo countries that have varroa or countries that are endemic with foot-and-mouth? What do we best compare with? 
Bear in mind that this “Sunset Minister” was part of a Government that said agriculture was a sunset industry in this country going back into the dark ages when he first became a member of this Parliament. He said that agriculture was a sunset industry. I will tell members what a sunset industry is. This Minister is a sunset industry and this Government is a sunset industry and if we let the Government keep going with its biosecurity policy this country will become a sunset industry. The biggest threat to our environment is at this moment a major biosecurity breach and given that we have had 233 organisms enter this country and become permanent residents in the last 5 years it is very likely that such a breach could happen. 
The Minister said that in the case of didymo there was not enough research and there was not enough knowledge. He did not think it would be a big issue so what could the Government do? Let me just tell members what our Australian cousins did when they had a similar threat. In 1999 the black-striped mussel invaded marinas in the Northern Territory. Within days even though officials had no money and no legislation they were treating that invader with a copper sulphate concoction. The incursion was a similar kind of incursion to ours in the sense that it concerned a micro-organism that cannot be seen. 
Now after all this time what is the research telling the Minister for Biosecurity in New Zealand? It should be telling him that copper sulphate might work on didymo. The Minister has said: “Well we didn’t know that at the time.” Bumpkin—all he had to do was look at what our Australian cousins had done and something could have been done here. Instead of that he said: “Oh the Opposition spokesman said we should nuke all the rivers in the South Island; I never did. “I said that; he said those were some options the Minister should look at and should look at seriously. But the Minister never looked at those options. 
And what is the cost? This is the big point. It cost the Australians $2 million to eradicate that mussel incursion. What is the estimated cost of didymo in this country now? It is $300 million in the South Island alone—and that is if didymo does not clog up all the hydro stations which it potentially is going to do and make the power go off. What is the Minister’s response? Zero. He will not even do anything to keep didymo out of the North Island—in fact our border control at Cook Strait has been reduced. Can members tell me that that is in the best interests of the environment? 
Then there was the varroa outbreak in the South Island. Despite the Minister leading the bee industry to believe that he would eradicate the varroa mite if the industry put some dough in which it did—it did put some money in—and leading it to believe that the Government would respond he then turned around and said: “Well given that there is likely to be a re-incursion let’s let it go. I’m not going to worry about it.” and walked right over the top of that industry. I say to members opposite that not only was there a loss of pollination because of that but also there is a potential that our whole bee industry will collapse—and it is not only to do with honey—because of the effects of using drugs and other such substances that weaken the hives. We are already seeing signs of it. So it is just amazing to see that nothing has been done given that two damning reports from the Auditor-General have been released over the last 6 years; it is unbelievable. Most people would have thought that the Government would have responded to that situation. But what has it done? Absolutely nothing! Apparently Government members do not believe that anything can be done. 
Finally I move to the issue of securing our borders. The only way we can describe that is that it is a joke—it is like this Government. Nothing in the Budget that I can read will address the issues that have been raised over and over. We have on average 51 declared seizures of biosecurity risks at our airports every day of the week. I ask the Minister what he is going to do. We issue 7627 instant fines and 5000 of those fines are for visitors. Why does the Government not look at deporting those visitors?. They are clearly flouting our laws. The National Party has talked about that for a long time. Why does the Government not adopt that policy? It would be like stealing some of the other National Party policies and then taking the credit for them. But that would be a good thing and we would accept it as a good thing. Why does the Government not look at increasing the instant fines—the $200 fine has obviously been completely laughed at; it is a joke—why does the Government not do something like that? There is nothing from this “Sunset Minister”; it would be ridiculous to expect that that could ever happen. The reality is that biosecurity is just an absolute disgrace and it poses the biggest threat to our economy and our environment. 
So in summary I say that we have no policy from this Government and there is nothing in this Budget to address these serious issues that concern the environment. I could have given a longer speech on forestry. The fact is that this Minister who is also the Minister of Forestry—the “Sunset Minister” as he is—has done nothing to turn around deforestation. My colleague from the East Cape mentioned that and the effects it is having on the economy up there not to mention the effects that it is having on the environment. We are going—lurching in fact—from one crisis to another in our forestry industry. The only saviour the Government has is a bit of a reprieve in the economy and the markets. But that has nothing to do with this Minister and the Budget is a failure in that regard. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.