Foss Craig: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Foss Craig: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:632;Page:3724] 
CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the Appropriation (2005/06 Supplementary Estimates) Bill which is related to the 2006 Budget. I was going to raise a point of order earlier—but I let it lie—because I think the bill may be misnamed. It should probably be the “Misappropriation of Taxation Bill” because about $60 billion of hard-earned New Zealand funds have been snaffled by Mr Cullen and his cohorts on the other side for the purposes they deem best for the country to build their socialist utopia. 
I thank the previous speaker for his congratulations on my winning the seat of Tukituki. I came into this House about 9 months ago having won the seat of Tukituki Hawke’s Bay. This is a House full of great history and I thought it should have a Government with integrity accountability transparency and most of all one that took responsibility. It should take responsibility not abdicate responsibility. It should admit when things go wrong. It should admit when it has mucked up. It should fess up and take responsibility. That is what gives integrity accountability and adds to the great history of this House. 
I understand that the scuttlebutt about the Prime Minister and Cabinet was that they were furious that they lost the two Hawke’s Bay seats Napier and Tukituki. They could not understand it. Labour lost those two seats and it could not understand how ungrateful the people of Hawke’s Bay were because it had pumped so much welfare into that area. So much welfare dependency was created in Hawke’s Bay that Labour could not understand why the good people of Hawke’s Bay kicked out two of its MPs one of whom was a Minister. That shows how out of touch Labour members are. That was the exact reason they got kicked out. The good people of Hawke’s Bay and the rest of New Zealand do not want to be dependent on some bureaucrats and the whims of a Cabinet that will do anything for the front page and whose members think of short-term gain for themselves as opposed to the medium - long-term future of New Zealand. 
It has been 7 long years and all that this Labour Government could deliver recently was the “Bondi Budget”. It is getting pretty tiresome. Every line from the previous speakers opposite every attack and every debating point is about the 1990s. Labour members should get over it and get up with the programme. Every time a point of order is raised by certain Government poodles it is prefaced with comments referring to 1996 1992 and so on. They should get over it and lurch into the next millennium. If you keep looking back as you are now New Zealand is in trouble. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! The member is bringing the Speaker into the debate. 
CRAIG FOSS 
: I apologise Mr Assistant Speaker. The chickens are coming home to roost. They are the chickens from 7 long wasteful unproductive unaccountable years. It has been an expansionary and inflationary “spend-athon” from a visionless Government. The suffocating impact of its snatching 45 percent more tax revenue in the year 2005-06 than was taken in 1999 is starting to come home. We have had the smashing of the 1999 election pledge when only 5 percent of taxpayers were supposed to be in top tax bracket. Now it is 11 percent. With the impact of the suffocating tax grab the breaking of tax thresholds and the abandonment of any indexation the chickens are coming home to roost. 
I am concerned. The current economic conditions in New Zealand are perilous and that is not good. The consumer price index has burst out of the top of the band and is nudging 4 percent. Consumer price index expectations for the next 18 months at least are also 4 percent. Members might recall that the target band is between 1 and 3 percent. Growth is forecast to be flat or virtually non-existent. 
Mr Cullen took great pleasure today in announcing that he thought the March quarter growth would be something like half a percent. He was ecstatic. That is pathetic. Annual growth of 1 to 2 percent is pathetic. Annual growth of 1 to 2 percent is forecast for New Zealand over the coming months. That is one-quarter of the growth in the countries we are now competing against in Asia. 
We are in a period of increasing inflation decreasing growth and declining asset prices. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand in its recent policy statement warned of this exact scenario. It is translated into stagflation which is perilous and incredibly dangerous for our economy. 
I am astounded that I have yet to hear the word “productivity” from any member opposite. Productivity has not even been mentioned. We have had a massive explosion in spending on health and on education with little or no result. It is not just I who is saying that. My learned colleagues are of course saying it but also Treasury the Inland Revenue Department and independent economists are saying it. Where will we get the productivity gains? Productivity gains are the only way out of the inflationary trap set by Mr Cullen and Labour’s “spend-athon”. They are out of control with their spending. The loose fiscal policy that they have forecast for the next year or so is exactly why inflation is north of the 3 percent band. It is exactly why interest rates are higher than they need to be. 
A few months ago we heard about the razor gang. Mr Trevor Mallard announced he was in charge of the razor gang. Has anyone heard anything since? Whenever the borax comes on the need to cut spending and to be more productive they disappear from the headlines. 
A previous speaker Mr John Key pointed out that one out of every two buildings in Wellington is now run by Government departments. Fifty percent of the office space in Wellington is for Governmental purposes. That is nuts. Where is the productivity gain there? A lot of people ask me how on earth Mr Cullen and Labour have blown 5 years of once-in-a-lifetime economic conditions. Those economic conditions have been set by higher commodity prices around the world which neither Mr Cullen nor the rest of the Labour Government has had anything whatsoever to do with. 
Many people ask me how they blew it. How did they waste so much? Why have they taken so much? How have they taken so much for so long to spend on so few—those squeaky wheels who speak the loudest who scream the loudest? 
I understand that Mr Cullen was devastated at the reaction to his earlier “chewing gum Budget” which offered a tax cut of 67c a week to hard-working New Zealanders. What a gross insult! 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
CRAIG FOSS 
: Prior to the dinner break I was talking about Mr Cullen’s 2005 Budget the “chewing gum Budget” which offered 67c in tax relief in 2 or 3 years’ time. In the recent Finance and Expenditure Committee discussions with Mr Cullen he said that wage claims over 4 percent were extravagant in the current environment and he would do his utmost to prevent them. By the way last year Mr Cullen received an 8.1 percent increase in his salary package. I also point out as we are talking about percentages that if New Zealanders really do want a decent increase they should note that Australian after-tax incomes are currently 33 percent ahead of New Zealanders’—and that is before the recent tax cut package announced by Mr Costello.  
Talking of tax cuts if National’s policy were implemented—if this were our Budget 2006—85 percent of New Zealanders would be on a 19 percent tax rate. That is not too bad. Also Ministers such as the Hon Judith Tizard who earn nearly $200000 would still pay north of $60000 in tax—those high-income earners would still pay $60000 in tax. 
One further point is that the Finance vote is about $55 million per annum and the advice and policy part of that vote is I think about $5.5 million. I suggest that if Mr Cullen is looking for savings given that he and Mr Mallard are ignoring the advice of Treasury the Reserve Bank of New Zealand the Inland Revenue Department and the Crown Company Monitoring Advisory Unit perhaps he should abolish the Treasury department. If Treasury’s advice is described as an “ideological burp” every few years when it advises Mr Mallard not to venture into the DFC New Zealand Ltd world of selling State assets or advises against getting political appointments made to the board and the advice is again ignored I suggest that some money could be saved there and taxpayers could get some value for money.