Dyson Ruth: Budget Debate 
Dyson Ruth: Budget Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3246] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Minister of Labour) 
: 
 This is a very very good day for the Labour-led Government and it is a very very good day for the rest of the country. This Budget delivers an investment in the future of the sort of country New Zealanders want to live in—as they watch the Leader of the Opposition pack his bags leave his current position and go to Bondi. That is a good place for Dr “Bondi” Brash. I have one piece of advice for the Leader of the Opposition as he packs his bags and heads for the golden sand across the Tasman: he should remember that the pension in Australia is both income and asset-tested. He is really risking his future by saying he would have a better life over there. Dr Brash should stop knocking New Zealand and start to back his own country and promote the good things we have done and will do in the future. 
This is a Budget that only a Labour-led Government could have delivered and I am very proud we have had the privilege to deliver the Budget yet again. If we had had the Budget that the National members campaigned on just a few months ago before the last election we would have been sitting here listening to policies of slash-and-burn across the entire social service sector and across our infrastructure systems in order to deliver $11 billion worth of tax cuts. Where would that money have come from? It would have come from our public health system from our public education system from the tertiary sector and from our social workers. It would have come from all the services that the Labour-led Government has spent the last 6½ years rebuilding so that we can again have the sort of security opportunity and choice that New Zealanders want and deserve. 
We really support families as being the basis of New Zealand society. A strong family is a secure family. A strong New Zealand family enjoys the economic independence of paid work whenever possible and has security and protection for family members who are not able to work. That is the basis of New Zealand society. We now have the second-lowest rate of unemployment in the OECD—the lowest unemployment rate in New Zealand for three decades. Why does Dr Brash never quote the unemployment figures? When we had a question in the House within the last week on New Zealand’s unemployment figures did the National Party ask a supplementary question? There was no supplementary question on unemployment from National because more New Zealanders are in paid work now than there have ever been in the past. We should be proud of that. 
New Zealanders should be proud of other international comparisons as well. In the  
Doing Business in 2006 
 report which was prepared by none other than the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation which country was rated as No. 1 in the world for doing business in? Was it Australia? 
Hon Member 
: No. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: It was not Australia. Was it the United States? No it was not. Was it the United Kingdom? No it was not. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Pick me! 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: The Minister of Commerce and Minister for Small Business thinks she has the answer. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: It was New Zealand! 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: That is correct. New Zealand is the No. 1 country in the world for doing business in. 
Last year the OECD said our active labour market policies and our support for helping people on benefits to get into paid work was an international success story. Again was that information from the OECD quoted by the leader of the National Party? No it was not. The World Bank looked at our pension provision—our New Zealand Superannuation Fund—which Dr Michael Cullen should be very proud of. He is too modest to boast about it so I will do so on his behalf. It is a fantastic superannuation fund. The World Bank said that New Zealand under the Labour-led Government’s leadership was at the cutting edge in terms of superannuation policy. 
Who are the people we look after the most? Who are the people we support the most under the Labour-led Government’s policy? We support the people who are the most vulnerable: our families—young and old—people who are not able to support themselves and people who are not in paid work. Those people deserve the strong support of the Government. We restored the level of superannuation; we put the superannuation rate in the law and established the fund. We also have the KiwiSaver programme so that more New Zealanders will save for and invest in their future—for their own financial security. That has really changed the future support of New Zealanders. They know they will have financial security in their old age. 
We are supporting families by lowering the cost of doctors’ visits. We know that under the National Government’s policies in the 1990s more and more New Zealanders stopped going to the doctor and the nurse because they did not have the money to pay for those visits. So we have put money into our primary health organisations. They have passed it on to doctors and I am sure that the overwhelming majority of doctors have reduced their fees. 
Shane Jones 
: Not Dr Brash. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: We did not pass it on to Dr Brash because he is not the sort of doctor who makes people well. 
We have put a huge investment into land transport infrastructure. We know that we had a big reduction throughout the 1990s—in fact throughout the late 1980s as well—in the funding of our infrastructural investments. So transport has had a huge boost and finally we are spending more on our land transport infrastructure than we are receiving in revenue through petrol excise duty and motor vehicle registrations. That is a huge investment in the future of New Zealand. Many projects have been under doubt and local authorities up and down the country have been concerned about that. Those people will go to bed tonight very happy to know that in their area they will have the investment in transport infrastructure that they want. They will be very proud of that. 
As well as the investment in our transport infrastructure and the local loop unbundling which I think has been mentioned through the Budget announcements we have continued New Zealand’s very proud history of social innovation. We are trying to create a society that has the hallmarks of fairness and inclusion where every New Zealander gets a fair go. That is the New Zealand way. It did take a big hit in the late 1980s and in the 1990s but New Zealand is now firmly back on track and is at the forefront of developing its national identity. 
We have reinforced the critical relationship between social and economic development. We have put a very strong emphasis on the well-being of families. We have taken an active approach to social assistance. We are helping people to move into sustainable work rather than processing benefits or punishing the people who are on benefits. That approach is working. We are helping people to get work when they are able to work and are supporting people if they are not able. We now have 2.1 million New Zealanders in work. We have a 68.5 percent labour participation rate which is the highest rate we have ever had and unemployment is at 3.9 percent. 
We have worked very hard to achieve those figures in social partnership with the trade union movement with the business community—the Council of Trade Unions and Business New Zealand—and with local authorities. Central government has worked with those groups because we know that social partnerships deliver the outcomes that New Zealanders want. We do things together because we have shared goals. Since 1999 we have reduced the number of people on the unemployment benefit by nearly 73 percent. Is that good for those people? Yes. Is that also good for New Zealand? Yes. 
What is the biggest barrier facing New Zealand employers at the moment? Is it that employers cannot sack people quickly enough as Dr Mapp proposes? Is that the answer to the problem? I say the answer is to get more skilled workers into New Zealand so they can fill the vacancies; it is to invest in New Zealand skills and to ensure we have a country that is attractive for people to come to. Under Dr Mapp’s proposal people from overseas would take one look at New Zealand and wonder why they would want to come here and risk their security by doing so. They just would not come here. 
We have had a very strong focus on families since we first came into office in 1999. We have invested in comprehensive cross-sectoral programmes to make work pay for families to prevent and reduce family violence and to improve people’s access to affordable quality services in both health and education. We have made housing more available and affordable and we have strengthened both universal and targeted services for families. 
I conclude by saying we have done those things because we have worked hard to make MMP work. I acknowledge our partners in making MMP work: the Progressive party New Zealand First United Future and the Green Party. We have all worked hard to achieve progress for New Zealanders because we believe in care about and are proud of this country. We are not packing our bags and going to Bondi. We love New Zealand. We want to stay here and keep making it a better country for every New Zealander to share in.