Wong Pansy: Budget Debate 
Wong Pansy: Budget Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3303] 
PANSY WONG (National) 
: 
 That was another rehearsed speech. Like this year’s Budget it fell far short of Labour’s much-trumpeted vision of creating a national identity bringing about economic transformation and building strong families. When we take away the election bribes the long-overdue funding for roads and the payments made to the Greens United Future and New Zealand First to have them stay in Government we are left with nothing—nothing more than a bland shopping list. 
There has been much speculation about whether the Budget statement was Michael Cullen’s last speech—and it may very well be so judging by his lacklustre performance in the House and his inability to get the tax cut issue off the agenda of public debate. It is no wonder that ever since Michael Cullen delivered the “Bondi Budget” last week Helen Clark has mused publicly about his future. Even the websites of the New Zealand embassies in China Argentina Korea Japan Spain and Thailand list Jim Anderton as the Deputy Prime Minister. I say “Bring back Jim!”—at least he is promising company tax cuts. 
Although all of Cullen’s Budgets have been sleep inducing he has stayed true to his dislike of tax cuts—we have not seen any. It must be frustrating for Kiwis that they have not been given anything back despite a record $8.5 billion surplus. Labour gushes that 350000 families will receive through Working for Families when it reaches full speed what Labour spins as targeted tax relief. But what about those who do not get anything at all? What about the bureaucracy that Labour will set up to collect tax from those families only to repackage it and give it back to them? Cullen has said that this year is forecast to be the last year that New Zealand will have a cash surplus but that is no excuse because he always likes to talk down the massive tax machine that Labour runs. When Labour went into Government the total amount of tax collected around the year 2000 was $34.9 billion. That figure has now increased by 60 percent to around $56.7 billion. This is all part of Labour’s ideology that the State knows best and should be in control of everything. 
I can demonstrate that by referring to the Minister of Communications the Hon David Cunliffe. He was not satisfied with losing the spotlight over Telecom so he stepped right outside his ministerial boundary to comment on Telecom’s dividend policy and that wiped another $200 million off the company’s value. The New Zealand Exchange referred those comments to the Securities Commission for investigation after complaints from market participants. This afternoon we have learnt that the Minister has already been told off by the High Court for releasing confidential information. David Cunliffe in his position should have known better. He clearly believed that nanny State was now in command of publicly owned companies as well. 
Michael Cullen commented that lower net migration has been looked upon as a factor in the downturn in our economy. So where is the new ground-breaking initiative in the Budget? Yet again another immigration review is under way but we do not know its completion date or the results it will bring. One has to ask why the New Zealand Immigration Service is issuing working visas to guardians of international students in the first place. That service does not even know how many work visas have been issued. Is that not astounding for a supposedly competent organisation? [ 
Interruption 
] New Zealand First keeps making all those empty promises but it behaves like a puppy. 
The drop in the number of international students coming to New Zealand has also been quoted as one of the reasons for the slow-down in the tax take etc. It is true that 16000 fewer student permits and visas were issued between 2003 and 2005. The next financial year will see an increased focus we are told by the Government on fixing the problem by employing more education counsellors based overseas but I fail to see how that will help the sector. We have not seen any tangible results from the counsellors who have been employed so far and there does not seem to be any performance measurement. So how can we know we should invest—Labour likes to use that word—further in something if we do not even know that it works? 
Last week when Michael Cullen presented the Budget he also added some hype about yesterday’s announcement by the Minister of Commerce Lianne Dalziel of the so-called long-overdue review of our regulatory framework. But actually before the Minister of Commerce had the opportunity to sell her so-called dynamic review Michael Cullen was already discounting it by saying that the problem was not really to do with policy that it might have something to do with the implementation and that the Government would conduct more reviews on the implementation issue. Well we have already been told that the policies are out of bounds so we cannot talk about the No. 1 recommendation of the small-business panel—which was set up by the Labour Government—that employment law be made more flexible by having a 90-day flexible probation period for new employees to encourage employers to give work to young graduates young people looking for jobs and new migrants. That is out of bounds as polices are not to be reviewed. So all we will end up with are suggestions that tinker with the so-called implementation. 
Of course the Minister of Commerce said that businesses throughout the country welcomed the review. Well what can businesses do? They have no choice but to hope for the best and express support. But I hope they have learnt from previous experience and watch out carefully for the temperament of the Minister of Commerce. When she was the Minister of Immigration in the last term whenever there were problems with immigration issues she always jumped on her department and blamed everybody. She fell out with the association of immigration consultants because it dared to take her to court over retrospective changes to immigration policy that were introduced in 2002. So I hope the business associations will not be treated so appallingly when they demand action. 
This Minister of Commerce also states that she will review the merger and acquisition provisions in order to increase our international competitiveness but the scope of the review apparently has yet to be decided. Well all the public spin had led us to believe that the Minister already knew the issues and would issue the terms of reference for the review so we will not hold our breath. 
With Helen Clark as Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage more funding has been found for New Zealand On Air National Radio and the Office of Treaty Settlements. She believes that putting millions of dollars of extra funding into public institutions will somehow build national identity. Labour believes that national identity is somehow tied up with public institutions and a Government mandate but national identity is that indescribable feeling we all have about being unashamedly Kiwi and not having to go overseas to seek better opportunities. Right now every week over 600 Kiwis are doing just that and Dr Cullen’s latest “Bondi Budget” will do nothing to bring them back.