Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. This is the final debate on this year's Budget. Frankly we're on the second to last week of Parliament and this is the last will and testament of this Government and what a grim set of accounts it is.We've got 6 percent inflation. Remember about two years ago the Minister of Finance and the Reserve Bank Governor said Oh inflation will be transitory. It'll come; it'll go. It's going to come down fast." Two years later we've still got 6 percent inflation. We're in recession and the Government has managed to increase debt at the same time from $5 billion when they took over to $91 billion in five years. They've increased Government spending by 80 percent and I defy a single person in this country to be able to stand up and say "We've got an 80 percent better outcome in education or health." or any area of Government policy. So this Budget is the final Budget in what has been six calamitous years for the New Zealand economy and everything else that hangs off it.Now we've heard for the last few days and the last few weeks—it seems to be the line from the Labour Government's spin machine that they're supposed to be empathetic so they keep on saying "Yes times are tough. Yes it's very tough times for New Zealanders. It's been a difficult three years." I heard the Prime Minister say people are grumpy—it's been a difficult time; very hard times. Well they don't seem to appreciate that the reason for the hard times primarily is their own mismanagement of the economy and of this Government. They should take some responsibility for it and frankly hold their head in shame.So what did they inherit? Six years ago they inherited a strong positive upbeat economy in a strong positive upbeat country where people looked and saw a great future for themselves and their family were managed to absolutely reverse the flow across the Tasman so that more people were coming to New Zealand from Australia than the other way around and people felt like they could get ahead. Unfortunately—and everybody sees this right here right now—too many New Zealanders are concluding the 35000 of them that left to go to Australia this year that they don't actually have great opportunities in this country because the economy is not strong because the cost of living is too high and inflation is not under control under this Government.They've seen the $175 extra a week they are paying on average rents driven largely by the misconceived and ill-considered housing policies of this Government and their war on landlords which has forced costs on to renters. They see the 9.6 percent increase in the cost of vegetables—the cauliflower the squash the pumpkins—and the only thing that the Government can come up with is a hare-brained scheme to exclude fresh fruit and vegetables from GST which has gone down like a lead balloon because nobody can see the logic for it. They can't understand why it wouldn't apply to meat or nappies or any other thing and all it would do would be to mess up a simple system. They've seen the $700 increase in fortnightly mortgage costs under this Government primarily because they haven't been able to control inflation properly. So that's why National has come forward with a strong plan to get on top of the cost of living. We're going to get the Reserve Bank focused on its knitting which is fighting inflation not doing all the other things that the Governor is keen to do and the law requires them around employment. Secondly we'll get Government spending under control—that 80 percent increase in spending with very little to show for it is one of the reasons why we've had this burst of inflation in this country. Then we've got to deal with a Government that keeps on adding costs to businesses particularly small businesses and then wonders why things are more expensive.We've heard about the fair pay agreements the misnamed "fair pay agreements"—what they really are: mandatory union deals to make our workplaces less flexible and less adaptable at a time when they need to be both those things. We're going to repeal that; we'll get rid of it because we need to have flexibility in our employment relationships so that people can actually sort things out for themselves and work out what works for them. Then we've got to reduce taxes so that people aren't paying ever more taxes because the Government is using that old trick—that old trick that goes back hundreds of years: if you have lots of inflation and people creep up the income tax brackets they pay more tax which is why—Anna Lorck: Then you're going to up GST; that's what you're gonna do isn't it?Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: That member's got an opportunity for a valedictory soon. But we've got on average $22000 per household more in tax that has been taken from this Government. Can you believe that? New Zealanders on average are paying $22000 a year more in tax under this Government—$22000. You could actually get a decent car for $22000 every year for the extra money that this Government is spending on tax. And what are we actually getting for it? What are you getting for it? Are we getting better education? Oh no; the kids don't even go to school. We don't get better education. Are we getting better healthcare? Well no you can wait for ever for anything. You're not going to be getting inoculated from the various diseases because that's not working. You're going to have to wait ages for your hip replacements Mr Speaker—I'm sure you're not needing one yet. For all these things we're not seeing the improvement that we should be from the money that's being spent. Then of course that's only just the start of it. I mean heaven forbid if Grant Robertson got another chance to have another go at it he'd be introducing his insurance tax; the jobs tax which would be adding another 800 bucks or so a year on to annual bills; they'd be coming back to their wealth tax. If the Greens had their say they'd be coming back to the wealth tax. So when it comes to the economy this is the end of the Budget and it's a woeful Budget and it's the end of six years of economic mismanagement. Then we come to the other things. What do we come to? Well what about law and order? What progress has been made on that? Now if anybody is tempted to vote for the Greens let me suggest this one to you because it is their stated policy—and I'm glad we've got Ricardo Menéndez March here. It is the stated policy of the Greens that if there's a warrant out for your arrest and you're on the run you should still get your benefit because it's a nasty thing that the Government currently does that if you're on the run with a warrant out for your arrest we cut your benefit. But oh no the Greens think you should have some money when you're on the run and there's a warrant out for your arrest; therefore you should still have your benefit. Well I think that sums up everything you need to know about the Greens and law and order and welfare. I think it also sums up how it all would work in a Labour-Greens Government if they had their time. So we've actually got to restore some law and order in this country and actually have real consequences for crime. We go round the doorsteps and what do we hear from people? They're worried about what's going on in their communities. They see the increase in violent crime—40 percent increase in violent crime—and they are perplexed and confused and can't understand why the only priority of the Government that's been clearly articulated in the justice sector is to reduce the prison population by 30 percent irrespective of what's going on in the community. That makes no sense to anybody and it is part of the reason why we're having this breakdown on law and order that we're seeing. It's part of the reason why frankly Countdown is having to spend $45 million on fancy new trolleys that stop people from running out of their supermarkets without paying for the food which is a metaphor. It is a metaphor for everything that's wrong. I'll have you know that I'm a regular at Glen Innes Pak 'N Save. It's a good supermarket and they shouldn't have to have electric trolleys that clam up because there is a breakdown in law and order in our supermarkets. So it's a metaphor for how things have got out of control. Yet we've got a Government whose only target in the whole justice sector is to make sure that we have fewer people in prison irrespective of what's going on in our community. We think that's wrong it's misguided and we're going to change it. We're also going to get a little bit of clearer guidance around the sentencing principles so that we restrict the ability of judges to massively reduce sentences. So we've got to fix the economy. We've got to restore law and order the third and fourth areas around health and education and everybody is concerned about the decline in standards from education. We've got a budget here. Like I say the Government has increased spending by 80 percent—80 percent. It has gone up to $137 billion a year $61 billion more than what they started with and yet in education fewer kids are going to school and they're not learning the basics. So we've got to get back to the basics.When it comes to health it's about priorities basically. We can't do everything. This Government thinks it's better that families that can afford to spend $5 to get their prescriptions shouldn't have to pay that money and yet they don't have the resources to invest in 13 cancer drugs that will make a real difference to a thousand people a year. We think it's far better to use scarce healthcare resources to help those people who have got real serious cancers rather than just putting another $5 into the hands of people who can perfectly afford to pay for their prescriptions. Now that to me sums up muddled priorities. Thank you Mr Speaker."