Macindoe Tim: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMacindoe Tim: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 02 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4190. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West):I could listen to my admirable colleague Alfred Ngaro all day and in fact for a while I thought I was going to. But I do want to commend him for a very fine address which I know he spent a considerable period of time preparing late this afternoon.We have come into the home straight of the debate on an excellent Budget which started 15 hours of debating time ago. This is a Budget that is exactly right for the times in which we live. This is a Budget that justifies the faith that New Zealanders resoundingly put in the John Key - led National Party at the polls last September. It also reflects the considerable plaudits that some very distinguished international commentators have uttered about the work of the New Zealand Government in recent years.Scott Simpson: Tell us about them.TIM MACINDOE: Particularly—Mr Simpson—the IMF and some of the leading economists who write in very reputable journals and who have said that New Zealand is following a pathway and has set a model that many other countries should follow. Most important in my view this is a Budget that is really genuinely helping our families that is helping those who most need help from a Government and in particular that is working for New Zealand.As we are nearly at the end of a debate that has focused fully and widely on all of the key provisions that were announced by the Minister of Finance just under a fortnight ago it is really time for the adjudicators I think to deliver their verdict and of course they are the public of New Zealand. The public of New Zealand who have been watching—and who no doubt are watching in great numbers right at this moment—will note the cohesion of the Government team in this debate and acknowledge as I do the strong contributions of our confidence and supply partners the Māori Party United Future and ACT. Each of those parties brings a fresh perspective to the table and each has secured in this Budget and indeed over the last 7 years some significant wins in their areas of influence. I want to applaud them and thank them for their contribution. They play a vital role in this Government.The public of New Zealand—the adjudicators of this debate—will have looked across the House throughout the last 15 hours and followed with interest the contributions respectively of the Green Party New Zealand First and the Labour Party. I am sure that they will share my views that the Greens often bring an interesting perspective to our debates in this House. At times I have to say it really does feel as if they occupy a different planet from the rest of us but even though they also have a long way to go before their aspiration of advancing economic credibility can be achieved they do bring something of value to the table.They were not helped of course at the start of this debate by a very poor opening gambit on Budget day from Metiria Turei who delivered a speech that she had clearly written 3 days earlier in order to lament the things that were not going to be in the Budget and then did not have the wit to think on her feet and acknowledge that actually most of those things were there. Instead she could have delivered a much more complimentary speech saying “Thank goodness.”This is the first Government in a very long time that has really substantially delivered for the people she keeps on talking about day after day in this House. But there were some considered speeches from many of her colleagues. I acknowledge that they do have the ability to articulate a theme and in most respects to develop it in some consistent detail. So I think that the adjudicators of New Zealand might give the Greens seven out of 10 for their performance in the 2015 Budget debate. And could I just briefly as others have done acknowledge today the election of James Shaw to the co-leadership of the Green Party. I congratulate him on that and wish him well. I also want to acknowledge and commiserate with Kevin Hague Gareth Hughes and Vernon Tava.Then we go to New Zealand First. Well New Zealand First got off to a slow start and there certainly was not a lot of depth evident in its contributions. Clearly it is missing the intellectual grunt and leadership that Le’aufa’amulia Asenati Lole-Taylor gave it in the previous Parliament. But like the Greens New Zealand First too can actually advance and develop a theme even though it depends too greatly on populism xenophobia and Luddite economics rather than on clear principles and an understanding of contemporary challenges and solutions. Most of the New Zealand First MPs gave it a reasonable shot and some of them would have held the public’s attention. I think overall New Zealand First scraped together a creditable pass mark of five out of 10.But what of the hapless Labour Party? Clearly it got off to an appalling start when its current leader delivered the worst Budget reply speech by an Opposition leader in at least 50 years. The pained expressions on Labour members’ faces when that ordeal was over spoke volumes and the public definitely noticed. Yet incredibly things seldom improved for them over the 13 hours of Budget debate that have followed. Labour’s woes are numerous readily apparent and well documented. To be sitting at 25 percent in the polls nearly 7 years after they were ejected from the Treasury benches must be devastating for those members and their dwindling band of union backers and party members yet they need only reflect upon their lamentable contributions in this Budget debate for compelling reasons for their continuing decline in public estimation.Unlike the Greens and New Zealand First the Labour members have failed to grasp a theme or even a few connected ideas and stick to them. Although the leaders of the Greens and New Zealand First made less than memorable speeches the speech of the current leader of the Labour Party was memorable but for all the wrong reasons. In the months and years to come he will no doubt look back on that contribution as the beginning of the end of his brief tenure as leader of the Labour Party.Despite being well into their third consecutive period in Opposition Labour members have no more idea today than they did nearly 7 years ago of how to improve their performance. In this debate Labour speaker after Labour speaker has failed to grasp what it is actually about. New Zealanders know that it is about the responsible management of our economy; reducing debt; delivering better public services—boy we are and that is one of the things that I am most proud of as a National MP; standing by Canterbury which I am very proud of too given the challenges there; and doing more for our most vulnerable families.That is why New Zealanders are saying that this is another great Budget from the National Government. Labour members do not know how to deal with that. They have substituted volume for persuasiveness throughout this debate. They have also tried to substitute clichés for substance. Well that will not cut it. That will not reconnect them with the public of New Zealand. That will not even inspire their own members let alone the public who are waiting to be swayed. I have to say that I think the New Zealand public if they were being charitable would give the Labour Party two out of 10 for its performance in Budget 2015. And that is why we are seeing in both the Greens and New Zealand First day after day emerging leaders of the Opposition. I predict that one of those two parties will be the main party in the Opposition after the next Parliament unless this Labour Party which is doing so badly can actually start to learn why it is doing badly and turn things round. Labour members need only look further down the Chamber to get a few clues of how it is done.Let me finish today by saying that as the MP for Hamilton West I am very very proud of what this Government does—in particular to help our vulnerable families. I represent a marginal electorate. It is good to see you Mr Assistant Speaker Mallard smiling at me because you too know what it is like to represent Hamilton West. We have a microcosm of New Zealand. There are many families in New Zealand who have done it tough through the recession. There are many who need some support. There are many who have struggled to make ends meet during the global financial crisis and the domestic recession. So I want to say that I am deeply proud not only of the fact that as a National Government we have perhaps confounded the punters and delivered something that a lot of people did not expect but that we have acknowledged the fact that there are people who are doing it tough who need some extra support.As has been acknowledged by many on this side of the House we have in this Budget delivered the first real increase—a significant increase—in incomes for people at the bottom of the heap in a very long period of time. But of course it is part of a much wider overall package. We saw other measures designed to help families last year in the Budget and in previous years. The reform of the tax system despite the bleatings of members opposite is genuinely fairer for everybody and gives people more hope to the point where the vast majority of taxpayers in my electorate—more than three-quarters of them—are paying less than 20 percent in income tax. That is a terrific incentive to them. But these measures that the Minister of Finance has announced in this Budget are making a huge difference and will make a huge difference. [Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): The member does not need to wake up the House.TIM MACINDOE: As you have just rightly said this speech is so riveting that no one needs to be woken up. But I am really proud of what this Budget does for families. I want to say that I believe that this Minister of Finance will go down as one of the greatest Ministers of Finance of our lifetime. I want to say that I will go to my grave immensely proud to have been a member of the John Key - led National Government because we are delivering the things that matter to New Zealand because we are making real improvements across the board because people will be better off because things are getting better because things are getting fairer and because our achievements in health and education and across a range of areas are clear for all to see.That is what being in Government is about. That is why this Budget continues a very impressive record since the National-led Government came into office. That is why John Key and Bill English and their Ministers can all hold their heads up high. I say to them “job well done” and in a few minutes’ time I will have great pleasure on behalf of the Government in giving the confidence vote an emphatic expression of support because I know that it is felt not only on this side of the House but overwhelmingly throughout the country.