McAnulty KieranKIERAN McANULTY (Labour): What an absolute privilege it is to stand here and talk about—Hon Grant Robertson: Well it's a privilege to listen to you. KIERAN McANULTY: Thank you the Hon Grant Robertson. I appreciate the feedback only three seconds into my speech. This is a marvellous Budget. This is a Budget that is typical of a first-term Labour Government that sets up the foundations for nine 12 18 years of success because unlike the previous Government we don't waste the opportunities that are in front of us. We don't inflict nine years of neglect on to the nation. We take a responsible approach to setting up appropriations into key areas that are important to this country. Now we have just had two weeks' recess. What that means of course for those watching at home is that's two weeks away from Parliament. I can assure the good people of this nation it is not a two-week break. What you would think if we were leading up to a two-week recess is that the National MPs in this House would use that opportunity to actually listen to people's feedback on this Budget. They would test the rhetoric that they applied leading up to that break in response to the Budget to see if it rang true. They had an opportunity to talk to people to get some feedback and to then come back buoyed with passion excited about what they had heard back from the people that they represent and what have we heard today? Nothing. We have had deflated speeches from bored Opposition members who have run out of ideas. We have seen members from that side of the House who really should be holding this Government to account and instead we have heard people that are just making up the 10 minutes because they've got a job to do and in fact it seemed to me anyway that they did not believe what they were saying. Now going out and about in the last two weeks in the Wairarapa I've heard some very positive feedback about this Budget and that doesn't reflect the speech that we've just seen from the good member for Clutha-Southland. I was down in Clutha-Southland recently at the Century Farm awards with the great Minister the Hon Shane Jones and I ask—Hon Shane Jones: Yes provincial champion. KIERAN McANULTY: That's right—that's right. It is a great honour as perhaps the second citizen of the regions to acknowledge the first citizen of the regions and the impact that he is having in our regional and rural areas. So there we were down in Lawrence the heart of National country. You'd think that having two New Zealand First MPs the Hon Shane Jones and Mark Patterson—the local boy—and myself go down there as three MPs from the Government—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! I wouldn't refer to a member in that way. KIERAN McANULTY: Oh I assure you he wouldn't mind but I take it on board. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): No well I mind. KIERAN McANULTY: I appreciate that. I apologise. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Thank you. KIERAN McANULTY: The locally based MP" I should have said. You'd think that having three representatives from the Government go to the heart of National Party territory would be a prime opportunity for these people—all of whom pretty much were farmers—to come and talk to the representatives of the Government and tell them about the Budget. Did we hear the negativity that the National Party MPs have been outlining today? No we did not. What we heard was that the Budget that Grant Robertson brought forward and produced to this House did not live up to the fears—the fearmongering—that the National Party MPs on the other side of the House laid down in preparation for the Budget. It's set the foundation for a strong economy because of course—Hon Dr Nick Smith: How's business confidence? KIERAN McANULTY: I appreciate the contribution from the soon-to-be former MP for Nelson—thank you very much. That MP must be very disappointed to see the results from Northcote. That MP must be very disappointed to see the results from Northcote because what the Northcote result said is that that member cannot bring about a by-election because the National Party can no longer stand on their record of nine years. If there was a swing of 4 percent like there was in Northcote we would have a new MP. So as sorry as I am to say it it looks like we'll be looking at Dr Nick Smith for at least two years longer. What I was about to say was about the strength of the economy. It is indeed forecast to continue to grow through to 2022. There is a surplus this year of $3.1 billion forecast to increase to $7.3 billion in 2021-22. These are the things that matter to people in rural New Zealand and that is why people in Lawrence and people in Wairarapa are not mirroring what we're hearing from the National side of the House today. I went to the Great Eketahuna Cheese Festival of a couple of weeks ago—my tūrangawaewae. The people there are true National Party supporters—except for the McAnulty family of course—who took the opportunity to come to see the Hon Damien O'Connor and congratulate him on his approach to Mycoplasma bovis and to congratulate this Government on its commitment in the Budget of $85 million plus a contingency to cover the cost if we chose to go for eradication which of course we have. This is a decision that has been celebrated in rural New Zealand. It is yet another example of this Government investing in the things that are important not only to this country but to rural and regional New Zealand as well. Now New Zealanders have a choice. They can listen to the contributions of the member for Clutha-Southland and fall into the trap of assuming that the Labour Government is not committed to rural New Zealand. I could not disagree more. This Government is deeply committed to the benefit of rural New Zealand and you only need to look at the Provincial Growth Fund to see why with $1 billion per year committed to encouraging economic growth in the regions. We could have done what the previous Government did in the last nine years—we could have left this to the market. We could have—as Simon Bridges has said very recently—believed in the trickle-down effect but of course this side of the House and the majority of the voters in the country know that the trickle-down effect lost any credibility 20 years ago. You only need to travel around rural New Zealand and see the lack of opportunities leading into the last election for our young people living there the struggling regional manufacturing base and the threat through underfunding of biosecurity and a lack of investment in the regions to see that the trickle-down effect—the "leave it alone and she'll be right" approach of the National Government—failed regional New Zealand. But now they have a Government that is committed to making sure that economic development economic growth and the benefits of economic growth are distributed fairly not just in the cities—not just in Auckland Wellington or Christchurch—but where the heart of the economy lies which is in our rural areas in places like Waipukurau and Waipawa in Central Hawke's Bay Dannevirke and Pahīatua in Tararua and of course the beautiful and the mighty Wairarapa Valley. It's areas like this that need the support of Government and of course it is a founding principle of the Labour Party—and a principle that our coalition partners in New Zealand First and our confidence and supply partners in the Green Party adhere to as well—that the Government has a responsibility to ensure that the economic activity benefits everyone regardless of who you are who your parents are or where you live. It is vitally important that economic benefits flow down to our regions and that just like when my parents grew up in Eketāhuna or when my grandparents grew up in the wider Wairarapa the opportunities that were available to them continue to be available to the next generation and the generation after that. It wasn't that long ago that leading economists in this country predicted zombie towns in proud areas like Whanganui. With Budgets like this one delivered by this Labour coalition Government the regions can actually have faith that in this House there is a Government that's going to put its money where its mouth is and actually look after these regions look after the people that live there and make sure that there are opportunities there so that we are indeed a Government for all New Zealand not just for big business and not just for those who live in the big urban areas. This is a foundation Budget that's going to set the scene by reinvesting in health education and housing across the board. This is setting the scene for a very long and successful tenure of a Labour-led Government. I'm very proud to speak in support of the Budget. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Before I call the member I just need to advise you that this will be a shortened call to allow the Minister of Finance his reply."