Banks John: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Banks John: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 04 April 2012. Volume:679;Page:1655. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon JOHN BANKS (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 Today Treasury released the Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the first 8 months ended 29 February 2012. These statements confirm what we already know. This country is living in a financial mouse wheel. We are living in perilous financial times and we need to have more robust discussion on a Wednesday afternoon about the economic sovereignty issues of this nation. 
Last financial year our Government ran an $18.4 billion operating deficit before gains and losses which was the fourth-highest per capita of any nation in the OECD. It is difficult to really put that kind of figure into context but $4000 a year for every man woman and child in this country was put on to the hock. We know that the deficit is $5.5 billion and counting after only 8 months of this financial year. It is $5.5 billion. 
The spendthrift days of members opposite treating elections as advance auctions of stolen goods are gone. The Opposition wants to spend more. It wants to borrow more and it wants to tax more. Penny-pinching is the new normal but today’s statement showed that penny-pinching is not enough. We have to put in place some economic parameters that are going to return this country back to its economic sovereignty status. The ACT Party does not believe penny-pinching will get us back in time. 
When I went home last year just before Christmas I said to my wife: “I am not sure why I am back in Parliament.” [ 
Interruption 
] And neither are they! The parliamentary Opposition is not sure but I have got news for the parliamentary Opposition members today: I am back in Parliament to make sure that they never come to this side of Parliament. That is why I am back in Parliament—so that they do not sit on this side of Parliament. 
They want to borrow more they want to tax more and they want to spend more. They want to spend your money like it is going out of fashion. New Zealand cannot vote itself rich and there is no morality in middle-class welfare. There is no morality in middle-class welfare. Members opposite—the Fabians of this Parliament—believe in middle-class welfare. There is no morality in spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year to wipe interest off the student loans of middle-class tertiary graduates. 
Student loans and taking the interest off student loans was always an election bribe by the parliamentary Opposition. Do you know what those members want to do? They want to borrow $260 million a week from the Chinese for the Crown account so that they do not have to put student loan interest rates back. It does not make sense. There is no sense in spending New Zealand’s superannuation payments on 65-year-olds. What a ludicrous proposition that we would borrow $251 million a week from the Chinese for the Crown account so that I could have a superannuation payment every fortnight. 
There is no sense in a Working for Families—now I want the parliamentary Opposition to listen to this carefully because you will learn something. I know that members opposite do not like it but that is why they are over there. The public of New Zealand know that spending borrowing hoping and big-noting with their money will not get the Opposition over here. That is the real reason I am here. I said to my wife Amanda: “Amanda I now know.” My friend the Speaker once said to me: “Why is it that you’re back ‘Banksie’?”. I can tell him today. I now know that I am back in Parliament to make sure that these rabbits never get in charge of the Treasury lettuce patch. That is why I am back. 
 There is no sense in a Working for Families programme that taxes the middle class only to give the money back to them. The Opposition wants to tax the middle classes then give the money back to them in exchange for their votes. This is the simple message: if we want our economic performance to exceed our expectations then we must spend within our means and stop trying to vote ourselves rich through middle-class welfare.