Hipkins Chris: Appropriation (2014/15 Supplementary Estimates) Bill Imprest Supply (First for 2015/16) Bill — Second ReadingsText is subject to correctionHipkins Chris: Appropriation (2014/15 Supplementary Estimates) Bill Imprest Supply (First for 2015/16) Bill — Second Readings[Sitting date: 17 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4520. Text is subject to correction.]CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka):The people at home will be asking: if the Government thinks this is a plan that is working who is it working for exactly? It might be working for the chief executives of the energy companies that the Government has sold off who are getting multimillion-dollar pay rises but it is certainly not working for young Kiwi savers who have had the $1000 kick-start payment cut from KiwiSaver. It might be working for the landlords who are continuing to overcharge for cold damp mouldy houses but it is not working for the tenants who are living in those houses. It might be working for the people who are trying to sell a house but it is certainly not working for the people who are trying to buy one who are finding themselves priced out of the property market and it is certainly not working for workers and small businesses who are continuing to be overcharged for their ACC levies.So let us look at what this bill does and what it signifies in terms of the Government’s track record and let us weigh it up against the Government’s own promises and commitments at the last election. What was the No. 1 promise that it made at the last election? John Key said that the Government was back in surplus. He did not say it was going to get back into surplus; he said that it was in surplus—$372 million worth to be precise. How has that actually turned out in actual reality? It is a $684 million deficit. It does not take a mathematician to work out that that is a $1 billion failure on the Government’s part when it comes to delivering on that particular promise. That is broken promise No. 1 which is signified by what we are debating here today.Let us look again then at what that is going to mean in the long term for the Government’s track record. It is getting back into surplus next year. Well it claims that it will be back in surplus next year with a $176 million surplus. Let us be clear about that: $175 million of that comes from cutting the KiwiSaver kick-start. That leaves $1 million. If the Government can turn a $372 million surplus into a $684 million deficit what is it going to do with a $1 million surplus which is effectively what it is leaving itself in this year’s Budget? It promised that it was going to be paying down the debt. Let us remember that this Government has clocked up more debt than any other Government in New Zealand’s history. Government debt is at its highest level ever and it has only taken the National Government 7 years to get there. It said that it was going to get net debt down to 20 percent of GDP by 2020. It is abundantly clear that that is another broken promise because it is not even close to making it.John Key promised New Zealanders that the Government would create 150000 extra jobs—failed. It is not going to deliver on that. It is at least 60000 jobs short. He promised New Zealanders that the average wage—Andrew Bayly: Rubbish.CHRIS HIPKINS: “Rubbish” they say over there. It is their own Budget documents that show it. Anyway the Government promised that the average wage would move from $55000 to $62000. It is going to fall at least $3000 short—another broken promise. John Key said that the $1000 KiwiSaver kick-start payment would remain as it is now. Oops—another broken promise by the Government. The $1000 KiwiSaver kick-start payment was removed. That is where $175 million of the $176 million surplus is coming from—the cut to KiwiSaver. The Government said that it would not be increasing taxes on hard-working New Zealanders and we have seen that it has broken that promise already with talk of a capital gains tax for property speculators airport tax charges for those entering and leaving New Zealand and a broadband tax all in this year’s Budget and all of which signify yet another broken promise.So if this is a plan that is working as the Government claims it is whom is it working for? It is certainly not working for the New Zealanders who believed the Government and the promises that it made at the last election and voted for it based on those promises because it is failing to deliver on the cornerstones of its own election ledgers. This is a Government that purports to be a good economic manager but that really cannot walk the talk because it is not delivering on it. It is driving New Zealand further and further into debt and as the debt piles up the Government does not have a sustainable plan to turn that round. What it is hoping for is a recovery in dairy prices—a recovery that is highly unlikely to come. Let us be clear—the fall in dairy prices has left a massive massive hole in the New Zealand economy and the Government does not have any plan to plug it. We are going to be back here again next year almost certainly debating yet another deficit by this Government because it does not have a plan to turn round New Zealand’s economic fortunes.