Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): What a sad day for New Zealand when a transformational Budget is promised and a Budget of taxing and spending on marginal voters is delivered. There is nothing transformational about taxing a group of people the Government believes—in fact should be fairly confident now—will not vote for it in order to give that money to groups of people that it believes will vote for it.I have to make a few comments on the earlier speeches. James Shaw tried very hard. He used up 15 of his 20 minutes and I'll give him a little bit of advice: too much of his speech is about process. What he should have learnt now after six months of being a Minister is that when the bureaucrats are promising you an office here and a process there and an oversight over there you know that you're not going to get any results. What you're going to get is a whole lot of process and your own bureaucrats are taking you for a ride. So I'm afraid to say to James Shaw that he's being taken for a ride by his own bureaucrats and everything that he's delivering in this Budget.I also couldn't help but notice that his speech was almost entirely directed at the Green Party and its legacy and the membership which makes you wonder if James Shaw is not having trouble at t'mill with the Green Party. I won't be surprised considering what they haven't got out of this Budget because of one person: Winston Peters.Sadly I missed the Rt Hon Winston Peters' speech but I could have told you what it would say because it has not changed for 40 years. What a tragedy of a political career to have such nice hair such nice teeth such a great voice and yet have achieved so little. As Oliver Cromwell might say to Winston Peters if he was here today Be gone. You have sat there far too long for any good you have done lately." Anyhow I must get back to the Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges who I thought gave a very fine gladiatorial speech well suited to the amphitheatre of Parliament. But there's a problem with it. Every policy he criticised and those that I'm about to discuss were possible because they had been left in place over nine long years as the legacy of Helen Clark's Labour Government.Interest-free student loans are now back as fees-free because there was no reform. Pensions at 65 will continue because given the chance there was no reform. What about KiwiBuild? Not so different from what the previous Government was trying to do; Working for Families back as the winter energy payment and back as an expanded Families Package because the communism by stealth was not removed by the previous Government.I say to my colleagues in the National Party that the tragedy of our time in Government was not that we lost power; it's that we didn't use enough of it when we had it and now this Government is further expanding the ratchet of Government and taxing and taking more of our money.But the person that really needs comments addressed to him is Grant Robertson. Make no mistake; this is a Budget that is not about transformation. Transformation would be about changing the way the Government operates to deliver better services better outcomes and better rules and regulations so that New Zealanders can get on with pursuing their dreams.Take the idea of a fees-free tertiary education. If you're 18 years old and you live in New Zealand and you're going to get a higher education you are one of the luckiest people who have ever lived since we climbed down from the trees. In the history of humanity 18-year-old New Zealanders getting a tertiary education are the luckiest humans who have ever lived. They are the people that this Government believes are in need of Government largesse. I put it to you that this is the first evidence that this Government's Budget is not about transformation; it is about taxing money off one group of people who won't vote for the Government—I can guarantee to the Government now that net taxpayers will not like this one bit—taking that money and giving it to groups of people that the Government thinks will vote for it. That's how they do politics in South America. It is not the way to run a country.What about KiwiBuild? We have a serious problem. There is a need for transformation around housing in this country. There is a need to fix the fundamental problem which is this: we fail as a country to produce houses at the rate that we produced them in the 1970s. With vastly inferior technology New Zealanders built twice as many homes 40 years ago when Winston Peters was with it than they build today in 2018. That's the fundamental problem. The problems are well identified. They relate to the supply of land. They relate to the funding of infrastructure. They relate to the building consent process.So what is transformational in this Budget about saying that the Government is going to tax people and pump more money into a housing market with limited supply but do nothing about all of the rules and regulations and lack of land and lack of efficient infrastructure funding that mean we have a shortage in the first place? Pumping more money into a supply-constrained market is not going to improve the housing situation; it is simply going to ensure that we actually have higher prices and fewer houses.What about the Provincial Growth Fund? More proof that this Budget is all about taxing one group of people who won't vote for the Government and giving it to groups of people that the Government hopes will vote for it—in this case wistfully hoped for by Winston Peters in the regions.What about the winter energy payment? This one doesn't quite make sense because it's giving money to millionaires and high-income earners without any targeting whatsoever. So for once the Government doesn't target money at people it thinks will vote for it; it just sprays it around completely aimlessly.What about the New Zealand Superannuation Fund? They've re-continued contributions. We have 23 percent of Government debt and the Government is giving the New Zealand Superannuation Fund money to play the sharemarket at what may well be the end of the longest growth cycle in the postwar world. That is nuts. How many people out there with mortgage debt play the sharemarket believing they can consistently beat their mortgage rate by playing with international equities? That is what this Government is now doing with New Zealanders' money. What they should have done is acknowledge that people are living longer and they are working longer. They should have raised the age of superannuation and given real fairness to younger generations of New Zealanders.What about the $24 billion of additional revenue over four years that this Government will have—$24 billion? In everyday life if one finds something that belongs to someone else that they did not expect to have the right thing to do is give it back to the rightful owner. There is room in this Budget to give back $24 billion of taxes over the coming four years to the people that earned the money in the first place. What would that mean? That would mean a top income tax rate of 25c in the dollar. That would mean taking the 17.5 percent rate down to 15 percent. That would mean taking the 10.5 percent rate down to 10 percent. Every single New Zealander could have received a tax cut in this Budget but instead it is going to be sprayed around cynically at groups of people that this Government believes will vote for it.It is a sad day because the Government has recognised the need for transformation. It recognises the need for transformation in housing. It recognises the need for transformation in education. It recognises the need for transformation in transport and in healthcare. But sadly this Budget is delivering no such transformation whatsoever. This Government is delivering in this Budget a lolly scramble of money to special-interest groups—be they tertiary students be they people in particular regions be they people who are feeling a bit cold in the winter despite being millionaires—in the hope that people will vote for the Government in order to get other people's money.That is not transformation. That is what every single Government since Richard Seddon has tried to do in the history of this country. If we want real transformation if we want to actually address the long-term problems that this country confronts if we want to transform the way that the Government operates to deliver a better tomorrow for all New Zealanders then the conclusion is crystal clear. People in 2020 will have to vote ACT."