Bridges Simon: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBridges Simon: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 21 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18229. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Energy and Resources): I know there are other Simons in the House but that was the most pregnant pause I have ever heard. What is it? “Politeness is contagious” and I thought you had forgotten my name there. But enough about that.Look it is great to follow Barbara Stewart. She is a great woman. I know that if it was up to her New Zealand First would be supporting National after the election should it be in a position to do so. I know that she has been trying to seek peace between Brendan Horan and Winston Peters and she is disgusted by the nastiness going on between them right now. I know as I say that she is a good person with a good heart who if she was not a member of Parliament for New Zealand First would be voting National.What a great Budget we have seen in the last few days a Budget where Bill English and the Prime Minister came to this House and laid it all out for New Zealanders. Howwell received—I agree with Scott Simpson—that Budget was. We are now managing a growing economy. After Rajen Prasad’s party left us with a decade of deficits through good stewardship day after day we are now back in black and that means that we are able to put families at the heart of this Budget. All of the things that Rajen Prasad did in the Families Commission all of those things pale in comparison with the way that we are now through responsible stewardship able to show families a dividend of growth.The contrast between the Rt Hon John Key and his speech to this House on the Budget and that of David Cunliffe and the Labour Party—boy I tell you what. You saw in David Cunliffe a gentleman who was not sure whether to say: “Well we’re unhappy because you’ve stolen our two or three good ideas.” or “Actually this is terrible and not left wing enough.” He could not work out which was his position. I understand that because this is a Budget for our times that New Zealanders are very very happy with. They are glad to see us back in surplus and putting families at the heart of the Budget.I said that Mr Cunliffe was unhappy because we have stolen Labour’s ideas. Well actually no. Paid parental leave—let us look at that. We have always said—I am not sure what Rajen Prasad is doing; I will come back to him—that paid parental leave is something that when circumstances permit we want to do something about and now we are in a position to do that. But unlike the Labour Party and unlike the Green Party it is a considered responsible package which reaches more people who deserve it. As I said in my speech on Budget night we have done the hard policy work to come up with that thoughtful package.I know in terms of stealing ideas that now that Rajen Prasad and Darien Fenton are leaving this place—and maybe you as well Mr Assistant Speaker Robertson—the ideas factory of the Labour Party has gone. The ideas factory of the Labour Party has gone. Where is it going to get its big ideas from? It might have to go to Dr Clark. His great idea was banning Facebook and we know how popular that was. But that is the position.Darien Fenton: Don’t be so nasty Simon. It’s beneath you. You know you love me really.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: I will be sorry to see Darien Fenton go. I will miss our little flirtations across the House at question time. I always send a guilty text to my wife afterwards telling her I love her but there you have it.Then of course in that alternation that David Cunliffe had between not being sure about what to say—“You stole our good ideas.” versus that whole sort of “Look it’s terrible and not left wing enough.”—we get the wacky press release from David Shearer today about home insulation. I do not know what others think. I have to contend with David Shearer’s press releases from time to time. From his radio appearances after those press releases I just wonder whether he has read them. I just wonder whether he has read them because the radio appearances do not seem to bear any sort of resemblance to them. But in this one he says: “The Budget has confirmed that National has virtually abandoned its programme of insulating cold and damp homes across New Zealand”.Well Mr Shearer I know it was a stressful time for you last year at Budget time but we invested an additional $100 million over 3 years in home insulation across this country. That means that we are now in a position where we have insulated over 250000 homes including 112000 low-income homes and that means that by the time we have finished the end of our Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart and Warm Up New Zealand: Healthy Homes programmes we will have insulated some $447 million worth of taxpayer-funded insulated homes or nearly 300000 homes. And that is not good enough for Mr Shearer. He thinks we should have done them all. Well I just ask Dr Clark who is writing notes on this to tell me how much a policy of doing every house which seems to be what Mr Shearer is saying will cost this country. On this sideof the House we know that it is managing a growing economy responsibly that allows us to give the dividends back to families and to do the business for New Zealanders. This is a responsible Government working for the people of New Zealand to deliver the things that we know they want.Was it not a great families package? Fundamentally when you think about the families package and the Budget in total what does it all sort of mean? Well I say let us actually look at the contrast with Australia. If you want to know what a Labour-Greens Government in New Zealand would look like then look at the Australian Budget. When Howard left office in 2007 there was no public debt. Leave it to the Labor-Greens and what a legacy they left Tony Abbott and Mr Hockey to deal with. That is the kind of David Shearer thinking we have had on home insulation today. Do not worry about the money just promise to do them all. Do not worry about balancing the books just say you will do it and worry about the money at another time. But we on this side of the House through our responsible management have been able to deliver for families. I am really proud to be part of a team that has through good management invested more in families. Really the fact that families are the first to get the dividends and the benefits from this growing economy that we are managing is something of a real pleasure.Paid parental leave is something that I have had an involvement in. To see us spending $172 million on that is fantastic for New Zealanders. It is about more and more. More entitlement—we are moving in two affordable steps from 14 to 18 weeks—and more eligibility. We are widening it so that caregivers other than parents some 800 families more will receive it on that criteria and people in less regular work will also receive more—Carol Beaumont: When will that happen?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: This is not to mention our having done the policy work that that member over there never did on flexibility of the paid parental leave scheme so that women primarily get the real benefits of going back to work attachment to work and so on. Just extending the length of paid parental leave in the way that Labour would want to do well frankly that is lazy because it exacerbates the disparities. Actually we have seen from academics in pre-Budget commentary that more important than the length of entitlement is the targeting and that is what we are doing. We are effecting a more modern and diverse set of family arrangements and workplace arrangements. [Interruption]They do not like it because it is true. I know Mr Assistant Speaker that you are about to wind my time up but I just want to say in fairness to the members opposite who are retiring and to one or two of them who should be retiring—not looking at anyone in particular Ruth Dyson—that they were the brains factory of the Labour Party. As they leave I do not know who is going to do Labour’s thinking but on this side we have done it on paid parental leave. We are seeing caregivers other than parents going to get paid parental leave as well as grandparents who are working and meet the criteria and so on and so forth and people in less regular work getting it and there is the increased flexibility. This is a Government that is responsibly managing the finances of this country as they grow and putting families first. We should all be proud of that and celebrate that as a country.