Lotu-Iiga Peseta Sam: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Lotu-Iiga Peseta Sam: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:662;Page:10391] 
2. 
PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) 
 to the  
Minister of Finance 
: How will the Budget next month ensure Government spending delivers value for taxpayers and better public services for New Zealanders? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) 
: 
 The Budget next month will continue to undo the damage done by the previous Government to public finances when it squandered the benefits of a growing economy on ineffective services and a bloated Public Service. We plan to redirect another $1.8 billion of lower-quality Government spending between now and 2014 into higher-priority initiatives and better front-line services. We are taking a significant sum of money from existing unnecessary and ineffective services so we can have better health-care and better education and keep New Zealanders safe. 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: How will the Government ensure that it continues to manage its finances in a responsible way on behalf of taxpayers? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Government signalled last year that there would be a $1.1 billion new operating allowance for Budget 2010. I am pleased to say that the Government services have come to the task with some readiness and we will be able to announce a Budget that lives within the $1.1 billion annual operating surplus. This will help us return to Budget surpluses as quickly as possible. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Does his definition of low-quality spending include thousands of elderly in his own electorate who cannot get home help? Does it include dying patients in the Manawatu losing intensive rehabilitation services? Does it include $2 million cut from mental health services in Nelson? Does it include front-line biosecurity jobs or police cars to get cops to crime? Or does he mean tax cuts for his rich mates and housing allowances for politicians? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: That is the kind of exaggeration and false outrage that propelled Government spending under Labour to record high levels of funding for record low levels of service. I might say to that member that his party leader yesterday used an example of an individual in this House that completely misrepresented the facts. That party should be careful before it exploits older people whose situation is not how it was described in this House. 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: What implications does his responsible approach have for Government agencies? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Most Government agencies will receive no Budget increases over the next 3 or 4 years as the Government moves to get back into surplus as soon as possible. This will remain the case in this Budget. We have been surprised at just how much low-value spending the last Government put in place because it has enabled Government agencies now for 2 years in a row to reprioritise billions of dollars over the next 3 or 4 years. 
Stuart Nash 
: How will slashing $1.8 billion of Government spending and cutting taxes for the 8 percent of Kiwis on the top tax rate while delivering little if anything for the 75 percent of Kiwis earning below the average wage deliver growth-enhancing change for every New Zealander? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: That illustrates neatly the reasons why the electorate threw out the Labour Government because its members cannot tell the difference between wasting— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. In response to my colleague’s question about National policy the Minister has once again attempted to portray the question as being about Labour policy. In response to my earlier question about policy decisions made in this term of this Government he again referred all in his answer to Labour. He will either address the question on the basis of a grown-up approach to his own responsibilities— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member was on reasonable ground until that point. But his objection to the answer I think was reasonably well founded. I say to the Minister that the question asked by Stuart Nash was a fair question—[ 
Interruption 
] I warn the Minister of Finance that he may differ in view but while I am on my feet he is not to question me. As far as I am concerned it was a fair question and does not deserve an answer that seeks to ridicule the Labour Party. The question deserves an answer and as we all know in this place some political shots are perfectly normal and acceptable but to start an answer with saying that the question demonstrates that the member’s party does not understand something is not a reasonable way to start answering a question. It was a reasonable question. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That raises the question as to how someone who is a Minister is supposed to answer a question that is as hypothetically proposed as the member’s question was. It is not the policy of this Government as he is claiming because those announcements if they are to be made have not been made— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I have heard sufficient. The Hon Gerry Brownlee has given a very good answer: all a Minister needs to do is to say that decisions have not been made and therefore it is a hypothetical situation. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The decisions have not been made and that is a hypothetical situation. But I can tell the member that this Government does not believe what the previous Labour Government believed which was that if a dollar was spent that was the point. We actually want to provide effective services for people not just crank up Government spending at the expense of taxpayers. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I imagine you already know what the point of order is. The Minister just clearly cannot help himself can he? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I think I made the point sufficiently clear in requiring the Minister to answer the question asked and I think we should leave the matter at that point. 
Rahui Katene 
: How will the Budget enable low-income New Zealanders to cope with the exorbitant price increases in basic foods such as butter cheese and milk with butter having risen more than 30 percent in price cheese being 9.2 percent more expensive than it was at the end of last year and milk having a 6.3 percent increase in price? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Budget will include the allocation of many hundreds of millions of dollars for the adjustments in income support to lower-income New Zealanders who are dependent on that support. The consumer price index takes into account all of the price changes they face and increases their income accordingly. 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: What alternative approaches to managing the Government’s finance is the Minister aware of? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: We want to avoid the dangerously lopsided approach of the previous 5 years where Government spending grew by 50 percent at a time when the economy grew by 25 percent. We simply cannot continue growing Government spending at twice the rate of the growth in the economy. It is just not feasible; it does not matter how much Labour members want to believe it. 
Rahui Katene 
: Will the Minister support my bill on removing GST from healthy food which was pulled from the ballot today and which is about getting families ahead and helping them to eat healthily? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Government has made its position clear about GST: it does not intend to provide exemptions either now or in the tax package.