SpeechRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): Mr Speaker before I comment on Budget 2020 I want to comment on the total rubbish that has just been spoken in this House by the Hon Chris Hipkins. This Government never went hard and never went early and it doesn't matter how many times Labour members come down to this House and argue that they did. Let's follow the disease: first discovered late December in Wuhan China spread throughout China through January and to the rest of the world. I'll challenge any member on the other side to find in the media one single comment from a Labour Minister on COVID-19 through January because you won't find one. They were busy on holiday and didn't realise the threat that was developing. There was a pandemic developing and New Zealand was asleep at the wheel.Darroch Ball: They're bad on that side.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: We had a competitive advantage Darroch Ball. We're an isolated island a small population and we're sparsely populated. We had an opportunity that was missed. Then we see the Prime Minister in early March coming out and saying There's a challenge here; 30000 to 40000 New Zealanders could die." That's the fear the Prime Minister created. But what did she do about it? Absolutely nothing. We left the borders open and we invited tourists to come into New Zealand and then expected them to voluntarily isolate. How naive was that to think that a tourist backpacker would come from Germany for three or four weeks and voluntarily lock themselves in a hotel room for the first two weeks? Absolute naivety. And then the Prime Minister told us "Don't worry the police are checking up on these people." and then we found later that—Michael Wood: It's a leadership bid.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: No it's not a leadership bid Michael Wood. I'm out of this place after six more caucuses and delighted to go but I'm fed up with hearing rubbish from that member day in day after saying that they went hard and they went early because they did not go hard and they did not go early and we lost that opportunity. We lost a huge opportunity because that Government sat on its hands and wasn't prepared to do what had to be done. What had to be done is we had to quarantine the borders get away from the rubbish of expecting tourists to come to New Zealand and voluntarily go into a hotel room. It was never going to work Mr Wood.Forget coming into this House time and time again attempting to tell New Zealanders that we went hard and we went early because we were soft and we were slow. And consequently that's why we've continued to have to stay in level 2 for substantially longer than we needed to.What we've got after a leaked Cabinet paper yesterday is the Prime Minister finally taking the shackles off the economy. She could have done it yesterday but no what we got was another lecture from the Prime Minister and 10 more rules about washing your hands and going to a doctor if you're sick and the final one be kind. Well it's time the Labour - New Zealand First - Green Government was kind to New Zealand businesses. It's time they were kind to New Zealand businesses because businesses are struggling. [Interruption] I know Michael Wood doesn't bother getting out of his electorate. He doesn't want to show his face inside any business because he knows the abuse he'll get and frankly he deserves it. It's a time for a bit of humility Mr Wood—not arrogance but I suspect you don't know the difference between those two words. Don't continue with the mantra that this Government went hard and it went early when it did not.Now if I could get back to my comments on the Budget and I want to acknowledge that it can't have been an easy Budget for Grant Robertson to prepare. He will have spent most of his Christmas holidays preparing one that was going to be totally focused on Labour re-election 2020. Then as the COVID situation developed under his nose and he was panicking he realised he had to deliver a Budget that attempted to cope with COVID-19.But again I have been here and delivered probably 26 Budget speeches. I have never spoken about a Budget that's so big on expenditure and so light on detail. Frankly I don't know how it meets the requirements of the Fiscal Responsibility Act; I doubt that it does. But what the Government's done is given itself through this Budget a $20 billion spending spree between now and 19 September. That should have had some detour to it. But we know where the money will go; it'll be spread here there and everywhere in an attempt to buy votes at the election. What it will leave is huge indebtedness that probably my generation won't have to face—Darroch Ball: Cheer up.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: —and probably Darroch Ball's generation won't have to face—but my kids are going to end up tidying up the mess created by this Budget.Looking through the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update I don't even think the figures are realistic. Look at some of the figures around tax revenue going from $86.5 billion to $82.3 billion. That's not credible. When you've got businesses that are completely shut down when you've got one sector—international tourism—shut and shut for the foreseeable future I don't believe that tax revenue won't decline by a lot more than that. You've got GDP predicted to go from 4.6 percent into recession for next year and the year after coming back into growth in 2022. I don't believe that figure either; it's over-optimistic.What we've got here is a Government that simply doesn't understand how the economy works. I listened to Mike Hosking on Tuesday morning and the Prime Minister came on—Hon Member: There's his first mistake.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Mistake? Well no the only mistake was made by the Prime Minister in an interview she gave to Mike Hosking when she said "The economy is back." That's what the Prime Minister said Tuesday. I didn't make the mistake listening to Mike Hosking the Prime Minister made a mistake when she's so out of touch that she thinks the economy is back and running again.What I say to the Prime Minister is: come out of level nine of the Beehive just wander 200 or 300 metres down Lambton Quay—new experience for her. She might get the opportunity to see how few people are on the street and why the businesses are suffering. She might actually get a feel for how tough it is—Michael Wood: They'll recognise her.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: —out there. Sorry?Michael Wood: They'll recognise her. No one will know who Todd Muller is.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: They'll recognise her. They'll recognise her then they'll be able to tell her knowing she's the Prime Minister how severely their businesses are suffering. That'd be a good idea Michael Wood. You can go with her and then you might get some recognition in this place. You might get better known in Wellington on Lambton Quay than you'll ever be in your own electorate.This election will be a difficult one for everybody. We're still coming out of the restrictions of level 2 we assume by next Wednesday we'll be in level 1. But it will be an election like no other because the future of this country depends on significant improvement in economic management than we've seen in the last two years. It's easy to spend money. And we've got the ridiculous situation we had in the House twice today—once from the bike rider the Hon Dr David Clark and once from the Hon Chris Hipkins—talking about the neglect of the last nine years. Well if there was neglect for the last nine years how can Grant Robertson keep coming into the House time and time again saying that this economy is luckier than all our trading nations because of the fiscal disciplines that we inherited from the National Government? Labour can't have it both ways. They've been talking with forked tongues for the last 2½ years—SPEAKER: Order!Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: They've been talking—SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. He knows very well he's not allowed to use that expression and he won't again.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: They have been talking with two messages: one of nine years of neglect and one about the fiscal stability of this country. You can't have it both ways."