Shaw JamesJAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green): It is a great pleasure to have the opportunity to speak in the Budget Policy Statement debate. It is particularly a great pleasure to follow Simon Bridges who has talked a great deal about growth and about the Government's enormous investment in growing investment in transport—for example the blowout in the costs for the Warkworth to Wellsford motorway estimated to cost between $1.4 and $1.9 billion with a—oh he has left; how about that—Mr SPEAKER: Order!JAMES SHAW: —I beg your pardon Mr Speaker; I withdraw—with a cost-benefit ratio of 0.25. And that cost-benefit ratio was estimated when the cost was due to be $494 million as opposed to—oh look at that—$2 billion. So yes growth and increasing investment in things that were supposed to cost roughly a quarter of what they are now going to cost at a time when even then they had a pretty weak business cost ratio. So the kind of growth that this Government's members have been talking about in this debate—they have gone on a lot about growth so I will just sort of say a few things about the kind of growth we are experiencing. We are having growing numbers of polluted rivers; growing numbers of endangered species; growing numbers of people living in cars and garages; growing numbers of young families who cannot buy their way into their first home; a growing cost of living for the elderly who are increasingly hit by accommodation costs; growing costs of living for the bottom 30 percent of income earners whose cost of living is growing extensively and far faster than their wages are growing; and growing greenhouse gas emissions. Since this Government came into office we have had 19 percent growth in greenhouse gas emissions. We have had growing numbers of communities that are on water restrictions and boil notices at the same time as we have had growing exploitation of underground aquifers by large-scale irrigation projects and water-bottling plants. They take that water out of the ground for free while those same communities are on those boil restrictions. We have had growing congestion in Auckland. The average Aucklander now spends 12 business days a year stuck in traffic and that congestion is only getting worse. And that is at the same time that Mr Bridges has been growing the so-called investment—funnelling good money after bad into roading projects which does not solve the problem and in fact expands the problem. We have had growing oil and gas exploration at the same time as we are pretending to put in place some kind of climate plan. We have had growing unemployment. There was growing unemployment in the last quarter. Cadbury's of course is the latest manufacturing plant in New Zealand to hit the wall. So this is the kind of growth that we are seeing in this country. It is the kind of growth that if it was growing on your body your doctor would send you off to see a specialist. When I hear members on the Government side talking about GDP as this Holy Grail you have got to remember that all that GDP is is an estimate of economic activity. It is just activity. It does not say what kind of activity. It does not say whether that activity is any good whether it is useful or anything like that. You have an earthquake and you have GDP growth—right? So let us have more earthquakes because that grows GDP. If GDP is the be-all and end-all then going to war tends to increase GDP so let us go to war because that is great for GDP growth and we should be all for it. We have got the kind of growth but we do not have prosperity. What good is growth without prosperity? That is my challenge to the Government. I think I heard Amy Adams saying that our growth was growing faster than other countries' growth. When you consider the kind of growth that we are having it is kind of like boasting that My melanoma is growing faster than yours." That to me is an entirely unhealthy way of looking at the economy or the kind of useful activity that we could be seeing here. Hon Hekia Parata: It's ridiculous. JAMES SHAW: I would like to respond—it is ridiculous is it not that you have got this kind of growth in this country? It is ridiculous that we are having such appalling results for our environment and for our people even while all this so-called activity is going on. I do want to respond to one of the points that the new chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee Chris Bishop raised before. He was talking about what a bad idea it is to borrow to invest—it is somehow a bad idea to borrow to invest. Well I tell you what I have worked in a number of businesses that grew because they borrowed to invest. That is actually what you do. Actually for anybody who can afford a house what do you do? You borrow money—it is called a mortgage—and you invest it in a house and that has actually been a runaway activity in this economy over the last few years Mr Bishop. People borrow to invest all the time and Mr Bishop was saying: "Let's not borrow from the credit card." Well credit cards are running at 15 to 20 percent interest but in this country you can get long-term bonds at 2 percent for 30 years. That is not credit card rates of interest. So if you want to borrow to invest now is as good a time as any in recent history for a Government to borrow to invest in the things that it needs whether it needs transport and infrastructure—we have got a huge deficit in our water infrastructure that needs looking after. It is a good time to borrow to invest in the things that all of our people can use to grow their businesses to support their families and so on. Mr Bishop also said that the Cullen fund was set up as a place to invest the surpluses that the Labour Government consistently ran in every single Budget that it ran and he is absolutely right. In every single Budget it ran a surplus and then it invested those surpluses in the Cullen fund. He said: "We're not going to borrow to put money into the Cullen fund because we're not running surpluses yet." Well here is the thing: if you keep cutting taxes you stop running surpluses. The thing that staggers me is that the Government keeps saying: "Oh look we're not going to save for the future. We can't run these surpluses. But by the way tax cuts everybody." and that to me—if you want ridiculous that is ridiculous. If you cut your revenue lower than your expenses then obviously you are not going to run surpluses and if you do not run surpluses you have got nothing to spend on the Cullen fund. So that is why you are in trouble on the superannuation Mr Bishop. So it comes down to: what are your priorities? What are the priorities in Government here? We have seen this Government cut core public services—some to the bone. In health Annette King has done a superb job of unveiling the real-terms cuts to the health budget over the course of this Government. In education how many schools still have the same swimming pools that they had when any people in this Chamber learnt how to swim? How many of those schools are still completely free to attend? I venture it is very very few indeed. And here is a question: how many of those schools still have kids from all walks of life? Have we stratified to the point now as a result of this Government—it has cut in real terms funding to State schools while expanding it to private schools so that it is able to say that the quantum of money that is going to schools has increased. In the Department of Conservation it has a $424 million real-terms lower spend now than it had in the last year of the Labour Government. In real terms we are $53 million a year worse off in the conservation budget than in the last year of the Labour Government. Hon Maggie Barry: Over and over you repeat the nonsense. JAMES SHAW: We do say it over and over again because it is true. In addition a huge imbalance in the economy—Hon Maggie Barry: Every time you say it it's wrong. JAMES SHAW: Well forgive me for doing the job of Her Majesty's loyal Opposition. In addition—[Interruption] Mr SPEAKER: Order! JAMES SHAW: —we have the ongoing imbalance in the economy—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! JAMES SHAW: —thank you Mr Speaker—which is that in this country because the Government continues to refuse to deal with the enormous imbalance of the tax advantage that property has over other asset classes not only does that mean that the Government misses out on a source of revenue but it also means that we have runaway house price inflation and huge accommodation costs which contribute to massive blowouts in the cost of living especially for the elderly and for people on low incomes. So the National Government has got its priorities all wrong. It has restricted its own revenue at the same time as pretending that that somehow means that it cannot invest in the future of Government superannuation. It was St Augustine who said "God make me chaste but not yet". This Government makes announcement after announcement to make it look like it is doing something without actually solving the problem. In superannuation electric vehicles clean rivers becoming predator-free—all of these are huge announcements but they are devoid of results. When the Green Party gets into Government we will be measured not on announcements and activity but on results. Thank you."