Carter DavidRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): For those people stuck in traffic listening to this debate north and south of Auckland: that contribution that has just concluded was from the Hon Julie Anne Genter the Associate Minister of Transport. So if you're stuck in traffic then consider carefully every word you've just heard from the Hon Julie Anne Genter. In question time today we actually had our finance person ask the Labour finance Minister Grant Robertson to name one roading project that has been commissioned and is under way by the Labour - New Zealand First - Green Government.Hon Member: What was the answer?Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: The answer was a babble of words that said absolutely nothing but it equalled the fact that Grant Robertson couldn't name one single roading project that is under way. So for the people listening stuck in traffic: for the next 12 months nothing will get any better until you get a chance to vote this dreadful Government out.We're here in the appropriation debate and I want to take the opportunity to acknowledge the contribution from the Hon Shane Jones because he said in his contribution No one remembers the delivery of the 2019 Budget." So I'm going to take the opportunity to remind everybody about the delivery of the 2019 Budget because it's the only Budget that I've ever known where the Minister of Finance was too ashamed to deliver his own Budget and he got the Leader of the Opposition the week beforehand to start dribbling out bits of information and leaked the Budget via the announcement on the Treasury website. It was a dreadful Budget. It's been called the Wellbeing Budget. It was completely botched by the Labour Government and even Grant Robertson doesn't want to spend much time debating it today.We've had this debate; it's a regular on the parliamentary calendar. Normally the Prime Minister would make a contribution to the debate; she hasn't so far. I suspect—if I follow the media and the media is accurate—she's actually unlikely to make a contribution to this debate today because I'm told the Prime Minister's already on her way to Japan for the Rugby World Cup. Now I equally know that the Rugby World Cup's first game is Saturday and today is Tuesday. I think when New Zealand—Hon Julie Anne Genter: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought we weren't supposed to refer to the absence of members from this Chamber.DEPUTY SPEAKER: That's right. He hasn't. He's close—he's close—but he hasn't actually said that she's not in the Chamber.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Thank you very much Madam Speaker. The point I'm making is that you would expect the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern to want to make a contribution on her Budget. But no things haven't been tidy for the Labour Government over the last week. So go and watch the rugby go four days before the game actually plays but I say to the Prime Minister: Prime Minister you can run from the current scandal of the Labour Party but you cannot hide from it.This Budget is a Budget of high taxes it's a Budget of wasted spending and it's a Budget of promised spending but with no detail. I'll give the House one example of the final of those three the spending without detail: the huge announcement the wonderfully acclaimed announcement of $1.9 billion on mental health. And I thought "That's a good initiative. It probably should have been done by earlier Governments." but then I was astounded to find out that there is absolutely no detail at all on how that huge amount of money is going to be spent. After the Budget the Government then embarked on another roadshow going round New Zealand talking to people in the mental health area saying "We've appropriated $1.9 billion but we don't really know how to spend it. Would you give us some help?" So that's an example of the amateurish way the Budget was put together.I mentioned also it was a Budget of wasted spending and I can look no further than the Hon Shane Jones with his $3000 million slush fund which is nothing more than an attempt by New Zealand First to spend taxpayers' money to buy votes for the next election. And I can say to Shane Jones—the Hon Shane Jones—yes the Minister knows how to spend the money but I guarantee today that he doesn't know how to get the votes. So $3 billion spent and sprayed around New Zealand and the photo opportunities for the man who claims he's the champion of the provinces won't assure the Hon Shane Jones of a pathway back into this House after the next election and nor should it.And then the final point about the Budget was the fact that it's a Budget again of high taxes. As the Hon Todd McClay reminded us after the urgency motion followed the Budget what was the first legislation the Government slammed through this House in urgency but again two more fuel tax increases. So you've got the Prime Minister today suggesting that all of the promises around fuel taxes the concern about the price of fuel for New Zealanders are more associated with international events and recent events in Saudi Arabia. That's not right: approximately half the price of fuel today—when those Auckland people finally get home with their tank nearly empty after they've been stranded on the motorways when they fill up next time approximately 50 percent of that money goes into the Government coffers in the form of taxes.The point I want to make finally is the current attack by this Government on the part of the economy that's performing. So we have an economy that's now straggled with low confidence. We have an economy that's growing at half the rate that it was when Labour became the major party in the Government. We have GDP figures out on Thursday and whilst I say the growth rate is half it may prove to be less than that. And the Prime Minister and Grant Robertson continue to blame international reasons entirely for the declining New Zealand economy. I accept part of that argument but the greatest reason the New Zealand economy is slowing is because business has no confidence in this Government. You've got the Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr now reducing the official cash rate to 1 percent—we haven't seen that since the global financial crisis—and the likelihood he'll have to reduce it further and the Governor of the Reserve Bank out there actively encouraging businesses at this price "Go and borrow." and the businesses aren't prepared to do so because they are worried about this Government and this Government's management of the economy.Yet the sector that's performing and performing well is our primary sector. Our terms of trade are good. So what do the Hon David Parker and the Hon Damien O'Connor then do? They then attack the primary sector. We've got their freshwater strategy ill-thought-out rushed and announced and now there are meetings being held urgently all around rural New Zealand. There were 400 that attended a meeting in Ashburton last week. There wasn't enough room to accommodate the 400 concerned farmers who travelled from all over Canterbury to try and find out the details from Ministry for the Environment officials. And as if they haven't got enough to worry about now with the freshwater strategy we've got the zero carbon bill before the select committee as well.Dr Duncan Webb: Great bill—great bill.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Well the Hon Shane Jones the champion of the provinces says it's a great bill. Let me tell the Hon Shane Jones he's got no chance of seeing farmers reducing their methane emissions by 50 percent by 2050. It is not possible. Well I'm now learning that it wasn't the Hon Shane Jones that interjected; it was Dr Duncan Webb that member from Christchurch—he wouldn't know a farmer if he fell over one. He wouldn't know a farmer if he fell over one. But let me tell him the way this Government is treating the primary sector will not be forgotten at the next election and I don't think the ramifications will only be in rural New Zealand Dr Duncan Webb; it will be in Christchurch Central as well. So take that smug smile off your face sir because you may well be going back to practising law in about 12 months' time after a very brief experience as a member of Parliament and frankly as a member of the Labour caucus a member like that deserves absolutely nothing better."