Young Jonathan: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeYoung Jonathan: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 20 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18124. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): I am very pleased to stand in support of Budget 2014 and to be on the right side of the House and the right side ofhistory regarding this Budget. Bill English and his team deserve the congratulations and I would even say the thanks of this country for his leadership over the last 6 years. Labour can bleat all day about how well it did in boom times but as we all know true leadership is always tested through tough times. John Key and Bill English have led this country through some of its most difficult times. Not only have they led consistently well during those difficult years protecting New Zealanders from the harsh edges of recession but they are leading us into the prosperous and brighter future that they promised—one that Australians can only be envious of.This is a very good Budget. It shows that New Zealand is heading in the right direction. It is a confident Budget for a confident nation. It is a Budget from seasoned leadership. I just want to address some of the comments that were made by the Hon Phil Goff. Normally I would have considered him to be one of the better members on the other side of the House but I could not understand how he could go on about housing affordability and say that it is much worse today than when Labour was in Government. We know as the previous speaker David Bennett has just said that under the 9 years of Labour’s leadership and governance the price of houses went up 96 percent. Under National’s governance it has gone up 28 percent.So that you know and so that members of the public know third-party people who study such statistics also make it very clear that today housing is more affordable particularly in the city that I represent New Plymouth. Let me read just briefly from theRoost Home Loan Affordability Report of March 2014: “It now takes 53.4 percent of one median income to pay the mortgage on a median priced house purchased in March”. It goes on to say: “The affordability index [for New Plymouth] reached its highest point of 89.4 percent in September 2007.” Guess who was in Government? Labour was in Government and it took 89.4 percent of a median income to pay the mortgage on a median priced house. Today it takes 53.4 percent.I tell you what. If you want to own a house come to New Plymouth. This is the place that David Cunliffe said everybody was fleeing from. This is the problem I think with the members on the other side of the House. They say stuff that is not true. They make up stuff. If this election is going to be fought on anything let it be credibility because I believe—Denis O’Rourke: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member said that members on this side of the House say things that are not true. You hauled me up for that and I—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): No I did not. I told you that I pulled you up under Speaker’s ruling 42/3 when you yelled out twice “Tell the truth!”. That is an unparliamentary term because it is a reflection on members within the House and the dignity of the House because all members are honourable. What the member was saying was completely different.JONATHAN YOUNG: The Hon Steven Joyce aptly described Labour members this afternoon as panic merchants. They are panic merchants. Crisis and calamity have struck New Zealand! Let me tell you that the people out there who listen to this and read the newspapers scratch their heads when those sorts of statements are made: a regional crisis a manufacturing crisis an export crisis housing crisis immigration—everything is a crisis. Gee Labour members wake up every morning feeling grumpy; you can tell. The headline on 15 October 2013 said: “Cunliffe blames Govt for Taranaki exodus”. Another crisis in the wonderful province and region of Taranaki! He said that “Taranakians are leaving the province in droves”—in droves—“because they’re being forgotten by the National Government”. Why I am raising this is because this Budget is solid and sensible.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.JONATHAN YOUNG: I am very pleased to stand in support of Budget 2014. Let me just reiterate some of the comments I made just prior to the dinner break. I said that Bill English and his team deserve the congratulations and the thanks of this country for his leadership over the last 6 years. That leadership has not been just during great times but during very difficult times—the real test of leadership. Both the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister have shown that steady hand and that visionary insight into where this country needs to go. They have led us through the harsh times of recession and they are leading us into a prosperous and brighter future.This is a very good Budget. I wanted to also just touch on words that the Hon Phil Goff said before the dinner break. He said that housing affordability has never been worse than it is right now. I reminded him of what some third-party independent analysts have said regarding particularly the fair city of New Plymouth where I am the MP. They said that it now takes 53.4 percent of the median income to pay a mortgage on a median priced house purchased in March 2014—53.4 percent; just over half the median income. They went on to say that the affordability index reached its highest point of 89.4 percent in September 2007. We know that that was during the peak of the period of housing valuation increases under the previous Government and also at the peak of interest rates. So to say that we are in a worse situation now is blatantly incorrect.It is very obvious to see that things have improved for people who are looking for a house to buy. It is good to see that the management of the economy has enabled that. As Minister Joyce said in his speech on the Budget what we have on the other side of the House are panic merchants in comparison with a steady thoughtful measured incrementally positive and progressive Government. On the other side of the House are panic merchants who say that there is a crisis in the regions there is a crisis in manufacturing a crisis in exports a crisis in housing and a crisis in immigration. Everything in fact is a crisis. Getting up in the morning is a crisis for some of them I understand. But it needs to be known I think out there in the electorate that we have a Government here that is doing well for New Zealanders. This Budget is evidence of that.This is a Budget that supports families. It is a Budget that goes a long way to help people into strong employment and that is something that of course we are very mindful of. All I can say to those members opposite many of whom I respect is that their ongoing bleating of gloom and doom is eroding credibility—but please do not stop because the electorate needs to know what you stand for.Mr Cunliffe came to Taranaki in October 2013 just a number of months ago and he said that he blamed the Government for the Taranaki exodus. He went on to say that median weekly incomes had dropped in Taranaki by $24. It is not right at all. The next day on theTaranaki Daily News front page Mr Joyce and I refuted that and Mr Joyce said: “Mr Cunliffe claimed people were leaving regions such as Taranaki in droves. This couldn’t be further from the truth … Taranaki grew by 5.3 per cent between 2006 and 2013 and has 5484 extra people now living in the region.” Instead of median weekly wages going down by $24 they went up by $85 a week. I do not understand how you can get it so wrong and actually say it so calmly at the same time.I think that probably the other person who tends to talk down what is happening in Taranaki is my opponent Andrew Little who is going to contest the seat there. Andrew gets it right a little bit. He made a statement that the GDP over the last 3 years had not been growing. To a certain extent that is true even though we had the highest GDP per capita in the country—$75000 per capita compared with $47000 in the rest of thecountry—but what he did not understand is that when you have petroleum production which starts off with a great surge and a rush every well that produces oil depletes after a little while so GDP may be affected by that.But what he did not know was that those figures up to March 2013 excluded two-thirds ofMethanex’s production which has started up since that period of time. So we have got another $800 million to $900 million being earned out of the Taranaki economy. When you put that in per capita GDP looks around about $80000. So things are going well. Things are doing very well under this Government with this Budget. That side over there will continually try to talk us down but that is not the truth of the story.