Boscawen John: General Debate 
Boscawen John: General Debate 
[Volume:674;Page:20260] 
Hon JOHN BOSCAWEN (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 This debate takes place against a background where this country this year will be in deficit of $16.8 billion—$16.8 billion. This country has been spending at the rate of $300 million a week more than it has been taking in. For a family of four that is $300 a week. That is $300 a week for the average New Zealand family—a father a mother and two children. This Government has been borrowing $300 a week per family more than it takes in. 
What an incredible irony for the Minister for Climate Change Issues to stand up and say that more debt is the last thing this country needs right now! He is suggesting that this National Government is concerned about debt yet it is his Government that has presented a Budget to this Parliament showing that in the last year we spent $16.8 billion more than we took in and in the current financial year we are looking at a deficit of just under $10 billion. 
This debate takes place against a background of a debt crisis in the United States. The United States came to the brink of defaulting on its debt—to the brink of defaulting. We see in Europe an unfolding debt crisis. It is not just in Greece Ireland and Portugal but in countries we once knew to be stable and strong countries like Spain and Italy. 
The ACT Party just recently sent out over 100000 letters all around New Zealand asking New Zealanders whether we should be following a policy of borrow and hope or whether this Government should be living within its means. We got an overwhelming response. Thousands of New Zealanders returned the survey form to Parliament saying they totally rejected a policy of borrow and hope and that they supported a policy of getting the country back to living within its means. 
The Minister talked about competent and consistent financial management. He talked about reducing debt. He talked about getting the country back into surplus. Well I say to that Minister that if he was really concerned about reducing debt and about getting this country back into surplus then this National Government would have taken a much closer look at its expenses. He referred to the emissions trading scheme. Few New Zealanders understand that Vote Climate Change has allocated some $2 billion of credits to foresters—$2 billion of credits to foresters. Some of those credits have been allocated to people who have pre-1990 forests and who are denied the chance to convert them to more productive use. Those people are suffering a real loss. Equally there are people who have pre-1990 forests who can use that land only for forestry. They have suffered no loss and will be getting a windfall gain under his emissions trading scheme. 
Worse still is that the emissions trading scheme provides an incentive to go out and plant trees. It provides a one-off incentive of about 200 tonnes of carbon per hectare or a subsidy of about $4000 a hectare. That is sufficient for a forester to go out and buy high country land and plant trees. This Government is essentially giving away free forests and the Minister knows about it. 
So for National Ministers to stand up and pretend that they are concerned about the cost of living and the cost of debt and concerned about exports is a joke. There are many ways in which this Government could have reduced its expenditure to bring it within budget just like New Zealand families have to do but this Government has pursued a policy of borrow and hope. It may well come back to rue that day particularly when we see the unfolding situation in both Europe and the United States. 
Mr Smith said his package was about changing incentives. Yes it was important to change incentives but it would have been better still if the tax package had been about reducing taxes. It was not about reducing taxes; it was about improving incentives. Yes improving incentives is important. It is important to reduce the marginal rate of tax. It is important to send that incentive. In that regard we congratulate National. The real issue is to have far greater controls on Government expenditure to reduce expenditure and to get debt under control. The ACT Party is committed to promoting policies that will do just that. Thank you.