Gosche Mark: Budget Debate 
Gosche Mark: Budget Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3309] 
Hon MARK GOSCHE (Labour—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 Is it not amazing that a member from the far north got up and made a speech and did not mention his electorate of Whangarei once? Did he talk about the need for broadband in his electorate or roads or more money for the families in need? 
Darren Hughes 
: Not one word. 
Hon MARK GOSCHE 
: No not a single word. All he was worried about was covering up the fact that the National Government sold 11000 State houses and this Government is about to add another 2000 back into the stock as a result of this Budget—and there was not a word from that member over there. No wonder he is sitting on the back bench! It is just sad that the National Party still sees housing as so irrelevant to New Zealanders that it put Phil Heatley up as its spokesperson. 
But I want to talk about this Budget. It is a wonderful Budget for New Zealand. It is a wonderful Budget for Kiwis who are proud to be Kiwis. It is a wonderful Budget for our grandchildren and I will tell those members opposite why. There is a need for economic transformation. I want to tell the House about the experience of people in the electorate of Maungakiekie who try to get modern telecommunications in today’s environment. The Mount Wellington exchange which I plug into still has not got faxability. How long has that been around? And of course quite a number of Maurice Williamson’s constituents in his electorate of Pakuranga have that same difficulty—let alone broadband! 
So what has been happening in the years of privatisation of the telecommunications network that we rely on to run a modern economy? In the case of my electorate nothing. We are still waiting for faxability. I have finally had broadband installed at home and it works 5 out of 7 days a week. Why? Because I dare to live about 4 kilometres away from the exchange and the signal cannot get through. So I wait not for an hour to see whether I can get fast broadband or slow broadband I wait for 2 days to see whether I get it at all. I have had Telecom around twice and they still have not fixed it. So I welcome the unbundling of the loop— 
Darren Hughes 
: And so does Eric Roy. 
Hon MARK GOSCHE 
: And so does Eric Roy because he is 20 kilometres away from the exchange and he has no show. But what did Phil Heatley talk about? He talked about nothing of any relevance to anybody out there. This Government is getting on with the job of saying that New Zealanders have to have a Telecom that works and have to have broadband. Just around the corner from where I live is one of the biggest developments in New Zealand’s history called Sylvia Park and Carbine Road industrial development. How can we expect those companies that are at the leading edge such as Rakon which has just listed on the New Zealand Exchange to progress economically with that sort of service from Telecom? 
So my challenge to that communications company is to get with it and do what this Government wants. The Government wants modern-day facilities and that is also what the people of my electorate want. We want to be able to get broadband when we need it and we want to have simple things such as faxability that the rest of Auckland has had for years and years but Telecom has not spent the money on the exchange to upgrade it. That is a disgrace. 
I also want to talk about transport—something that Phil Heatley seemed to forget even though we are building that road up to Whangarei as fast as we can go. My mate Paul Chalmers is up there—living there and coaching the rugby team—door-knocking while Phil is wasting his time down here ignoring his own electorate. He did not even mention it in his speech. But look at this Budget when it comes to transport. There will be $13.4 billion over the next 5 years—an extra $1.3 billion. Poor old Maurice Williamson—I was watching him during the debate and he was crestfallen. Because under the tax cut policy of the National Party $11 billion was going to be handed out but the funding for transport that we delivered in this Budget is actually there now and if one looks at the National Party policy it was going to take 6 long years. 
Well Maurice is used to long waits because for 9 years while he was the Minister of Transport—he shared it with Jenny Shipley for a little while—not a single piece of motorway was built in Auckland City. Not a single piece of motorway was built in Manukau City. Not a single piece of motorway was built in Waitakere City. The only bit that I can find that was built was on the North Shore and it was heading out of Auckland up to Whangarei. That was the only piece of motorway that the National Government built in Auckland in 9 long years. So Maurice’s policy of waiting 6 years before he could get his hands on the petrol tax is understandable. It is hopeless absolutely hopeless. They would have done the same and said to rich people: “Here’s your 100 bucks a week and by the way we’ll build your roads maybe in 6 years’ time if we can find the money but at the moment we can’t because we’ve given it all back to you in piddling tax cuts for low-paid workers”— 
Bob Clarkson 
: What about the eastern arterial? 
Hon MARK GOSCHE 
: The eastern arterial is an arterial road paid for by the ratepayers. That is what that member needs to understand. It was not a State highway nor is the one out in Manukau. Poor old Bob will learn one day that there is a difference between local roads and State highways. What this Government is doing is adding to the pool of work that in Auckland’s case is in this wonderful document about the many many projects under way already in Auckland and more to come such as State Highway 20. We are also going to build roads up in Warkworth. We are going to build roads in Tauranga. We are going to build roads in Christchurch. We are going to make sure that the Manukau Harbour crossing is built quickly. And of course that is in addition to all the other spending. 
Whilst I hear some moans about public transport I just want to remind Aucklanders that when we became the Government back in 1999 there was a whole $18 million going on public transport in the City of Auckland—$18 per Aucklander! Well what is it in this Budget? It is $172 million this year. That is $154 million more. We had figures that said that in Auckland in 1955 more people were travelling on public transport than there were in 2000. So the year I was born there were more people using public transport in Auckland with a population much smaller than it is today than there were at the end of the reign of the National Government. 
Darren Hughes 
: What does the member for Tamaki think about that? 
Hon MARK GOSCHE 
: The member for Tamaki does not think about that because he has not noticed the roadworks. Like all the other National Party members he has not noticed the roadworks the public transport system the fact that we have had to buy back the rail and the fact that millions and millions of dollars have been put into the purchase of new buses. Aucklanders like that. They are out there using buses trains and ferries in greater numbers than ever before and we will continue that trend. But we are also going to fix up those roads that Maurice Williamson and Jenny Shipley forgot about for 9 years. 
I want to talk about our children and I want to talk about education. In this Budget—and I am talking about adults in this case—there is $33.5 million to improve literacy numeracy and language in our workplaces. That will add to the productivity of enormous numbers of workplaces. These are not the children whom Bill English supposedly is concerned about who he claims are failing in our school system now. These are the adults who were failed by the education system in the past. I am sick and tired of Bill English rubbishing the National Certificate of Educational Achievement. I heard him say that one in five children in New Zealand is failing. Well under School Certificate one in two had to fail. That is how fair that system was. It was ridiculous. In areas such as Otahuhu where I come from there was no equal distribution of marks under the old Sixth Form Certificate system. It did not happen in low-decile schools in low-income areas. Those children were told: “You are dumb because you go to that school and if you want to do anything about it shift out of the area.” The National Party believes in that load of nonsense. 
When I hear Don Brash say that our grandchildren are going to grow up to cheer for the Wallabies it shows one how out of touch he is with real New Zealanders. If Don Brash did what I did on Saturday night and watched the Warriors play and beat the Tigers he would have seen every Kiwi in that place cheering for the Kiwi team. When I watched the programme showing the Warriors play in Australia every Kiwi in the stadium was cheering for the Warriors; they did not forget where they had come from. They are proud New Zealanders no matter where they live but Don Brash would have us believe that they will forget they are Kiwis. That shows members how little he knows about the average New Zealander. 
I am proud that this Budget will put money into early childhood education new teachers in our schools and an extra $154 million—I think it is—into property. My grandson is labelled by Don Brash as not mainstream because he happens to have a brown skin. He is very proud of his skin; he is a Kiwi a Cook Islander a Samoan a German and has English blood running through him. He is the mainstream Kiwi of the future and he will not be cheering for the Wallabies in the future I assure members. He will be cheering for the Kiwis and the All Blacks because he will have the education and the opportunity this Government gives in this Budget. Don Brash and his National mates have not got a clue about it. While they crow on about Australia average Kiwi are saying that they do not know what National is on about. New Zealanders are proud to be Kiwis anywhere in the world and especially here in New Zealand. This Budget is a wonderful Budget for New Zealanders and that is why I am proud to be part of this Government.