Dyson Ruth: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDyson Ruth: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 05 June 2013. Volume:690;Page:10752. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills): Can I say that I understand that it is the role of the National Party backbench to get up there and read their research notes with as much energy and passion and enthusiasm as they can. I accept that that is a legitimate role of backbench National Government members but sometimes I have to say I sit in the House and I think “That member is better than that.” That is exactly what I have been thinking for the last 10 minutes. That member Chris Auchinvole is better than the speech he was just forced by his whips to deliver. But I commend him for doing that; I commend him for his loyalty to his party more than his loyalty to the honesty of the past. I invite him to stop misrepresenting the past in the way that he did by reading the research notes—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! Can I just say to the member that members should not make reference to the reading of speeches. It is entirely a matter for the Speaker.Hon RUTH DYSON: Thank you. Can I Mr Assistant Speaker commend your attention to detail. It is incredibly admirable and I hope it is as contagious as courtesy is. There are a couple of points that the member raised when he presented so eloquently his speech to the House that I want to draw to his attention as being incorrect. He said for example that the public of New Zealand did not get any increased services through the increased investment that the Labour-led Government made in public services.Chris Auchinvole: None of them much worth.Hon RUTH DYSON: I will remind that member of a couple of things. For example in 1999 the Work and Income briefing to the incoming Minister had to be contracted out to a private contractor because Work and Income did not have the competence within its own organisation to write a fundamental document—the briefing to the incoming Minister. If Mr Auchinvole thinks that is acceptable then his standards are much lower than those that I support for the Public Service in New Zealand.I remember having to advocate for constituents to get into Work and Income appointments in less than 3 weeks. That time delay for appointments to see Work and Income is creeping up every month—every month every month. All the constituency MPs and any list MPs who support constituents in their area know that what I am saying is true. It is getting harder and harder and harder for people in need to get access to the public service support they deserve because the Government is running down public services.Mr Auchinvole also talked about the Labour Government squandering our money—that we did not put anything away for a rainy day. That is just wrong. I can remember Michael Cullen year after year after year delivering on the public record a Budget surplus and Bill English sitting over here braying at him to spend it on tax cuts. Dr Michael Cullen said that tax cuts for the most wealthy New Zealanders were not the right thing to do with a Budget surplus and that it was better to save for a rainy day and invest in our future. That is what he did and it is the opposite of what this Government is doing.I think that this Government should look at addressing the causes as well as the symptoms of poverty in a much more holistic way. Putting increased money into treating children who have rheumatic fever is very good and we need to do that because we have children with rheumatic fever. Those are the symptoms. But unless the Government also invests in the causes of poverty-related illness then we will continue to have children who do not just have a disease and then get better but who pay for their entire life in diseases of poverty diseases that are preventable and diseases that shouldbe an embarrassment on the public record of this nation. We are not a Third World country but we have children in our nation who have diseases that are common in Third World conditions. That is where we should start investing: in our children in their health and in their well-being. That is not what this investment sees.What the National Government is driving is a two-speed economy. We have two speeds geographically with the main cities doing very well and the regions stagnating. That is not a good thing for New Zealand. It is not a good thing for the prosperity of the regions obviously and literally and it is not good for the morale of those areas either. We know what happens in provincial towns where we have high levels of unemployment and where young people are leaving school with no hope with no light in their eyes and with nothing to look forward to in their area. They leave they go to cities for a better time and a job they do not return and the downward spiral in the provinces continues. Under National that has just ratcheted up. We have a two-speed economy with the cities doing well and the regions stagnating.We have two speeds within our economy with our exporters and our manufacturers struggling. Some of the best and brightest of our country are struggling to survive while our speculators are doing very well. What sort of economy do we want? Do we want an economy that is based on cheap jobs low-income jobs in tourism and hospitality—where we have bigger and better casinos and lower-paid workers and casualised labour looking after the tourists who come to New Zealand—or do we want a strong high-wage high-skill economy where industries like those in our manufacturing sector are supported? We are getting the opposite under National. We see punishment of exporters and manufacturers and support for our speculators.We see the two-speed economy in Auckland where the growth in house prices is absolutely rampant. We have suburbs in Auckland where there is no property to be bought for less than $1 million. That used to be the exception. Now we have entire suburbs like that—$1 million suburbs—yet we have people queuing for jobs in a supermarket. When a vacancy is advertised in a supermarket in Auckland hundreds of unemployed people try to get that one job in the very next suburb to those million-dollar houses.We have also a two-speed economy with regard to fairness with incomes and wealth becoming more and more concentrated in the hands of the few where the gap between those who are doing well and those who are not is getting bigger and bigger and bigger every month. There is growing inequality growing tension and growing frustration. This is the opposite of the healthy society that we in New Zealand have been so proud of for so long.We certainly have a two-speed economy in Christchurch. Half of our city is depressed and angry to the point where our district health board is issuing quite strong warnings about it. People are angry because they have got wrecked roads; they have no community facilities no pools and no libraries; and they have got houses that either they cannot live in because they are so badly damaged or they are not allowed to live in because Government Minister Gerry Brownlee refused to allow rockfall mitigation on the Port Hills on city council or Government land. This is not the sort of Budget that is going to address those fundamental issues. It is not the sort of Budget that is going to address that two-speed economy.Labour’s KiwiBuild will build 10000 affordable houses a year. That is the sort of smart thinking and long-term investment we need in New Zealand. Homes will be sold to owner-occupiers for what they cost to build not to speculators who are banking on future tax-free capital gains. That is the sort of speculation the National Budget supports. That is the sort of inequity that it produces where the speculators are doing well and the young people struggling to buy their first home cannot get their foot on thefront doorstep. That is the sort of society that National supports but it is not one that I support.Labour’s NZ Power policy will reduce average household power prices by $230 to $330 a year and lower business power bills by 5 to 7 percent. That is the sort of smart thinking and investment in New Zealand families and New Zealand businesses that this country is crying out for. Our current electricity market has excessive prices. We know that. We know that the boards and management salaries have been excessive. But National continues to back it.We want a Budget that gives New Zealand hope. We want a Budget with vision for the future for a fairer more equal and healthier nation and that is the opposite of what National is delivering. National is delivering the opposite of what Labour will do.