Moroney Sue: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: General Debate[Sitting date: 09 April 2014. Volume:697;Page:17062. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour):It has been really insightful and instructive listening to the National MPs in this debate because clearly they are trying to get back in touch with the provinces with the speeches they have made. I think what that tells us is that they know they are in big trouble in the provinces and so they should be. They absolutely deserve to be because just last week the GDP data that came out from Statistics New Zealand showed that economic activity per capita is actually going backwards in the Waikato but also in Gisborne Hawke’s Bay Taranaki Manawatū Wanganui Marlborough the West Coast and Southland. So those members are in big trouble and they deserve to be. The great sucking noise that you hear from provincial New Zealand is in fact Government services being withdrawn from the provinces in New Zealand and as a result economic activity dropping and unemployment going up.Just in my area alone the week previous to that data coming out there were 120 jobs lost at the Hutton’s factory. That factory has been going for more than 60 years in Hamilton but under a National Government those 120 jobs are gone and that factory is shut for good. But that was not the only thing that happened that week. That same week because of the funding cuts from this Government in the health sector the Waikato District Health Board decided that it was no longer going to provide maternity services in Morrinsville or Te Awamutu. Those are actually quite large New Zealand towns and that is another example of public services being withdrawn from the provinces in New Zealand.In Hamilton in the Waikato region unemployment is actually going up at the moment. In the last quarter unemployment rose to 6.8 percent. In the previous quarter it had been at 6.1 percent. That 6.1 percent is bad enough but actually unemployment is increasing in areas like the Waikato and that shows how badly this Government is doing in the regions. We also learnt this week that the Public Service is growing in Wellington and that is because services are being sucked out of provincial New Zealand and centralised. The Government knows that it is in real trouble and it is trying to retrieve that.It also knows that it is in real trouble when it comes to New Zealanders understanding the growing gap between the rich and the poor in this country and inequality because we learnt also last week that nearly three-quarters of New Zealanders know that the gap between rich and poor has increased under 6 years of the National Government and almost two-thirds of New Zealanders feel they are no better off or have gone backwards. That is what the Herald-DigiPoll tells us and that is the real challenge ahead of New Zealand today. We know that there will be more money to go around in the Budget and of course you know we are used to that on this side of the House because under Labour we had nine surpluses when we were in Government—nine surpluses year after year—so we know what that looks like. But how will it be spent under a National Government? I think New Zealanders sense and know that when we get increases in the Budget it is not going to go their way under a National Government. It is going to go to National’s mates. We have seen it time and time again where the decisions National has made have favoured its wealthy mates at the expense of ordinary New Zealanders and that is the challenge for the Budget coming up.I talked earlier in question time about a way that we could actually do something that helps families. What I said—and I think these figures are important—is that the core Crown expenses for the next financial year to June 2014 are forecast to be $73.2 billion. In that same period increasing paid parental leave to 26 weeks—under my bill the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill—would cost a net amount of $36 million in that same period. That is just 0.05 percent of the core Crown expenses. It would also be just 3.6 percent of the new spending that the Government is planning. So why is National insisting on using a financial veto? There is no justification for a financial veto against this bill. The public knows it. Last year Bill English was inflating the actual cost of the bill by 100 percent and even when that inflated figure was put to New Zealanders 62 percent of them said they wanted it anyway and they knew it was affordable. They are not going to be fooled by this Government’s plan to try to pretend it is not affordable.Also the submitters on this bill know it is affordable. Out of 3807 submitters who came forward on the bill to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks 99.6 percent of them agreed. They agreed that it was affordable and that it should happen in the way it is planned by Labour—staged in over the next 3 years. It is entirely affordable and the Government knows it. These are the issues in front of New Zealand.