Tremain Chris: Budget Debate 
Tremain Chris: Budget Debate 
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CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 I start my 2011 Budget speech by acknowledging people. I guess it is people whom I want to try and bring in throughout this speech tonight because many of us have risen to our feet and spoken about the paper that makes up the Budget but at the end of the day it is a Budget that is driven through leadership regardless of who may be fortunate enough to be in the Government. It is that leadership that shapes the way we take a country forward and the impact that has on the people we lead from all walks of life. So I want to talk about those people and my experience of working with them over the last 2 weeks through the adjournment period and about their different walks of life from the Samoan community and their 49th anniversary of independence to a footy game in Murupara and a group of people in that community to the Stravinsky ballet—all sorts of things that all of us as MPs have the privilege of attending throughout an adjournment. I want to talk about how the Budget has impacted upon those people. 
But I want to start by acknowledging two people in particular. The first of those is the Hon John Carter who has been a wonderful representative in this House for the people of Northland. He has certainly been a mentor for me and I know he has for many other new MPs in the House. Although I do not ever pretend to rise to Mr Carter’s level of humour or ability to tell a joke I certainly respect particularly his final comments about being a man for the people. 
If there is anything about John Carter that will be remembered in this House and throughout New Zealand it will be that he was a man of the people and he is certainly a man I admire. 
Su’a William Sio 
: He’s a good man now that he’s gone. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: He was a good man. The second person I will acknowledge tonight from within the House is my colleague and friend Craig Foss and his step-up to become a Minister after the Budget. Mr Foss has worked hard in the Tukituki electorate and certainly as chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee he has done a fantastic job. I congratulate him on that role and wish him all the best. 
In coming back to the 2011 Budget as I said at the start I will talk about people and the impact that the Budget has had on them. I will start with a visit I took to Wairoa after the Budget. I will talk about East Coast Lumber under the leadership of Mike Pollock but also in particular about AFFCO under the leadership of Dean Tucker there. The AFFCO chain has been in a position of some difficulty and jobs have been under threat but it was absolutely fantastic to visit that chain over the last 2 weeks to talk not only to Dean but also more important to the men and women on the chain at that AFFCO plant. We sometimes overlook how much people understand a Budget. They might not understand it at the macroeconomic level that some of us want to talk about here and they do not really understand about GDP and all that sort of stuff about the percentage of debt to GDP. They do not really care about that but they do understand basic economics at a household level. 
People understand some fundamental things. Firstly they understand that one needs to earn more income than one spends in a household if one is to have any sort of choice going forward. That is a basic fundamental thing they understand. They also understand that if one is not earning more income than one is spending then one is going into debt and will put that on to either a credit card or a mortgage. They know that over a period of time if one goes more and more into debt one will ultimately get into the proverbial. They also understand that bringing down debt is a really important thing. 
I tell members that the guys on the chain at AFFCO understand those fundamental things and they understand how important they are to their own business. What was really exciting to hear about at AFFCO was the investment that company is now making not only into the lamb chain but into an extra beef chain there so more jobs are rolling out. Security is coming for that workforce that was not there before and that is being driven by the strength of the commodity prices in the farming sector there. People understand these fundamental things and I guess that is the point I want to bring to this Budget debate. 
Some simple Budget messages came through in 2011. They were really straightforward because this Budget is about taking New Zealand forward and taking us away from the position we are in. It was Economics 101. The first one was about taking us from a deficit into a surplus. People in Wairoa understand that and they understand the importance of that. I was there talking to them—once again not talking on a GDP or macroeconomic level but just talking about the basics of getting our country back into surplus—and they understood that. There is a second thing those people understand. I spoke about taking the deficit from the $16 billion that is currently forecasted and in 2014 bringing it back over into surplus and that was great. They understand the need to bring the debt back into reality and I think that is important too. They understand that with regard to their own company and really see a major future there. 
The other company I visited in Wairoa was East Coast Lumber which is another amazing business with a real future up there with the forestry industry going ahead in leaps and bounds. Again talking to the workers there— 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: It’s all cyclical. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: You see over on this side of the House we do not just go and talk to our party members; we go out and talk to real New Zealanders. What Labour members do not get is that we actually talk to people at a level they understand. 
The message I am trying to give to the House tonight is that this Budget is simple Economics 101. It is about bringing our debt down it is about returning the country to surplus and it is about growing the economy. On each of those levels we are doing that. We are creating an economy that will allow people in Wairoa to get ahead. I think that is absolutely fantastic. When we get out there and talk about that and talk about our plan— 
Hon Members 
: How? 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: How? This is a great opportunity to talk about our plan which we put into place as soon as we came into Government. It is a six-point plan that was absolutely fantastic and that we are continuing to drive through. 
The first part of that plan—for the benefit of Opposition members as they have asked me to talk about it tonight and we did in the urgency debate—was to reconfirm the tax rate. It is absolutely fantastic; 75 percent of this country will now be paying tax at no higher than 17.5c in the dollar. In Wairoa they love that. It is no more than 17.5c in the dollar. If they have families guess what! They are still getting Working for Families I say to Louisa Wall. They are getting Working for Families there. So that was the first thing: getting taxes right. I am proud to stand on this side of House and say there are people out there who will no longer be getting Working for Families at the top end of that bracket. But at the bottom end guess what! Labour members are not going out there and talking about that much are they? People at the bottom end for Working for Families are getting more money. We reconfirmed the tax rates—absolutely fantastic. 
The second thing we agreed on in this Budget was to continue our investment in infrastructure and again that is a huge opportunity for the people of Wairoa in my electorate. One of the infrastructure investments we are making is the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband. That is absolutely sensational. That roll-out of fibre will come up from Napier through Tutira all the way to Wairoa. Actually it is going all the way to Tuai. It goes to Nuhaka and all the way through. It gets to Mahia School. There are three or four schools that will not get fibre to the gate but they will get satellite though. That is absolutely fantastic. So that was the second part of the plan—investment in infrastructure. Another part of that investment in infrastructure in Wairoa was the roll-out of a brand new road in the Matahorua Gorge for $30 million. The people of Wairoa are enjoying driving back to Napier a lot quicker than they previously were. It is great for the forestry industry. They are driving trucks with logs back to the port—fantastic all good. 
The third part of the plan was to continue to focus on trade and innovation. Let us just talk about science and innovation for a minute. That is the third part of the plan. Members on that side of the House continually say that there was very little investment in science and innovation. Well I say to those ladies and gentlemen turn to pages 270-1 of the Estimates of Appropriations. In the Budget $773 million is going into science and innovation $215 million alone is going into Crown research institute core funding and there is massive investment into our private investment. It is a huge investment into science and innovation—part of our plan for taking this country forward while getting our debt under control while getting growth going forward and while getting our country back into profit. It is absolutely fantastic. The people of Wairoa and Hawke’s Bay think this is a wonderful Budget and they are looking forward to a second term of a National Government. Thank you.