Foster-Bell Paul: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFoster-Bell Paul: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 07 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11729. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PAUL FOSTER-BELL (National): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā Tuarua. Tēnā koutou katoa e ngā mema o Te Whare. Before commenting in the estimates debate I trust I will be indulged just to put on record my condolences to the family of Sir Graham Latimer. Sir Graham was not only a prominent leader in the north where I whakapapa to but was also a leader in the early era of Treaty settlements as well as being a vice president of the New Zealand National Party back a few years before my involvement in the 1980s. I give condolences to all his whānau and friends who have lost a great New Zealander today.Secondly I would also like to place on record my congratulations to Her Majesty the Queen on having achieved her 90th birthday. We had a wonderful range of contributions but the interesting thing for me as a list MP representing National in the Wellington Central electorate was that New Zealand’s official birthday present to Her Majesty the Queen will be a wonderful education centre at Pukeahu the National War Memorial to be named the Queen Elizabeth II Pukeahu Education Centre. This is I think a very good use of those taxpayer dollars to create not only a gift for Her Majesty but an amenity of great interest to the citizens of Wellington and visitors at the National War Memorial.I have to refute one of the comments made by the previous contributor to this debate Stuart Nash.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Only one?PAUL FOSTER-BELL: Well there are many worth refuting but one in particular—that is it is not only members on this side of the House and people who occupy benches in this Chamber who think Bill English has done a wonderful job of providing economic stability fiscal rectitude and improving the public services that we have in our country; it is the people I speak to every day on the streets of Wellington Central.To give you a few examples of that the Friday after the Budget I joined the Minister of Education the Hon Hekia Parata Nikki Kaye and also Christopher Finlayson at Mt Cook School. The school is the guardian of Pukeahu. The children of that school have been given a special role given their neighbouring status to the National War Memorial and they will be given another two new classrooms to accommodate roll growth. There will be another four at Karori West Normal School. This is an example of the sort of excellent public infrastructure we can enjoy when we have a country that has its accounts in order that is exporting and that is manufacturing and producing high-value products and as a result with the revenue we take in as a Government we can deliver for our citizens whilst also retiring debt and we are not taking taxes up as high as the Opposition parties would if they were given the chance or were let anywhere near the Treasury benches.There are a couple of other things that I think will be of particular benefit to Wellington. I would like to congratulate the Minister of Revenue on the significant investment—I think it is $857 million—into the Inland Revenue Department business reforms. These will not only make it much easier for those who pay provisional tax especially small and medium sized business but create a lot of employment here in the capital for the people who will help improve that capability within our public sector: the IT programmers the consultants the business management experts who will be brought in to make sure we have a world-class—or even more of a world-class—taxation system.The average person on the street—let us for argument’s sake call him Mitchell. Mitchell might be a smart young person. He might be in the tertiary education sector. So he will have the benefit of perhaps attending something like the ICT Graduate School which we have funded and for which there is an extra $257 million of tertiary education funding in this Budget. But Mitchell will also feel safer as he walks down the street given our very good Minister of Police has secured nearly $300 million worth of extra funding to ensure our police officers who protect us all and do such a good job of keeping our community safe are properly remunerated. I would like to congratulate the Minister on securing that significant extra funding to support our police system.In the health area there will be many Wellingtonians—let us for instance take another example. Let us call the Wellingtonian on the street Sue who will have access to a wide range of medications. Let us hope that Sue does not get ill but should she for instance need access to state-of-the-art melanoma drugs something for kidney disease something for brain tumours—these are now all available thanks to the extra investment in Pharmac.This is a very good Budget and I commend it to the House.