Gallagher Martin: Budget Debate 
Gallagher Martin: Budget Debate 
[Volume:608;Page:5858] 
MARTIN GALLAGHER (NZ Labour—Hamilton West) 
: 
 It is a huge pleasure to rise to speak in this Budget debate and to say how really proud I am to be part of this Government. Indeed we have seen the foundations that have been laid over the last three Budgets bedded in. This Budget is about staying on course and maintaining our strong positions in times of significant international uncertainty. It is a Budget for all New Zealanders it is a Budget for my region the Waikato which I proudly represent and it is a Budget for towns like Balclutha—a town which as we are well aware the Leader of the Opposition attempts to represent but his opponent Lesley Soper won both the party vote and the candidate vote in that area. Bill English does not represent even Balclutha and neither does his party. Those members opposite still do not represent Balclutha even given the figures in the latest poll which give them some little glimmer of hope by going all the way up to the huge figure of 28 percent. 
I want to talk a little about this Budget in terms of the Waikato. Under this Government my city has chalked up some significant achievements. We are the home of a significant tertiary education sector. Education is very important for our city. Research is very important and it is said that up to a quarter of New Zealand scientists are domiciled in the central Waikato and Hamilton area. I am very proud that under the leadership of Jim Anderton the relevant Minister we are now getting our Waikato Innovation Park under way. The Prime Minister recently came to turn the first spade of soil for the park. That is a great achievement for our region thanks very much to the assistance that this Government has given. I also take this opportunity to pay tribute to my colleague the member of Parliament for Hamilton East Dianne Yates for her excellent work along with the local people the Business2Hamilton organisation and other people in the Hamilton area who have got the Waikato Innovation Park off the ground. 
 In health Waikato Hospital under this Government is continuing to be a significant tertiary teaching hospital in terms of its excellent partnership with educational institutions—notably the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and Waikato’s Institute of Rural Health. We will be opening a much-needed neurosurgery unit which will cater for the mid – North Island. Just the other week it was with much pleasure and pride that I on behalf of the Minister of Transport Paul Swain opened the next section of the Waikato expressway immediately north of Huntly through to Rangiriri. I can say as a local member that much more work needs to be done. But this Government unlike the Opposition does not just talk about roading; in this Budget round it is spending $1.1 billion on roading. The latest addition to the expressway project is evidence that we are making progress. I also note that education is obviously very significant for Hamilton. We are in our own right as a city a very major provider of tertiary education services. We also have some very significant and well-run secondary schools primary schools and pre-schools. 
I want to talk a little about the Gateway programme initiative—a partnership between secondary schools the business community and the wider community in providing jobs and opportunities to assist young people in their transition from school into work and skilled occupations. I would give a gold-star award to Mr Jennings and his team on the Gateway project at Fraser High School Hamilton and say how delighted I am that two more schools—Fairfield College and Melville High School—will be in that project by 2007. Nationally the Gateway programme will progressively become available to all 1 to 5 decile schools by 2007. It is expected that most will take the opportunity to put senior students into workplaces. For members who are not fully familiar with Gateway the programme prepares young people for the world of work while they are still at school. Senior secondary students get to start work-based qualifications and they learn the disciplines of work. Indeed the current Gateway project in Hamilton has been very very successful. 
The package we have rolled out also expands the popular Modern Apprenticeships scheme which has been a great success in my city. At the end of March there were 240 Modern Apprenticeships in Hamilton and nationally there were over 5000. The number of Modern Apprenticeships across the country will increase by nearly 50 percent to about 7500 places a year by 2006. I commend the leadership of people like Steve Maharey. I also acknowledge the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs and the very positive leadership role being played by local government. The Government’s objective by 2007—and what I want to see and what many people in this country want to see—is that all 15 to 19-year-olds will be engaged in appropriate education training work or other options that will lead to long-term economic independence and well-being. 
I particularly welcome the youth training package because it specifically targets those young people who do not go on to university or polytech and enables them to learn the skills necessary for today’s workforce. I certainly hope that one of the cries that Dianne Yates Nanaia Mahuta and I have received from industry in Hamilton is noted. It is very very important that school careers advisers really make young people aware of the options in the trades and the various opportunities in industry. Indeed to go to university or to polytech important as that is is not necessarily the only way forward in terms of post-secondary school education and opportunity for our young people. I strongly commend industry and business in Hamilton for doing their bit in this area. 
One of the issues I want to pick up on relates to superannuation. I am delighted that as a consequence of the Government’s strong fiscal position we have been able to move to the full contribution rate for the New Zealand Superannuation Fund this year contributing nearly $1.9 billion. It is pretty obvious and is so basic—but unfortunately members of the Opposition do not seem fully to appreciate the fact and even our grandmas can tell us this—that unless we put the money in now future Governments will not have the resources required to ensure certainty and security in retirement. That is a very very significant benchmark of difference between this party and the Opposition parties in this House. I am delighted that this Government is putting money away for future generations. 
There are lots and lots of good things in this Budget— 
Rodney Hide 
: Name one. 
MARTIN GALLAGHER 
:—and as I go around my electorate the reaction is positive. I tell the member that the public’s response to this Budget shows this Government’s polling rate is 50 percent and the rating of the Opposition party that that member represents is hovering at 4 to 6 percent—if he is lucky. I think that is testament enough that this Government has the support. Even the Opposition leader cannot even take Balclutha. Who is the member for Balclutha? It is not Bill English but Lesley Soper the Labour candidate. She won Balclutha in the heart of Bill English’s electorate. That is the degree of traction the degree of support that Opposition parties are getting in this country. They should learn the lessons of this Budget which is a good Budget. They well know when they talk around the country the excellent reception this Budget is getting. 
We are on course. We are tracking steadily. These are uncertain times but we are not going to the mad rightward lurches that would happen if say Mr Brash were either the finance Minister or maybe by the next election the leader of the major Opposition party—I will not say main Opposition party because even the Rt Hon Winston Peters can do much better than Bill English in the preferred Prime Minister rating. I say: “Watch out Bill English because Don Brash is only two points behind you.” That is not much consolation because Bill English is on 7 percent and Don Brash is on 5 percent.