Brown Peter: Budget Debate 
Brown Peter: Budget Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:16393] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 In a few days’ time at the end of this debate this House will be charged with the responsibility of either voting for this Budget or alternatively voting for the motion put by the National Party that it has no confidence in the Government. That is an unusual motion to put because the meat of this Budget surrounds the tax cuts—precisely the Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill 2008. 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: And they’re supporting it! 
PETER BROWN 
: The National Party supports that bill but it has put a motion of no confidence in the Government. One has to ask what it is that the National Party has no confidence in. 
John Key said in his Budget speech that when it comes to taxation National will plan better structure better and deliver better. I think that those are the exact words that John Key used but we have not heard one National member tell us in any detail at all what they mean. Nobody knows. It is not only MPs who want to know; the country is crying out to learn what they mean. 
John Key is on record as saying that National wants higher wages—he said that in his speech in this House a day or so ago. But earlier he had stated that the higher wages would come from tax cuts. He said that there should be tax cuts of at least $50 per week per person then he threw doubt on that by saying that it might not be so. But he says that tax cuts are National’s No. 1 priority. What does that tell us? The Government has delivered on tax cuts. What we want to know from the National Party is how much it will deliver and when. 
I listened to Chris Tremain the other day— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Who? 
PETER BROWN 
: Chris Tremain—he is a new MP. He said that we should forget the National Party of the past that National was a new vibrant party. I say to the member that he should look at his front bench—those members are not very new and they are certainly not vibrant. If one examines the record of the National Party when it was last in office one finds that it downgraded pensions and that it sold State assets such as Contact Energy despite a coalition agreement that it would not. It introduced draconian industrial legislation and supported it to the death knell. Worse still—as if that was not bad enough—it wanted to scale down the police force and to replace police officers with a computer. That computer has subsequently been sold to a real estate outfit despite it having cost I think $98 million. 
The only time we heard any policy from National Party members was when their leader was standing in front of a group of journalists and talking about the health sector. They asked him whether he would lift the cap on doctors’ fees and he did not know. But Tony Ryall walked forward and said on national television that yes National would lift the cap on doctors’ fees. 
R Doug Woolerton 
: Really. 
PETER BROWN 
: Yes that is true. Key did not know; he stood there dumbstruck like a possum in the headlights. 
When it comes to the tax cut issue New Zealand First believes that Dr Cullen has got it just about right. It is fair and it is right. 
He has addressed a number of our issues. The Hon Paul Swain referred to an initiative to do with superannuitants that came from New Zealand First. But we have a couple of concerns that the Labour Government has not addressed. One is overseas pensions. We have been harping on for 3 years now about the need to address the problem of overseas pensions. We know that it is complex when a person earns a pension elsewhere in the world then comes to New Zealand and receives it here. We know that it is a complex situation. But some of the stuff is so small yet so significant to the individual that it should have been addressed ages ago. What comes to mind is a lady I met who is married to an American. She is a New Zealander she worked overseas and she married an American whose voluntary pension goes through Government coffers. Because of that she gets zilch. She gets nothing. If she divorced her husband—if they separated—she would get superannuation tomorrow. That is not fair. 
Dr Richard Worth 
: There’s the answer. 
PETER BROWN 
: I am sure the member does not mean that. The answer lies heavily with Dr Cullen and the Labour Government. 
There is another issue that is close to the hearts of New Zealand First members and that is the problem facing physiotherapists. When they first came to me before the last election to outline their problems I could not believe that their problems were so bad. So many of them came to see me that at one time I literally had an office full of them and some of them were very senior physiotherapists. 
Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: Go and talk to your mates. 
PETER BROWN 
: I am talking to my mates and this is the best way to talk to them. 
Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: And what did they do? Nothing! 
PETER BROWN 
: The member might be interested in a few statistics. In this country over 30000 people a day visit physiotherapists—30000 people a day. The Labour Government should take that on board. We worked closely with the Government to set up a review headed by an eminent QC David Goddard. The member over there who is from the legal profession knows he is— 
Dr Richard Worth 
: A very fine man. 
PETER BROWN 
: I could not agree more. He says in his report—a very comprehensive report—that the accident compensation funding of physiotherapy is unsustainable. He says that physiotherapists cannot recover the sustainable cost of providing treatment to accident victims. The physiotherapists unfairly bear a significant part of the cost of the treatment of victims of accidents. This is an independent reviewer of some eminence. He goes on to recommend an immediate increase in their funding of at least 33 percent. That is a huge increase but it is an insult for them to get zilch. These guys are the quiet providers of medical services. Physiotherapy services are increasingly suffering from staffing shortages. They desperately need more funds to recruit and retain staff. Physiotherapists are moving to Australia and we need these guys. They are essential to the treatment of accident victims. 
However having made that point I have to say on a personal note—more personal than perhaps my colleagues feel although they might disagree—that I am delighted that this Government has finally recognised that we have a shipping industry. It has shrunk. National decimated it. But I compliment the Minister of Transport Annette King; since she has been the Minister of Transport I have spoken to her on a number of occasions and she has spoken with the industry and she has recognised that something has to be done about it. It is an essential industry— 
Dail Jones 
: Is something being done? 
PETER BROWN 
: Something is being done. The Government is going to inject $36 million into coastal shipping for the future of this country. I can tell members that to an island nation that is tucked way down the bottom of the South Pacific shipping is becoming more essential than ever before. I say to the National Party members that when New Zealand First was in coalition with them we were on track to getting something done. Was it 11 or 12 years ago? As soon as we were dispensed with the National Government lost sight of the shipping industry. Labour needs to be congratulated on recognising that industry and doing something about it. 
The other right thing—if I might just conclude—that the Government has done is to buy back the railway. If we want to develop the rail system in this country it is better done and more effectively done by State ownership. The private operator can invest a bit here and there but it is responsible to the shareholders. The Government can take a strategic overview of the importance of the rail system and how it links in to other modes of transport. I compliment the Government on that move.