Bennett David: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 28 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10441. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): For all those people listening that was Catherine Delahunty. Catherine Delahunty will be the next Labour spokesperson on Treaty issues so watch this space. She will be the spokesperson for the Labour Party very soon as the Labour Party gives away another policy area to the Green Party—Dr David Clark: Expecting a change of Government?DAVID BENNETT: No I said “spokesperson” which does not mean anything more than that. We have back in the House the man who is known and will be known in his political career for yelling out one phrase. For 5 years he has yelled out one phrase. Nobody can actually remember it but he has been known for the one phrase. The “One-Phrase Bandit”—it is good to see you back and I am sure that we are going to hear you yelling out across the House for the next few months.This Budget is a good Budget. It is a great Budget for New Zealand. It is a Budget that we should be proud of and it is a Budget that the Opposition should be afraid of. This is a Budget that has gone down well on the streets of New Zealand because people know the reality of the world that we live in and they know that this is a good Budget.Holly Walker: Dipton doesn’t need it.DAVID BENNETT: It is a good Budget for New Zealand Holly Walker.Let us have a look at some of the speeches we have had today. I want to go back to Phil Goff. I thought Phil Goff made a great speech for Labour. That was the best speech to come from Labour on this debate. Phil Goff is the Kevin Rudd of the Labour Party and he should be back leading the Labour Opposition. Why is Labour not getting together and getting Phil Goff back into leadership? He was better than anyone else Labour has put up.That was a good speech from Phil Goff but it is a speech that was wrong. Phil Goff talked about some good things like the free trade agreement with China—yes very good. Nobody disputes that that has been very important for New Zealand going forward. That is not a bad thing. The New Zealand First Party will disagree but it disagrees with anything to do with trade. Phil Goff made a very good point about that but when you look at what he said he did not tell you the full facts. The full facts are that the last Labour Government put New Zealand into recession before the rest of the world. The rest of the world was pumping and New Zealand was going into recession because of the policies the last Labour Government enacted. Those policies as the Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman said would have meant a $170 billion deficit for New Zealand going forward for which we would have had to borrow. If those policies had been continued in the manner they were put forward that would have been a disgrace and the destruction of the New Zealand economy.That has not happened. There has been good solid responsible fiscal management by this Government in the last 5 years.Hon Maurice Williamson: And the public knows that.DAVID BENNETT: Maurice Williamson talked about that and Maurice Williamson was right: the public know that. The public know that there was a time when we needed responsible management and that is what has been delivered. They are thankful for that and they are thankful to Bill English and the team for delivering that. That is something that the Opposition needs to be aware of. The New Zealand First Party can laugh over there but it does not even know what fiscal management is let alone working out what is responsible. That party has had no responsibility at all; it just sits there and tries to take the worst out of everything.One thing Phil Goff did talk about was the KiwiBuild programme. That was the great building programme that I think David Shearer announced at the end of last year. Thendid he not have to come back and say: “Oh no those numbers aren’t actually quite right. We can’t actually do those houses for that price. That actually wouldn’t be the reality of what would happen.”? Labour had to backtrack on the one policy it built itself upon and say that it could not actually deliver the houses. National on the other hand has worked constructively with Auckland City. We have worked together to deliver a plan that will increase the housing and the brownfields and greenfields developments in our biggest city. There is nothing wrong with having a big city in Auckland. The Opposition—the Green Party certainly does not want a big city in Auckland and the Labour Party is talking about trying to stop it.New Zealand needs a city of that size and scale to be competitive. Imagine a New Zealand that did not have a city that was equivalent to Sydney or Melbourne. If we do not have a city of that nature we cannot provide jobs and opportunities for our young people and we cannot provide the institutions of higher learning that will be at the scale and size to be competitive with other countries. If you look at the modern world the world that is coming about based in the Asian basin of the Pacific Basin there are cities like Sydney Auckland Melbourne Singapore San Francisco and Los Angeles. The size and the scale of those cities is important for the future of our country going forward. New Zealand cannot compete if we do not have an Auckland that is in that realm.Catherine Delahunty: Crime-ridden.DAVID BENNETT: We will get a city in that realm. The Green Party says it is a crime-ridden city. That is not true. Crime has gone down. Crime statistics have gone down under this Government. You look at the statistics around that. Do not make up things in this House; talk about the reality and what is truthful.Tracey Martin: Have you even seen your region? You’re sucking the life out of your region and putting everything into Auckland.DAVID BENNETT: This is New Zealand First: “… sucking the life out of our region.” When was a New Zealand First MP ever in our region to actually see what is happening? I say to that member that our region is doing very well. We are doing well off the back of Auckland’s growth off the back of our growth and our export industries and off the back of the investment that this Government has made in our region. I see a member here from Northland. People of Northland understand that this is important for their region as well because that is going to be another growth area once the plans of the National Government become a reality.This is a Budget that puts New Zealand back into surplus in 2014-15. That is crucial for New Zealanders. The other crucial thing for New Zealanders is that their interest rates remain low for as long as possible. This Government will deliver that. On the other side of the Table had the Opposition been in your interest rates would be much higher. You would have a low dollar do not get me wrong. The dollar would be at 40c if there were a Labour-Greens Government. That would be the rest of the world saying: “Your economy is in tragic downfall because you’ve got bad economic management.” The Russel Norman approach to economics would give you a 40c dollar but at the same time he would give you interest rates of 9 percent to 10 percent and at the same time he would give you a higher unemployment rate and at the same time this country would not grow.Under this National Government you have seen growth of 3 percent—growth of 3 percent which is great in this modern economy of the world where you have seen—Moana Mackey: Oh!DAVID BENNETT: A lot of Western countries are finding it very difficult to get growth. The member over there from somewhere over near Gisborne—she is a list member from over there—is arguing about that. Those are good growth rates.Compared with the rates of other Western countries such as Australia and America we are at the top of the countries that are growing in the Western World. The National Government has delivered that for New Zealanders and at a time of delivering low interest rates which are crucial for New Zealanders. That provides jobs that provides security and that provides the investment going forward.The National Government has delivered in health care and in education. The new initiatives in that area—which Jacqui Dean talked about in a very strong and positive way—are all good for New Zealanders going forward. We are rebuilding Christchurch a major city that had major destruction with the earthquake. The Labour and Green parties tend to ignore the fact that there was a world recession and they ignore the fact that Christchurch needed rebuilding. It is all right to stand up there and say what they do about delivering all these things but the reality is we had to deliver those two initiatives and we have done that.This is a good Budget for New Zealand. This is a good Budget for New Zealanders out there. People recognise and understand that. They understand that this Government and this country have had to be careful with their money—just like they have had to—to make the right choices and to work towards building a stronger country going forward. This Budget is a strong Budget which indicates and shows that strength of the New Zealand economy and this National Government. Thank you.