Norman Russel: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNorman Russel: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19050. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green):On behalf of the Green Party I want to make a few comments about the estimates with regard to finance. The thing about the finance estimates is that they do not just include the issues of economics and the fiscal position of the Government they also impact on the environment and society more generally. The Green Party has a view that what we need in New Zealand is a cleaner environment a fairer society and a smarter economy. For those reasons we think that we need to change direction. Unfortunately this Government—[Interruption]The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): I am sorry. The member will sit. Members—[Interruption] I am on my feet and when the presiding officer is on their feet that is it. I will ask the member to apologise for that comment.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Which one?The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): The very unparliamentary comment you interjected with that called the Minister Jonathan Coleman a word that should not be used in this House. The member will withdraw and apologise for those comments.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: I withdraw and apologise.Dr RUSSEL NORMAN: Unfortunately we have heard from Associate Minister of Finance Coleman a long personal attack on various people instead of debating the real issues that are before the country such as the issue that we have got a Government that continues to rack up massive amounts of debt and continues to criticise the previous Government yet it was the previous Government that paid down debt. That is the reality. The previous Government with the support of the Greens voted for Budgets that reduced debt and National at that point told us time and time again to not pay down debt but give tax cuts to the wealthy. But of course Labour with the support of the Greens New Zealand First and others said: “No no. We are responsible about this. We intend to pay down debt.”So in 2008 when National came in it inherited a position of very low Government debt. Since then it has increased debt dramatically and has not run a single Budget surplus. Except for the last one in the 2014-15 year where there was a wafer-thin surplus every other Budget that this Government has run has been a deficit Budget. It has built up nearly $60 billion worth of debt—$60 billion worth of debt—under the watch of John Key and Bill English. They tell us that they are great fiscal managers. These are the people who have built up nearly $60 billion worth of debt and who through the course of all of the previous Government time and again through nine Budgets opposed the attempts to reduce Government debt because it said: “No surpluses should not be used to pay down debt; surpluses should be used to give tax cuts to the wealthy.” That was the argument of the National Party during those 9 years.Fortunately everyone ignored the National Party because it does not know anything about fiscal management. When the global financial crisis happened in 2008 there was very low Government debt and the Government we have now was lucky enough to inherit that very low Government debt as a result of the very good fiscal management of actually the Labour Government. We have been critical of Labour on many things on various occasions but you would have to say that when it comes down to looking at the Government’s debt position and fiscal management when you compare the record of Clark and Cullen versus Key and English it is miles apart. Clark and Cullen paid down massive amounts of debt. Key and English have built up $60 billion in debt. Sure some of that debt was unavoidable—no question about it—but let us look at which bits were avoidable.How about the $5 billion that the National Government gave to the top 10 percent of income earners? Was that avoidable debt? Remember it had racked up $5 billion worth of debt in order to give tax cuts to the top 10 percent. That seems to me not a very good reason to rack up $5 billion worth of debt—to give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in the country—yet that is what the National Government is proudest of. It tells us time and again that it is very proud when it looks at its fiscal position. It says: “We added $5 billion of debt to the Government books in order to give $5 billion in tax cuts to the wealthiest 10 percent in New Zealand.”This is at a time when most ordinary families half of all workers have not had a pay increase in the last 12 months. This is at a time when housing affordability is going backwards. Housing affordability is going backwards not just because houses are getting more expensive under National but also because wages are flat-lining under this Government. Ordinary working families’ wages are flat-lining under John Key and Bill English house prices are going up and the Government says this is a sign of success. Well talk to ordinary people. It is no sign of success. Their household budgets are under enormous pressure because electricity bills keep going up housing bills keep going up and their wages are flat under this Government. There is no increase for ordinary families. That is at a time when we are not dealing with some of the great issues facing the country—for example climate change.The Green Party put forward a plan of a climate tax cut. We put a price on carbon and returned it in the form of income tax cuts and company tax cuts. That deals with environmental issues and economic issues at the same time. That is a much more sensible direction than the one in which this Government is going which is more debt—environmental and fiscal.