Heatley Phil: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHeatley Phil: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 20 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18106. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei): It is a delight to stand today and support my colleagues John Key and Bill English on a very very good Budget indeed—a Budget that shows clearly that New Zealand is heading in the right direction. We have managed to walk the country through the worldwide recession the economic crisis of several years ago and help bring New Zealand out the other end with the hard work of many businesses across the country and their employees. It has been difficult for everyone. Every family in New Zealand knows of someone—if not in their own immediate family—who has struggled getting work and who has looked overseas and seen the difficulty in other countries like Australia England and other parts of Europe America and Japan. Everyone knows it was a difficult time everywhere in the world and yet it is New Zealand that is now ahead of the pack leading the way and showing that we can by going forward with sensible Government spending get a surplus in this our fifth year our fifth Budget and make sure that we have got a good platform to grow going forward. So Budget 2014 reflects 6 years of hard work by the Government and by those businesses and those families and this is a Budget focused on growth.Denis O’Rourke: Five long years—nothing on housing.Hon PHIL HEATLEY: During that difficult recession of course people in the New Zealand First Party and the Labour Party thought the best idea back then was to spend up large. That was what they were going to do: throw lots of cash around New Zealand have Budget after Budget where there was a lolly scramble and have multimillion-dollar spending in order to stimulate the economy. That was their idea.They got those ideas from a number of countries throughout the world and what has history shown us? It has shown us that prudent spending stopping spending on programmes that were taking us nowhere and redirecting that spending towards sensible investment in things like roads electricity generation and infrastructure like broadband was the way to go. Those big spend-up countries and those countries that the Labour Party and New Zealand First wanted to mimic are the ones struggling now. We only have to look across the Tasman and right throughout Europe America Japan and those other countries that I noted. It did not work for them. The Labour Party’s strategy did not work for those countries and it would not have worked for us. The National Government’s strategy of better directing spending in areas where investment was required was certainly the way to go.But that is not the whole story of the last 5 years though is it? There are numerous examples where Bill English and John Key decided to spend money directly in areas that the Labour Party had ignored. I will give three examples. They are stunning examples when you think about them because they are areas of spending that youwould normally associate with the Labour Party and its compassion. The first one—and members will cast their minds back—was when the Labour Government turned its back on women with breast cancer and said that it would not fund Herceptin. Do you remember that? The Labour Government said that it would not fund Herceptin for women with early-stage breast cancer. It turned its back on those women and said it could not be done it would not be done and it should not be done and it was not done. What happened was that we came into Government with a worldwide recession and our books looking bad and said “Well wait a minute here. Let’s just check our priorities.” and John Key insisted that funding for Herceptin be provided even with that economic backdrop. Where was the Labour Party? Why are Labour members not shouting now? Why have they gone so very very quiet? I am up to only example one.Example two: do you remember the Labour Government and the Green Party waxing lyrical about the wonderful idea of funding the insulation of households right across New Zealand? “We should do it.” they said. For 9 years they trumpeted this idea. They did studies on it they had committees on it they ran commissions on it and they wrote policy on it. There were 9 years of discussion. Did they insulate tens of thousands of homes? No but they had a wonderful conversation. We came into Government and John Key Bill English and the team insisted on insulating people’s homes throughout New Zealand. So what did we do? First of all we have insulated every single State house in New Zealand that can be insulated. Why did the Labour Government not do it? Why are members opposite so quiet now? We insulated private homes funding them with thousands of dollars and we have got tens of thousands—in fact I think it must be up to 140000—private homes and rental properties across New Zealand that have been insulated through the Government’s insulation scheme.So there you go: the Labour Government would not fund Herceptin when the economy was going well across the world but the National Government funded Herceptin when things were tough because we knew what the priorities were. The Labour Government would not fund the insulation of private homes across New Zealand. It would not even fund State Houses—the ones the Government owned. Labour talked about it for 9 years and National comes in with a worldwide recession and funds the insulation of not only State houses but private rental properties as well.I would like to give the third example of where the Labour Government was. I recall as a young lad when the National Government along with New Zealand First—its members had some ideas back then; they were young and they had some fresh ideas—introduced free general practitioner visits for under-sixes. Do you remember that? I do not know why Labour never introduced that 10 or 20 years ago. I would have thought it was in its territory. Anyway the National Government did it.So what do we discover in this Budget? Rather than Labour introducing something that you would think was its core concern we in this Budget the first time we reached a situation where we have got a surplus decided to raise the age to 13. So now we have free general practitioner visits for under-13-year-olds right throughout New Zealand. There is nothing stopping any parent or grandparent across New Zealand taking their under-13-year-old to a general practitioner and it will be funded. So there you have it. In the times when the worldwide economy was doing well the Labour Government through 9 years refused to fund Herceptin refused to insulate State houses and houses across the country and never even considered raising the age of funding free general practitioner visits for children up to the age of 13. We have had the worldwide recession we are just coming out of it through good economic management and over that period—I just gave three examples—the National Government has stepped up and funded the programmes that deliver benefits to New Zealand and that matter.Why is it that we as a National Government can behave like a typical one—manage the economy well manage law and order well and manage all those things well—but we are also in Labour territory doing so well for education so well for health and so well in welfare? I can say only this: the Labour Party has lost its way. It needs to spend some time studying our policies and to take some of our ideas and perhaps improve on them if that is at all possible. I commend this Budget to the House. I will be voting for it enthusiastically on Thursday and I must say that I am absolutely delighted to be part of this team.