Nash Stuart: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNash Stuart: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 07 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11727. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STUART NASH (Labour—Napier): The Minister the Hon Simon Bridges and I agree on one point: this country is growing. There is a lot of growth in this country. There is growing inequality of that there is no doubt. There is growing homelessness—we know the statistics; the statistics do not lie. There is growing unemployment. There is the growing disenfranchisement of young people in this country whom Mr English calls—what did he call them?Meka Whaitiri: Hopeless.STUART NASH: He said “pretty much hopeless”—and there is growing desperation. When people have to live in cars then we know that this is not the sort of country that we believe New Zealand is and that New Zealanders deserve better. If that is the sort of the growth that this Government is proud of then that is a shame and a tragedy because New Zealanders deserve more.Even though this Key Government will have been in power for 9 years at the end of its term there is no legacy so that in 50 years’ time Kiwis will look back and say “Wow the Key Government really made a difference.” because it has done nothing. It started with such a mandate for change and it has done nothing. We look at the Governments over the years that are looked back upon fondly: the first Labour Government under Michael Joseph Savage; the Kirk Government; and perhaps Holyoake’s—perhaps maybe. We might not all agree with the direction that the Lange Government took but it certainly changed the economic settings. The Clark Government yes—but the Key Government no.This Government came in with a mandate for change because we were in the grip of an economic crisis and it has done absolutely nothing—absolutely nothing. It could have revised and overhauled the tax system but did nothing at all there except that it has increased GST and dropped taxes for the most wealthy. I remember that at the time the head of Telecom got a $4000-a-week wage rise in his hand while every single person had to pay more GST. The Government could have driven growth in a way not previously seen for generations. It did not do that. There was no transformation no attempt to grow our economy no attempt to look at the export market and ask what needs to happen there—it did nothing.As for regional economic development I do not know where Mr Stuart Smith has been. God knows the National Government held nearly all of the provincial seats in 2008. You would have thought that if any Government ever had a mandate to drive change in the regions it was the 2008 Key Government. Nothing has changed; in fact a lot of the regions have gone backwards. I look at Wairoa a little town in Meka Whaitiri’s electorate and my own electorate where 44 jobs have gone because they closed one of only two supermarkets. Is that progress? Is that the sort of progress that the National Government is proud of? No not at all in any way shape or form.Stuart Smith talked about migration and how fantastic migration is for the regions. Well let me tell you about Hawke’s Bay. We have 5000 unemployed people in Hawke’s Bay. We have the highest percentage of “neets”—those are young 16 to 24-year-olds who are not in education employment or training—yet we have 3500 Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme workers in Hawke’s Bay. What is going on there? Why are our young people not working? What has happened to the education system? Who have they been let down by? This Government. There are no jobs for young people in our regions; there should be. They are not working. There is nothing in the Budget for the education sector; rather it is a 20th century pedagogy not fit for a 21st century environment and that is an absolute tragedy for the young people going through the school system at the moment. In the Bay those companies that are successful are successful almost in spite of the Government not because of it.I have said this before and I will say it again. I think that one of the main differences between a Labour Government and a National Government is that a National Government believes that if you leave it to the market the market will come out with optimal solutions whereas a Labour Government absolutely believes that the Government has a role in creating the sorts of economic settings that allow for businesses to thrive for jobs and for people to get ahead.When I look at my portfolios and see what progress has been made over the 8 years I shake my head because often it has gone backwards. Let us look at forestry. It is now dominated by overseas investors. One in particular a Malaysian company bought 35000 hectares of land from Fletcher Challenge and promised in its Overseas Investment Office application that it was going to build a state-of-the-art processing facility. That was one of the reasons it was granted its consent. It did nothing. Ten years later it put in an application to buy more land. What did it promise? It promised a state-of-the-art processing facility. It did nothing. Yet again in 2007 it bought some more land. What did it promise? You guessed it: a state-of-the-art processing facility. What has it delivered? Absolutely nothing. In fact there is a mill in Gisborne that is owned by the local economic development agency that cannot even start because this company will not even promise it 5 percent of its cut. Pruned logs drive past this mill’s gate go out to the wharf and are exported without a cent of value being added. That is an absolute travesty.What is the Minister’s response to that? “Oh let the market decide. This is what the market has decided.” I can tell you that this mill is prepared to pay export-equivalent log prices. It wants no favours. It just wants logs so that it can employ young people from the East Coast in the mill and this overseas investment will not allow it.How much more money was there in the Budget for forestry? None. In fact the forestry budget has been cut. This Government does not understand that sector at all and it is an absolute travesty for the people of the East Coast the people up in Northland and all the other centres where there is forestry.Let us have a look at energy. We saw Simon Bridges stand up there and talk about the great things that have happened in his portfolios. He did not even mention energy. We are at an important historical crossroads here where technology is changing the way that people live commute heat their homes and store energy but there are no innovative policies whatsoever from this Government. In fact there is a word beginning with “h” that we are not allowed to use here. What is a synonym for hypocrisy Mr Faafoi?The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order!STUART NASH: It is about walking the walk and this Government simply does not do it. What does Mr Bridges do? He turns up to a press conference to announce the thousandth electric vehicle in a huge diesel BMW. He takes the photo hops into his huge diesel BMW and drives off. This Government has just renewed the contract for those BMWs. I can tell you that if that Government had said “OK let’s walk the walk. Let’s live our global brand. Let’s go hard on what we believe in.” and had made sure that every single Crown car was an electric car then that would have sent a very clear message to New Zealanders and to the world that we understand what our unique selling point is what our brand is and that the Government is prepared to walk the walk.Let us have a look at revenue. We have got a tax system that is geared up for the 20th century but is not delivering for the 21st century. We have got housing speculators running rife who are determining the house prices in our largest market and pricing New Zealanders out of the market completely. When I entered the Auckland housing market I bought my first house which was a villa in Mount Eden for $285000. You could not buy that for under $1 million these days. And it is not Kiwis forcing up those prices; it is our overseas speculators. Let alone our global brand—we all know what is happening with our global brand. I would say to the Minister of Revenue that he has some work to do because if we do not get this right then we are going to drop down the transparency index in a way that will hurt everything we stand for which is integrity and honesty—that is how New Zealanders are viewed.When I look at police—I see the Ministerof Police over there—the resolution rate for burglaries is now under 10 percent. In Auckland resolution rates for burglaries and car thefts are under 6.4 percent. That is not the New Zealand that we grew up in and it is not the New Zealand that we believe we live in.This could have been a good Budget. It could have been an inspirational Budget. It could have created aspiration for Kiwis but it has not. Let us be honest: none of the commentators have come out and said: “Well done Bill English. You’ve done a fantastic job.” The only people who think Mr English has done a good job are those sitting over there. The vast majority of New Zealanders think this is a nothing Budget and that there is certainly nothing in there for good hard-working Kiwis who just want a break.As mentioned Prime Ministers look back and they wonder what their legacy will be. The Key Government will have no legacy. It will have no legacy. It will yet again be left up to the next Labour Government to change the settings to create aspiration and to make a difference in the way that I think New Zealanders expect their Governments to do. Thank you very much.