Carter David: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — In Committee 
Carter David: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:622;Page:17945] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (National) 
: 
 As we debate the title and commencement of the Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill I want to say at the outset that this bill will deliver less transparency to the spending of taxpayer money. This bill delivers less transparency because this Government has been embarrassed so many times by the rorts and rip-offs that have occurred under its policy. The Committee needs to realise that what we are talking about here today is really the “Fiscal Responsibility (Abolition) Bill”. I feel very strongly about that because I was the member who came in at a by-election after Ruth Richardson had shepherded through this House the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1994. I know the history of that legislation. 
National won the general election in 1990 and Ruth Richardson was appointed the Minister of Finance. When the National Government got to see the country’s books it found that the New Zealand people had been hoodwinked. What had been declared by the Associate Minister of Finance Dr Michael Cullen to be a Budget surplus of some $79 million was in fact a massive Budget deficit of around $5 billion. Without doubt those facts had been kept from the New Zealand public. When Ruth Richardson saw them she was determined to ensure that the people of New Zealand would never be hoodwinked in that way again. So the last piece of legislation that she wanted to see passed in this House was the Fiscal Responsibility Act which I think finally passed in July 1994. 
That legislation was iconic. Not only has it served New Zealand exceptionally well for a decade but also Ruth Richardson was then invited to countries all around the world—to other democracies that saw the benefit of being honest with people and showing them the true facts as to the health and robustness of the economy. 
Ruth Richardson took that legislation to a number of other countries which have followed us and enacted similar fiscal responsibility legislation. 
We see now after 5 long years of a Labour Government that the Government does not want transparency. It is totally embarrassed by the rip-off that has occurred at the Christchurch Polytechnic with $6.5 million going to a company of which one Vicki Buck the well-known former mayor and large Labour Party supporter was a significant shareholder. More recently we saw this headline in the  
Dominion Post 
 only a week ago: “Jobs machine out of control”. That headline was referring to the way Jim Anderton has absolutely wasted around $50 million of taxpayers’ hard-earned money on corporate welfare. Audit New Zealand asked Jim Anderton’s “jobs machine” what study had been done to evaluate the success of the $50 million that Mr Anderton splashed around the country earning himself photo opportunities in our newspapers. It was staggering to learn that no evaluation has been carried out. The major reason for that admission is that Jim Anderton and his officials do not even have a list of the people who have received the money. That is just a staggering admission that his Government has no respect for the spending of public money. 
I say to members today that history will repeat itself. After the next election when the new National Government resumes the Treasury benches we will see—as happened in 1989 and 1990—that the legislation we are debating has been largely designed to make sure that the public of New Zealand do not know the truth. The Fiscal Responsibility Act has worked well and it should remain.