Roy Eric: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Roy Eric: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:648;Page:16872] 
ERIC ROY (National—Invercargill) 
: 
 I am pleased to be able to take a call on the Appropriation (2007/08 Supplementary Estimates) Bill and I am pleased to add my thoughts to a wide-ranging debate. But as this is also a bit of a reflective exercise looking back and a bit visionary looking forward I am also pretty disappointed—for this reason. 
For most of this last decade which has had the governance of this country in the hands of Labour we have known prosperity in New Zealand for a sustained period like we have not known probably since the gold rush of the 1860s. In terms of a period of sustained economic growth we have had an excellent opportunity. That is all it was it was an opportunity because what has happened now? Can we ask if we are being reflective what the governance of this country has done to lock us into a future of prosperity? We had all those slogans about moving to the top half of the OECD but they were merely slogans because nothing has been done to grow the economy. Oh yes the Government has grown its size of the operation. Since it came to power in 1998 it has shifted the Government spend from— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: 1999. 
ERIC ROY 
: Sorry 1999. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: All the facts are wrong in this speech. 
ERIC ROY 
: No they are not. The member should check this one out. When the Labour Government came to power its spend was just under $37 billion and today it is about $62 billion. The Government understands that more money growth in its economy does things but why has it not mirrored that in the wider economy? 
I will give Labour a bit of advice. It is a bit disconsolate at the moment about where it is at in the polls. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Oh no! 
ERIC ROY 
: Well it will probably get worse unless the Government makes amends. Let me tell members why that is. During all of the period where we had excellent growth Labour members said: “It’s all us. It’s all what we’ve done. It’s our hand on the tiller. We’ve delivered this. We’ve lowered the number of unemployed. We’ve created this economy.” But now when it starts to go to custard we hear that this is due to external factors. 
The electorate that answers questions in the polls is not silly. People are simply saying that Labour cannot have it both ways. I am essentially disappointed that we have not locked into the New Zealand economy a growth mentality and put in place those things that reward individuals create ambition and create pathways to wealth that would set this country going for the next decade or so. That simply has not happened. 
What we get on a regular basis from Labour is: “Where is your policy?”. Well whenever we release policy Labour ignores it or adopts it for itself if it is any good— 
Hon Paul Swain 
: Oh no! 
ERIC ROY 
: —like it did with the charitable donations policy I say to Mr Swain. Let me give members one piece of policy right now and then I will expand on it. I have just listened to the Hon Mark Gosche asking where we will get the extra money for education. You see one of our policies is smarter and better Government spending. 
I will give members one little example that I am aware of in terms of how to get extra money for education. In my electorate of Invercargill right on the border there is a school called Dacre School. This school received a visit from the education people who wanted to make sure that everything was tickety-boo there. They assessed the school and found that the administration block of the school was under code. That meant that there was not enough room for the people who did the administration. So architects were brought in and they drew up plans got a consent and built an administration block that was up to code. They spent $143000 on this. 
That is wonderful but we need to know that the school roll had been declining for about a decade. So eight pupils were at Dacre School and $143000 was spent. The people from the education department said not only that the administration block was under code—and that this was not helping their children learn—but that they had looked at the boiler it was sadly in need of replacing and that would cost another $53000. The board of trustees at Dacre School comprised pretty laconic good rural business people. They took their hammers their leavers and their chippers and they looked at the boiler. They looked at the welding and the pipes and they said that there was nothing wrong with the boiler and that they would not waste taxpayers’ money. Then the education people said that if the board of trustees did not spend that money and the boiler broke down they would not fix it. So the education department in round terms wanted to spend $200000 on eight kids. This is factual. 
About 4 years ago the Hon Trevor Mallard when he was the Minister of Education did some terrible things in Invercargill without consultation. Someone on the ninth floor told him that he would not be closing any more schools in Southland because he had done it all wrong. So $143000 was spent on Dacre School and they asked: “Why not spend another $53000?”. Then the part of the education department that managed school transport said it would not renew the bus contract. So the money had been spent and then the school had to be closed because the transport department would not provide transport to bring the kids to school. This is factual; it actually happened. 
But it does not end there. I am not sure whether the school was technically closed because the board of trustees said that this was a nonsense and that a better environment had to be found for kids to learn in than at this shrinking school. The education people said that the school had not yet closed and that a principal needed to be appointed for 4 months so that if someone came they could be told that the school was not taking pupils. This is absolutely true. 
Then we had the whole process after that 4 months where it was decided who would receive the assets of the school. The school had received big contributions from the local community that helped to build the covered swimming pool and provide for all of those things that happen in a rural school. And the Hon Mark Gosche stands up and asks where we will get the money from to deliver these extra things in education! I can tell the member quite clearly. It is funny but it is sad. We have a governance system that has completely lost the plot and that has been totally ruled by bureaucrats who either have not been getting instructions or have been telling the Government what to do. When we say we will deliver in education and we will do so in a smarter way with wiser spending Labour members ask where the money is coming from. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: One-off spending. 
ERIC ROY 
: It is not. I can give the member more examples. If this happened at Dacre School I can tell members that it is happening on a much wider basis. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Are you going to reopen the school? 
ERIC ROY 
: Of course we are not. The school should never have had the $143000. If it had not been for the resilience of the local community that said: “You’re not spending any more money. You’re not spending the $53000.” it would have all been much much worse. 
Do we have any policy? We sure have heaps of policy. We will be able to fund most of it through smarter spending. The bureaucracy is out of control as a result of a Government that either does not understand does not care or does not have the business nous to actually run business. We are ambitious for New Zealand. We want to see that growth. We want to lock in the things that will give us an advantage and make our kids find that this is the place they want to invest in do business in and buy homes in rather than head overseas. We have heaps of policy. 
This has been just a very short speech that has given us one little example of where only one of the Government agencies is severely out of control. When we look at estimates appropriations or an imprest bill it is timely that we reflect on a Government that either does not know or does not have the will to know how to spend its money properly.