Woolerton R Doug: Budget Debate 
Woolerton R Doug: Budget Debate 
[Volume:608;Page:5877] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 I am always fascinated by what the Minister of Finance calls accrual accounting. He often accuses members on this side of the House— 
Rodney Hide 
: Do they have it in Hamilton? 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: I do not know whether they do; the people in Hamilton are very practical. In the Waikato they are even more practical. Dr Cullen says that people on this side of the House do not understand accrual accounting. I will tell members what we do not understand—that is Dr Cullen going around the country lauding the fact that he has a $4 billion surplus. All over the place he is saying what a wonderful Treasurer he is to achieve a $4 billion surplus. But when we asked what it is to be spent on that surplus in the speech he gave became $1.36 billion. A couple of billion dollars has disappeared. I do not know whether that is a lot of money. It seems like a heck of a lot to a person from the Waikato. It is a lot of money in the Waikato. Anyway that has gone on other things. 
Then we look at this $1.36 billion and ask what the Budget gives to people like my brother just out of Hamilton who is beavering away barely making a living with his 1000 cows. He is a solid worker like all the Woolertons. He is a good man. He asked me: “Doug what am I going to get out of this Budget? Are we the people who really make this country go going to get some incentives?”. I answered: “No.” He asked me why. I said that the reason is that Dr Cullen says he does not know whether he has a surplus. I cannot understand that. I would have thought that a man versed in the deep dark mysteries of accrual accounting would know whether he had a surplus. But evidently Dr Cullen does not know that so I cannot satisfy my brother in answer to his questions. 
That is the problem that the good average Kiwi cannot get around: what is this person talking about? The Government either has a surplus or it does not. If it does have a surplus then it can get on and do things for our population and get some growth going in this country. 
I searched all through this Budget. I worked into the small hours through page after page. I had a heck of a job and had to get my wife to nudge me to keep me awake half the time. But I read it. I was looking for a reference to agriculture. My colleague Shane Ardern from the King Country would understand this. I was searching through this Budget to see what the Government will do for our main income earners. 
Shane Ardern 
: What did you find? 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Nothing. I found all sorts of things that the Government is going to spend the money on but I found nothing for agriculture. But hang on the next morning I was up at 4.50 a.m. to go over the Budget again. I will tell members what I found. I found that the Government was to spend some more money in the area of biosecurity. Loosely I suppose one could say that that might be a help to the farmers but actually it will not be; it is something that affects all New Zealanders. I gave him a bit of kudos for that. Then I found something else. Shane Ardern will be interested to hear this. Market access and the negotiations surrounding Doha were referred to. The Government put a couple of bob in there. But more than a couple of bob will be needed because our Minister for Trade Negotiations is never here. Next time I think we will ask that Shane Ardern go with him to keep an eye on what he is doing because from where I sit he is not making much difference to trade access. It is not making much difference to trade access when the Americans put up a farm bill worth trillions of dollars in subsidies to its farmers to the detriment of the farmers in this country. 
We in this country are surviving on a consumption-led economy. That is why we need all the immigrants who are coming in. We need them to bring the money in with them because we are surviving on consumption. We are not putting the money into where it should be which is production. And that in the main in this country—and I am sorry if people do not like it—comes from farms forestry and fisheries.