Tizard Judith: Budget Debate 
Tizard Judith: Budget Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3301] 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD (Minister of Consumer Affairs) 
: 
 It is an enormous pleasure to get up in the House tonight to support Budget 2006 because it is a Budget that only a Labour-led Government could have delivered. It is what New Zealand wants. I say to the National Party members who have started chipping already that I looked at the Australian Budget too and I thought it was interesting that John Howard is doing what he won the last election for. He is carrying out the policies that the Australian people voted for in the last election. I point out that unfortunately two-thirds of Australian voters are now against them and are saying they want investment in infrastructure people education and health. What this Government is doing is not worse; it is different. This Government is doing exactly what it was elected less than a year ago to carry out. New Zealanders said they did not want tax cuts but wanted investment in their children and families in our communities and in the nation. I am really proud to be part of a Government that is doing exactly what it promised to do at the last election which it won. I am delighted to be part of a Labour-led Government. Over the ditch Australians have said that ten bucks a week for ordinary taxpayers is not enough to justify the loss of working standards infrastructure and investment that Australians could put into their country. 
But I do not want to talk about Australia. I speak of it only because National Party members have been going on interfering in our trans-Tasman partner’s ability to do its job and actually promoting that New Zealanders should leave this country. I think that is despicable. I truly think it is awful that those people across the House do not care about and have the interest in their own grandchildren’s well-being so as to be prepared to stay and fight. They may well leave the country—and as one of National’s earlier much more enlightened leaders said that would be a net benefit to both Australia and New Zealand given the IQs of those who are doing this analysis. 
I am proud to say that Australians envy our Budget. I was talking to a group of Australian businessmen on Friday who said they would love to have New Zealand’s accident compensation scheme. They would love New Zealand’s investment in both exporting and skills development. They would love to see in Australia the sorts of programmes that the New Zealand Government is running for cultures communities families and businesses. They would love to do business in New Zealand—they think it is fantastic we can get a phone on and open a bank account easily. They have looked at the fact that the World Bank has stated that New Zealand is the easiest place in the world to do business. But this Government is not sitting on its laurels; it is saying it can do better. 
I particularly want to talk about Auckland because as an Aucklander born and bred as the MP for Auckland Central and as Minister with responsibility for Auckland Issues I am really proud of what Labour has done in the last 7 years to make up for the appalling neglect of Auckland. Auckland is New Zealand’s main international city. If it is not internationally competitive then New Zealand suffers. A dollar wasted in Auckland is 66c on a population basis that is not available for the rest of New Zealand. I thank New Zealanders for the work they are doing and the investment they are making. I will be proud when Aucklanders can say—and it will be quite soon—that the rest of the country should not worry about them that they can pay for their own public transport and the local roads they need and that major investment can be put back into the rest of New Zealand where it has been for many years. 
I am really proud of what Labour has done in transport. Do members know that this Government has embarked on New Zealand’s biggest-ever road-building programme boosting overall funding by 134 percent in the last 7 years? Before Labour took office in 1999 the National Government had slashed spending. I asked Maurice Williamson who was ranting this afternoon how easy it would be to fix roads. His answer was to privatise—yet again. Private companies construction companies investment companies and all the rest have a vital role in building infrastructure. But what did Maurice Williamson want to do with New Zealand’s roads in 1999? Do members recall  
Better Transport Better Roads 
? What was that going to do? It referred to privatising our roads. New Zealanders would have to pay for power poles for parking outside their own houses and for footpaths and berms. That is what Maurice Williamson’s answer was. What did he do in Auckland in the 9 long years of the National Government? He told people with disabilities they should just get in taxis and that they should not expect buses that they could actually get on. He did not want Aucklanders to get around. This man was part of a Government whose Minister of Local Government told me that if Auckland ever got its act together it would be a serious threat to central government. I am proud to be part of a Government that says that Auckland is part of the solution. I am delighted to see roading and public transport at the top of the agenda for Auckland. 
A whole lot of other things that the Government will do will have a magnificent effect on Auckland—for example it will unbundle the local loop so that we have faster and better broadband services. I am stunned by the range of people who say this is fabulous. From the local bootmaker in Ponsonby who is a gamer and who has seen what his friends in Australia can get in terms of price and service and who wants that here—and he is entitled to it—to the man who is designing websites internationally and needs to send massive— 
Hon Marian Hobbs 
: Things. 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: I thank the member for Wellington Central. He needs to send massive broadband digital data internationally and he cannot do it with the present system which the National Party wants to endorse—or has it changed its mind? Where is the National Party on this issue? I think it has been on both sides on this issue as it has on so many others. We are moving on our regulatory framework. We are working to increase the language skills of New Zealanders and of people who have chosen to come to New Zealand from all around the world. We are investing $2.9 billion into operational expenditure for the tertiary sector over the next financial year because the best things we can invest in are our people and their skills. We are investing $10.6 billion in the health sector. That is a 66 percent increase since the first year of this Labour-led Government. 
This Government is trying to stop from people getting ill. National Party members have been ranting and raving about how all this money has gone into health and how in some cases operation numbers have gone down. I spoke to people from the Counties Manukau District Health Board. The lovely young surgeon who was dealing with people with diabetes was asking: “What do they want me to do—cut off healthy feet? Do they seriously want me to cut off feet that are not gangrenous because people are now getting good public health services so are not getting diabetes?”. It is a fabulous investment in Auckland and in the people who will make Auckland internationally competitive for the benefit of all New Zealanders. 
This Budget has also been great for the cultural sector. Creative New Zealand which looks after major organisations and projects across New Zealand is getting another $2.5 million per annum. This means the Government’s baseline funding has increased by $10 million over the last 6 years. I am really proud that the Government is now putting $15.5 million into Creative New Zealand up from $2.4 million under a National Government. We are putting money into the Historic Places Trust because we believe that our whakapapa our heritage is absolutely vital for every New Zealander—Maori and Pakeha. We all—right down to the people who got off a plane last week because they want this sort of future for their children—need to know the story of the astonishing people who created this country who built it and who are our ancestors. 
I am delighted that we are putting more money into  
Te Ara 
 which is the fabulous online encyclopaedia that every member of Parliament should see. In 2 weeks’ time we are releasing the second section of work which is about the land the sea and the sky. It is absolutely fabulous. As Minister responsible for the National Library I am very proud of the money we have been given for the extension of the National Library so that it can do the work it needs to do. We are also preserving the Alexander Turnbull collection which is the jewel in New Zealand’s heritage collection. 
It is a great joy to me that the Government members went to the country last year and said that they believed in investing in New Zealanders and wanted to put the money that the Government collects on behalf of all taxpayers into New Zealand families into our infrastructure into transforming our economy and into our national identity. I am proud to go on doing those things because we won the election. New Zealanders said that was what they wanted and that is what this Government is delivering. I am delighted to be part of the Government that is moving this Budget because New Zealanders are telling us it is a great Budget and to get on with it.