Gosche Mark: Budget Debate 
Gosche Mark: Budget Debate 
[Volume:626;Page:20910] 
Hon MARK GOSCHE (Labour—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 I want to continue this speech on the theme that I finished with last time when I was asking the National Party whether it had any policies it could put up as a Budget. We occasionally see the Leader of the Opposition on television and he says he is not going to mislead the country. Dr Don Brash a man known to be very frugal who survived on corned beef and peas for so long and kept his pyjamas from childhood knows for a fact: “You can’t spend it if you don’t make it.” He knows that much. So how would a National Government give tax cuts but continue to fund the 2700 extra teachers that Labour has employed the 3300 extra nurses we have employed the 398 extra social workers at Child Youth and Family Services the 138 extra probation officers the 820 extra prison officers and the 1080 extra police? How will Dr Brash—the man who is frugal who knows that if the money comes in one can spend it but if the money does not come in one cannot spend it—be able to give tax cuts and keep all those other things? How would National continue funding early childhood education for our young children if it is going to give money away in the form of tax cuts sometime in the future? 
Those are the questions we want answers to. We want to hear answers from any National Party speaker among the huge array of members opposite. What sort of economics allows a Government to give tax cuts and still spend money on teachers nurses early childhood education police officers and so on? We are looking forward to those answers from the Opposition and New Zealanders are seeking answers too. 
This is a great Budget. It puts money where it is needed. It builds on all the wonderful things that this Government has achieved over the last 5 years. We have seen State houses rebuilt and income-related rents; we have seen more spending on defence the police the health sector and the elderly. We have seen visionary policies enacted by this Government to make sure that the baby-boom generation knows there will be a superannuation scheme for them. We are also saying to some New Zealanders: “We’ll give you a hand to buy your first house.” We have to start in a relatively small way because the previous National Government sold all the mortgages and the State houses. We want to ensure that the people of my generation whose parents bought their house with a 3 percent State Advances Corporation loan can look to Labour to reintroduce policies of that sort with a mortgage insurance policy and a KiwiSaver loan. 
That is the sort of visionary Budget that New Zealanders need not some nebulous policy that says to people: “We’ll give you a tax cut some Christmas in the future.” But nobody in the National Party said which Christmas or how big or how small the tax cut would be. Dr Brash the man who knows about economics realises that if he gives the big tax cuts he is promising everybody he will also have to give those with a mortgage a whopping great increase in their interest rates. Is that the sort of thing New Zealanders are crying out for? 
The Australian Government learnt all about that. That is the policy it suggested the Labor Party would be following. How are National members opposite going to answer that one? Do they have any answers? Is anyone capable of standing up and explaining what a National Party Budget would look like? We are looking forward to those answers but I do not think we are going to get many. This Government is proud of its Budget but National runs and hides when it comes time to pronounce any policy.