Tremain Chris: Budget Debate 
Tremain Chris: Budget Debate 
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CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 Mr Cosgrove is big on courage. In fact he spent his entire speech talking about courage in relation to superannuation. So let us talk about courage for a minute and ask Mr Cosgrove a question although that will be difficult now that he has— 
Paul Quinn 
: Scattered. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: —scattered. We will have to ask that question of members of the Labour Party. Oh he is back in the Chamber. Fantastic! I look forward to asking this question of Mr Cosgrove. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: I say to the member that one of the Standing Orders of the House is not to mention the absence or otherwise of members. I did not want to interrupt the speech but that was a flagrant breach of the rules. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I agree with you given only six National members are in the Chamber. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: No I tell the member that that is not a point of order. I am dealing with the matter and making sure it is straight. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I want to raise— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Seven. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Points of order are supposed to be in silence. I want to raise the issue that within the space of 10 minutes that member has raised two points of order just as an opportunity to have a whack back at whoever raised the initial point of order. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Tit for tat. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: And there he goes again. I think that once is OK but when it happens on a regular basis somebody has to stand up and say that that is enough. 
Hon David Parker 
: Speaking to the point of order— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: No I do not want any more on this thank you. We do not have a “three strikes and you’re out” rule in this House and we do not have “enough is enough”. The point Tau Henare makes is right and I have chastised Clayton Cosgrove and said that his point was not a point of order. If I have to continue to make that point then members can be assured I will take some action on that. 
Hon David Parker 
: Point of order— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: Is this a fresh point of order? 
Hon David Parker 
: It is. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: Point of order the Hon David Parker. 
Hon David Parker 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I was not going to take a point of order earlier but the reality is that there were two breaches of the Standing Orders by Mr Tremain. He first referred to the absence of a member which you Mr Assistant Speaker Barker have already addressed. He also said that the member the Hon Clayton Cosgrove lacked courage. That imputation is also in breach of the Standing Orders so if Mr Henare is to stand on his high horse then I think that the National member Chris Tremain should be brought to order for that breach as well. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: Speaking to the point of order— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: No I think I can deal with this; I want the debate to carry on. The member has raised only one point in actual fact and that is about the questioning of a member’s courage. I listened to the speech carefully and I did not construe that the speaker said the member lacked courage. The speaker said that he was talking of courage and raised an issue about courage and he was then going on to raise issues about how one might measure that. So he did not cross the line. He might have been going on to say that all of these values are found in Mr Cosgrove and one can only assume that he has great courage. He may not have been going on to say that; we have yet to hear what the speaker is going to say. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: Yes it was a question that I wanted to put to Mr Cosgrove because he spent a lot of his speech talking about courage in relation to superannuation. Let us talk a little about that. Have you Mr Cosgrove in this recession used that courage to double up on your mortgage and then go out and invest that double mortgage in the sharemarket? 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Me personally? 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: Yes. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: No I have not. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: No he has not. Yet he is implying this Government should invest hard-earned taxpayer money; that we should go out and borrow it put it on the bill and invest it in the sharemarket. That is financial lunacy. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is a very serious point of order. The member has asked me a question and I want to inquire of the member whether he would like me to give a full answer to it. He has asked me a question so if he wishes to yield I am happy to give an answer. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: No that is not a point of order. The member is entitled to ask by way of interjection across the House whether the member yields. If the member yields the call then falls to the member asking the question. But the member has not yielded so I want him to continue. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: I got a no from his answer and that was what I wanted to know. The member was not prepared to invest his own money in the sharemarket but he is prepared to invest taxpayers’ money. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: The member talks about courage but he won’t hear the answer will he? 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: I am here. I am not prepared to invest my own money in the sharemarket at this point in time. There—I am telling the member what the situation is. And I am not prepared to invest taxpayers’ money in the sharemarket at this point. So I tell that member that it is not a matter of courage. The member talked about courage so I wanted to ask him that simple question. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: The Budget. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: To the Budget. Since being fortunate in being elected to power in 2008 this Government has been about action. With the help of United Future the ACT Party and the Maori Party and more recently with some support from the Greens we have been about putting things into action and going forward. It has been absolutely fantastic. No more is that the case than with Budget 2009 which takes steps to ensure that New Zealanders are cushioned from the sharpest edges of the recession but also and more important focuses on the future and on providing jobs as we go forward. 
I will particularly focus on the investments we have made in this Budget that will create jobs. As I have sat through this Budget debate I have heard challenges from the Opposition many many times asking how the investments will create jobs what they will do and where the jobs are in this. That is what we have heard from the other side of the House. So I will pick up on a couple of points in that regard. I want to focus on one of the unique ideas that came from the Job Summit and that John Key is delivering on in this Budget. It is the cycleway. I recall yesterday that a lot of calls were made from the Opposition— 
Sue Moroney 
: How many jobs? 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: And those calls are coming now. I will start with just a little analysis of the Otago Central Rail Trail and a couple of quotes from some tourists who have enjoyed that cycleway. This quote is from Stephen Bigarelli from Australia a tourist: “It is a really great trail and one I can see becoming more popular over time. I am sure I will be back to do the trail again. Keep up the good work I wish we had trails in Australia that were as good.” This quote is from Mary Bennie from Australia: “We completed a return Trip … while holidaying at Wanaka in March. Fabulous weather views and experience. When next back we plan to do more. Your brochures are great and so too the web site. Congratulations”. These are examples of quotes from genuine tourists who are coming and utilising that trail and that is providing a serious number of jobs. I have talked to Mr Parker because I understand that the trail is in his former electorate Otago. There are 16 tour operators. That is not just 16 jobs; that is literally tens if not hundreds of jobs. There are four bike and transport hire companies. Do members think that they employ people? Yes they do. They employ a heap of people. There are 25 small towns and hamlets that provide accommodation varying from basic to luxurious and where cars four-wheel drives cycles dirt bikes and canoes can be rented. All of these are businesses employing people so this cycleway is providing a product. 
 The $50 million cycleway package will extend that product throughout New Zealand. I say that yes it will start with iconic trails around the country. I know that in my own province of Hawke’s Bay a bid is being put in to have a trail going through it. This is exciting stuff. I visited Taupo and Rotorua and I saw the trail that is starting to progress along the Waikato River. What an amazing opportunity that is! I say in response to challenges from the Opposition that the trail will provide jobs. It will provide jobs not only in terms of making the trail but also in terms of the hundreds of other businesses that will form around it. We will create not just one or two products; we will create a large number of products. When Australian tourists like the one I mentioned come here they will look at the cycleway and see that they have a whole raft of opportunities to come and do. It will expand the product base and expand the opportunity. I cannot understand why Opposition members shout asking how many jobs there will be because hundreds if not thousands of jobs will be created over time from this cycleway. It is absolutely fantastic and it is just one of the opportunities coming from this Budget. 
There are hundreds of opportunities that I can speak about in this Budget. The home insulation package that we are getting together with the Greens on is a wonderful opportunity. That will create jobs. I cannot stand here and say that the package will create 50 or 100 jobs or 223 but I can say that it will create jobs because it will provide businesses with contract work. You see it is not Governments that create jobs although I guess the previous one did through the bureaucracy; it is businesses that create jobs. This home insulation package will create hundreds of jobs and it will retain them. Not only will we improve the environment and create healthier homes but we will create jobs with $323 million in this particular part of the Budget alone. It is the second area creating jobs. 
In the health area there will be a $3 billion investment in health services over the year. There will be 800 more health professionals which will increase elective surgery capacity. That is 800 jobs in addition to all the jobs I have just talked about in respect of the home insulation package and the cycleway. We are already talking about thousands of jobs that this Budget will create. That is fantastic. The improvement of maternity services has gone down particularly well in my home electorate. The fact that fathers and mothers can stay in the maternity ward for a little longer than they were able to before will ensure that breastfeeding is going well before they go home. How can anyone complain about that? That is absolutely wonderful. 
Education will have $1.68 billion going into it from the Budget. I understand that that is one of the biggest spends in education going forward. Napier Intermediate School can now be sure that it can proceed with spending funds on its buildings and that will provide jobs. A number of construction companies sparkies and plumbers in Napier will be able to get jobs there and retain people. Again this is a wonderful opportunity. 
The investment in standards for literacy and numeracy is also absolutely wonderful. I will spend my last 2 minutes speaking about the standards in literacy and numeracy because this gets to the heart of the concerns of a constituent who came into my office recently. She said that she wanted to understand more about numeracy and literacy and that she had gone to one of the teachers at her school to ask for the progressive achievement test results. My constituent initially found it pretty tough to get the results out of the teacher. She finally got the progressive achievement test results back which was good and she found out that two of her children were not doing very flash in one particular area based on the national levels. She asked why her children were not doing well and what she could do to help with their improvement. We have to understand that this is not just the teachers’ responsibility; it is the parents’ responsibility as well. When parents understand that their child has an issue they can ask what they can do to help. Do members know what that teacher’s answer was? It was that she should not worry about it as it was a problem across the whole school. 
National standards in literacy and numeracy will make sure that we understand where there are issues in literacy and numeracy across a whole school and they will allow head teachers and teachers to be accountable in that regard so we can address those issues. That for me is critical. Parents are not saying that they do not want anything to do with it; they want to put their hands up. It is a partnership in learning and that is what I am passionate about. This $36 million for literacy and numeracy standards will go a long way towards that partnership. It will start to improve the 25 percent of children in the education system who are not making the grade. I think it is wonderful. It adds to what this Government is doing with the cycleway. It adds to what we are doing with the infrastructure spending. I could stand and speak for another 10 minutes on the $1.5 billion that has been set aside for the broadband fund. I think that is absolutely wonderful.