Peters Winston: Budget Statement — Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Budget Statement — Budget Debate[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10039. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First): Our first reaction to this Budget was to call the Serious Fraud Office. Never in the history of this country has a Government so blatantly cooked the books and it was not even clever. This is financial deceit on a grand scale. The boast about balancing the books would see a company accountant in the court being prosecuted for fraud. Any balance towards the black out of the red is achieved first by selling assets like Mighty River Power and soon Meridian Energy in October this year with more State assets yet to come; and second by not spending significant amounts in last year’s Budget on key items like health education and overseas aid as well as deliberately delaying Treaty settlements promised in last year’s expenditure. So why would anyone trust today’s announcement? Last year for example the Government got up and said that it was going to spend so much on all these items. Well this is what happened. NZAID which is our international standing underspent by $96 million—a massive amount—deliberately so. Then you have got the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment—a massive $91 million underspent. Education—a massive $64 million underspent. Health—underspent by a massive $57 million. It was item after item of non-expenditure on items promised last year to give you some artificial surplus promises in 2013 1 year later.Mr Key Mr English and Mr Joyce will claim that this Budget is responsible prudent fit for our times brings gains after 5 years of pain is next year’s surplus and is a confidence booster but I notice that there are a lot of nervous MPs right now sitting in their offices because they know that this rescue craft will not get them home in 2014. That is what they claim of the Budget—that it is responsible prudent fit for our times brings gains after 5 years brings next year’s surplus and is a confidence booster. Not one of those claims is true. Here are the facts. This Budget is consistent with every Budget since 2009. But if that has any merit why since the 2008 era of the three financial stooges have more than 200000 mainly young New Zealanders left New Zealand? Not one of those backbenchers or Ministers can front that bald glaring stark fact. What has happened to the 170000 jobs in 4 years promised by John Key in the 2011 campaign? What has happened to the export-led growth promised in the “rebalanced economy”? If any of today’s claims had merit there would be positive answers to those three simple questions.Over 200000 Kiwis have left New Zealand because they cannot get a job in their own country. Of the 170000 jobs promised Mr Key Mr English and Mr Joyce have found 8000—8000. As for export-led growth well the difference between our income from exports against our payments for imports and interest payments is a giant black $10 billion hole unparalleled in any other First World economy. It is worse than Portugal worse than Ireland worse than Greece and worse than Spain. PortugalIreland Greece Spain—the so-called PIGS. Well if they are pigs what has National made New Zealand? We know and we will tell you. Again “The Three Stooges” claim that there will be GDP growth. In short the economy has grown by somewhere between 2 and 3 percent. Much of that is from the Christchurch rebuild. I notice that now we are second in the Pacific Island countries after Australia. Australia is first way ahead of us then it is New Caledonia on 3.4 percent and then New Zealand. How did that happen? Much of the growth would come from the Christchurch rebuild but apart from Fletcher’s who is getting the benefit of this growth? Who is benefiting? An elite handful domestic and foreign or the mass majority of ordinary everyday Kiwis? The answer is clear. Since 2008 the per capita income—that is wages or earnings per person—has barely moved. Ordinary Kiwis are struggling. Meanwhile the cost of everyday living has skyrocketed. Electricity rates insurance the shopping basket—you name it; it has all gone up. And do not boast about interest rates. Kiwis are paying four times the home interest rates of the US Britain Japan and Europe and paying twice the credit card rates.So what pray tell me have these geniuses Mr Key Mr English and Mr Joyce turned us into? They have created an economy that reduces the mass majority of New Zealanders to the status of mice on a treadmill. They have created an economy that reduces the mass majority of New Zealanders to the status of mice on a treadmill. It is a bit like this treadmill here you see? It is a bit like this. They have to run faster and faster to stay in the same place. The rich and powerful elite who run the world’s financial system created a global economic crisis. I know that some of my National Party critics recognise the animal on this treadmill. It is called Steven. It has got hair so it must be a young Steven. But I know what they recognise. There is something that they see an affinity to.New Zealanders have to run faster and faster to stay in the same place. Ordinary people pay the price. This is a Budget devised by the rich and the powerful for the rich and the powerful. The rest of us stay like a mouse on a treadmill.Hon John Banks: You’re the mouse.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The rest of us stay like a mouse on a treadmill. Mr Banks never even got up to clap for his leader. Oh he was strangely silent. Oh mind you so was the Māori Party and so was United Future. There they were all sitting not prepared to salute their leader. The rest of us stay like a mouse on a treadmill. If we look back at our recent history the road New Zealanders have been forced to follow has always led to this treadmill. Like a mouse chasing a bit of cheese—David Bennett: You always have been going round in circles Winston so it won’t make much difference.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Look just because you can see your relation do not get so excited. It started with Roger Douglas. You know in the 1980s when Labour threw New Zealanders to the wolves of the world goaded by the half-baked theories of mad monetarists those monetarists came to the conclusion—Hon John Banks: Winnie who wrote this?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Now Mr Banks for you it is “Sir” over here. I mean we are staying here after the next election; you are going. You are a goner. Mr Banks your party is toast. They came to the conclusion these mad monetarists that the only road to success was to secretly restructure the place and sell it. What they actually did was start the first run of the treadmill.In the 1990s the National Party promised—Mr Banks was there—to stop the treadmill but in reality we made the treadmill spin faster. New Zealand First slowed it down in 1996 when we came to power and to be fair a reformed Labour tried to keep the brakes on between 1999 and 2008. But of late the same rogues are back in place andthe treadmill has started again and it is picking up speed. We have to stop the treadmill take New Zealanders off it and give them a real economic and social future.Our once great history was one of nation building and looking after our people. This Government is selling Mighty River Power and Meridian Energy to put money in a Future Investment Fund. It is all there in the Budget speech. That fund is used to pay for schools health and the like. Those things used to come from the consolidated fund. That means that past generations are paying now to keep the country afloat. So thanks Grandad and Grandmum—you built those power stations now you are going to build all these new things while these people try a giant creative accounting fraud on the people of New Zealand. Do not forget the surplus next year is created by swallowing up nearly all the Mighty River Power float. The surplus is $75 million for 2014-15. What was the price of Mighty River Power? It was $1.7 billion. So it is $1675 million short and the Minister of Finance has the audacity—as a Treasury-trained person with a fiscal responsibility bill before a select committee—to get up here and think he can pull that con on the country.How did we lose our great vision? Why is New Zealand today a high-price low-wage economy? Many of our workers are in jobs that pay wages upon which they and their families cannot survive. Recently this Government gave the Mighty River Power directors pay rises of 70 percent or more than $45000 a year. The workers were given a rise of 25c an hour—another spin on the treadmill Mr Banks. There was a time when lead managers of New Zealand power operations got four times the workers’ wages. Today it is 30 times the workers’ wages. If I was in the Māori Party or the ACT Party or the United Future party or if I was a National Party backbencher I would not laugh at that because all I can see is electoral suicide when I hear those figures and you will hear more about that as the months roll by. No wonder these egregious self-serving few are cheering from the rafters due to a few crumbs thrown to the mice today. Even the mice have to be kept alive.It is really hard for the strugglers. We have already shown the plight of the workers. Not only do they have to survive on low wages but they have to compete against a flood of cheap imports made by cheap labour—[Interruption] If I was going to court shortly to explain why I got 42 cheques and cannot remember one of them I would keep my mouth shut. I would spend all my time with my barrister. I would get myself a psychologist to try to explain deliberate amnesia. I would not be here barracking the fastest-growing political movement in New Zealand called New Zealand First.Hon John Banks: Oh Winnie you’re deluding yourself man.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh we all know that it is true. Half the ACT Party people wanted to come and join New Zealand First and I said no we will not have fascists.Hon John Banks: Name one.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Families are hit with higher food costs. Name one? What about the man called Eckhoff who was an MP for the ACT Party? He wanted to join us.Hon John Banks: Who—who?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: That man Eckhoff who was an MP. John Banks does not even know him because when Eckhoff was a good member for the ACT Party John Banks was not even a member of it. He is only a temporary fill-in. We know that. Mr Banks keep quiet. You never were any good at this game.The household disposable income forecasts in this Budget are an illusion. What about the manufacturers and exporters running to stand still on a treadmill of soaring costs and an overvalued dollar? You know sometimes you have got to have luck on your side because today our Reserve Bank member’s bill got drawn again for thesecond time in 2 years. This is an all-time record and we feel that the force is with us. Our message to the manufacturers and to the exporters is “Hang on men and women out there in manufacturing and on farms help is on its way.” What about small business—what about small business? Go to the industrial suburbs of our cities like Pētone. There are streets of empty warehouses and factories. What about the police? We gave them an extra 1000 front-line police when we last had the reins of power. National is cutting these numbers back. The crime industry is being contracted out to the criminals. Everyone knows except the ninth floor of the Beehive that Whānau Ora provides funds to the Mongrel Mob. We all know that. What about health services? What about home help for the elderly? Everyone is on a treadmill except the Government’s fat cat mates. They live off the struggle and the sweat of the mice on the treadmill.The housing crisis continues with a few patchwork and piecemeal ideas revealed in this Budget. The very idea of cheap infill housing sends a shudder through everybody and anybody who has seen the industrial housing estates of Britain and Europe. The Government’s idea of infill housing will create giant transit camps across Auckland. The results overseas show that these housing estates become breeding grounds for crime poverty and misery. What about the elephant in the room about which nobody in this country will speak except New Zealand First? We know that mass immigration is being used to prop up New Zealand’s consumer demand on our economy and to replace the mass of Kiwi flights abroad. Most of these new arrivals are going straight to Auckland. Auckland has got a giant housing infrastructure and roading problem—none of which our biggest city will ever solve—Jami-Lee Ross: We’re solving it.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —until we address the elephant in the room that a sea of political correctness dares not face. We do not want the young pup from out there in Howick telling us: “We’re solving it.” This fellow knows nothing about these issues. You know I have seen so many people like you my good friend who have come and gone like lightning. I will make you a guarantee. I will be here long after you are gone. I will be here long after you are gone and I will not have to be here very very long—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Order! You are bringing the Speaker into the debate.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I do not intend to stay here for ever but I guarantee that I will be here long after he has gone. What has this Budget done for heartland New Zealand—the engine room of the economy and the place that feeds New Zealand’s wealth? Nothing. Doughnuts. The Government’s economic policies are geared to shift the population to Auckland. What about Northland Hawke’s Bay Otago Westland and Southland—the places that used to have vibrant thriving communities? What about Wellington? The genius Steven Joyce the Minister for Economic Development has been so dynamic that he has destroyed the economy of the capital city. His leader says that it is dying. The regions keep New Zealand afloat but this Government ignores them.Last week it was gloating over unemployment figures down from the record quarter before that and again clutching at straws. What is the Māori unemployment rate? It is about 14 percent. And Pasifika unemployment? It is 15 percent. The teenage unemployment rate? Twenty-six percent of people aged 15 to 19 are unemployed. What is the National Party’s answer today backed by the Māori Party? For these thousands of young Māori who cannot get a job and Polynesians and Europeans and all other people in this country there are 100 more cadet places up from 250 to 350 places—not hundreds not thousands; oh no just 100 more places. They are standing on the dole still waiting to go on the treadmill.For the majority of New Zealanders this Government has done nothing. It is pinning its hopes on asset sales and pandering to rich tourists. While ordinary people struggle the Government gives cash to casinos and handouts to Hollywood. While Kiwis leave the Government is repopulating this country from everywhere else and they are all going to Auckland. The current account deficit is a disaster—the worst in the First World. It is a staggering sum our Government debt. It is $57 billion now and going towards $70 billion and private debt is a nightmare. There is nothing in this Budget that starts to develop a pathway out of that debt. It exposes just how incapable the Government is of coming to grips with the economic challenges facing New Zealand. The GDP growth is actually very average given our low performance in the past. There were some sweeteners trotted out today but it keeps the mice on the treadmill. It keeps the fat cats feeding on them and the Ministers keep cooking the books.Against the cacophony of the clapping of the clowns on the Cabinet benches and the braying of the backbenchers—it would be funny if it were not so serious—we notice that the cling-ons remain strangely mute strangely silent. We want to make an appeal to the National Party rank and file members. I want to talk to those members of the National Party who were there when I was once a member of a great party called National. I remember that party when it had great policies great principles and great practical politicians and leaders and when even its enemies used to respect it. But this National Party is not the party of Hamilton. It is not the party of Holland. It is not the grand old party of Holyoake. This is the National Party of Madoff Merrill Lynch and money speculators. We appeal to those left with a conscience in the National Party to remember when Keith Holyoake stopped Rupert Murdoch buying theDominionnewspaper. He said we had to own our own country and we still do. We urge people in the National Party out there to remember what the country was like when their party was great—it is no more. My challenge to them today is this: are we men and women or are we mice as the National Party and its cling-ons would make us? We are men and we have a spirit. New Zealand First makes this promise here today: back us and we will guarantee an outcome that gets you off the treadmill. Back us and your young people will have hope. Back us and you will get to decide the outcome of the 2014 election. No other political party can make that promise. Back us and we will hold the balance of political responsibility and we will use it properly.