Joyce Steven: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeJoyce Steven: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 26 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3947. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development): I am very happy to rise and take a call on the Budget. I would like to commence by congratulating Bill English on his seventh Budget for this Government and a fine Budget it is. But there is a problem because last year it was pointed out that Mr English had come up with six Budgets which was exactly the same number as he had children. So I need to check—Bill have there been further children in the intervening 12 months? No there have not. So Bill has had to move on to nephews and nieces in 2015. The good news is that Bill has roughly at last count 60 nephews and nieces—so that is many Budgets to come from the current Minister of Finance.Bill of course is not flashy. He is not a flashy finance Minister. He is solid. He is dependable. As one of the commentators pointed out he is not flash in any way and his Budget last week was not flash. It was solid. It was dependable. It was conservative—all except for his tie. A lot of work went into the Budget and it is fair to say that a lot of work went into choosing Bill’s tie this year. The caucus would like to congratulate Mary English on choosing Bill’s tie for the first time in Budget 2015.This Budget is a Budget from a Government that is working hard and for a plan that is working. It is a Budget that provides for continued falling unemployment. It is a Budget that provides for wages continuing to grow faster than inflation and for reducing hardship. It is a Budget that delivers solid economic growth. It constrains spending. It controls inflation. It balances the books. It keeps debt under control. It provides significant ACC reductions. It delivers better public services—$1.7 billion for health and nearly $700 million for schools and early childhood services.It is a Budget that invests in a growing economy. It invests in business research and development. It invests in tertiary education. It invests in areas like agriculture science pharmacy and Māori and Pasifika trade training. It is a Budget that invests in New Zealand’s assets. It invests in ultra-fast broadband. It invests in the rail system in rural broadband in the Canterbury rebuild and in regional science institutes.It is a Budget that encourages the building of more houses in Auckland; a Budget that increases investment in social housing. It is a Budget that strengthens property income taxes amongst many other things. It is an excellent Budget for New Zealand and I congratulate Bill English on delivering a fine Budget last week—I would also like to congratulate the Leader of the Opposition.Hon Members: Really?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: —yes I think we should—on a superb Budget reply speech. [Interruption] Hear me out—hear me out. That speech hit all the right buttons. It hit all the right buttons. We got the seven veils. We got the roosters on heat—that was a goody; that got them thinking. It is not often you see roosters on heat to be fair. It had Gene Simmons—that was an absolute stroke of genius the old Gene Simmons. And of course it had gender reassignment as well.You can just imagine those members sitting in the war room of the Labour Party with their copy of the Budget which they had been given at 1 p.m. last Thursday afternoon and between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. last Thursday they realised that Bill English had stolen all of their attack. He had stolen all their lines. Their only approach was: “Oh I don’t know. How about a series of massive distractions?”. First they thought of doing a little more poetry as Andrew Little said yesterday. Let us face it Andrew Little’s poetry was brilliant. Chris Hipkins popped up and said: “Why don’t you do that ‘Enrol for the Dole’ poem that Tim Barnett taught you?”. But no no Andrew Little pulled out Gene Simmons. That is leadership.Grant Robertson: Oh it really is too early in the day for Horlicks.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Then Grant Robertson pipes up just like he is now and says: “I know what leader. Let’s give that gender reassignment thing a go again. It will go down well with the party.” and he was serious. He did take Grant’s advice because every other leader has and let us face it where would the Labour Party be without Grant Robertson’s advice?Hon Bill English: 20 points higher in the polls.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Well 20 points higher in the polls maybe for a start. But let us face it—you take Grant’s advice and you run with gender reassignment but you draw the line at two dead fish. You draw the line at two dead fish. You snap out of that one. You say to yourself—Hon Bill English: The leader doesn’t listen to him.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Well he did. He listened to the gender reassignment story. And then what do you do on Friday? Well there you are on Friday morning and you have not got any of the team behind you. You are up the front you are on your own you are king of your domain and you are out there angry—but controlled to be fair.So it is a Friday morning speech in Wellington and Andrew Little angry—but controlled—says: “I know. What am I going to go on about? How will I distract them today? I know. Superannuation is too expensive. It is way too expensive. What about all these people who are working past 65 supplementing their superannuation? Where do these people get off? Outrageous! Look at people like Winston Peters acting like the Leader of the Opposition when he’s on a pension. He should be at home. He shouldn’t be trying to take my job. So let’s get into that. There’s a platform right there—it’s time to man up and deal with people who sit in Parliament and collect superannuation. I Andrew Little am going to deal with that.”He goes on: “What is that Sue? Oh I’m not going to deal with it. OK fair enough. You’re right Sue; I’m not. So no manning up this time. Sue Moroney is in charge and we’ll put out a press release because I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean anything about means testing superannuation. We could lift the age though. We could lift the age because people work for ages these days. We could lift the age; that would work. Oh we’ve said that already. No no I didn’t say that. That bit about means testing your income—that wasn’t me.”—that wasn’t Andrew Little; that was the media—“the media made stuff up. You have got the footage? Well no I didn’t say it that way. Don’t go putting words into my mouth Paddy.” That is Andrew Little’s favourite line: “Don’t go putting words into my mouth Paddy. Even if I’ve said them already I don’t say them now and I hope you’ve got that. Kindly stop questioning me on the subject.”That is Andrew Little’s approach to the Budget and I think he should be congratulated. But not to be outdone in the policy-on-the-hoof division we have the newly minted fiscal conservative—one Grant Robertson the newly minted fiscal conservative. The man who spent his entire first 6 years in Parliament as the big spender is suddenly reconstructed as Labour’s new fiscal conservative. The man who could not see a spending programme that did not need to be expanded has suddenly become “Balance the Budget Grant”. He is the one who says that there should be lots of savings and there should be balancing of the Budget. He is the one who says that ACC should be cut back despite the fact that Labour extended ACC. Grant’s new version of life is that we should be fiscally conservative until the Budget is delivered.Then suddenly the Budget is delivered and actually no you should not be taking away the KiwiSaver kick-start and on the hoof he declares: “Yep. I will reinstate it.” That is the power of being the Opposition’s newly minted conservative spokesperson on finance. He can say: “Yep I will reinstate it. Forget the fact that I put out a press release not half an hour ago that said I would not necessarily put it back.” Half an hour to an hour before he puts out a press release but then he goes out and says: “Yep I’d put it back.” Feel the power! This is Grant Robertson who is not just the finance spokesperson; he is now contemplating his fifth or sixth attempt at the leadership of the Labour Party following that brilliant speech he wrote for Andrew Little last week. But that is all right. On Saturday it was back to the empty rhetoric of soulless Opposition politics calling for more innovation except we are delivering it; calling for more skills except we are delivering them; and calling for a better Budget except we are delivering it.This Government has secured a Budget with a relentless focus on a strong economy and jobs a Budget that is continuing to invest to support families in need a Budget that is responsibly managing spending and revenue and a Budget that is increasing our resilience to global risk. This is a Budget that delivers a plan that is working and the Opposition is just delivering a mess.