Collins Judith: Appropriation (2011/12 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Collins Judith: Appropriation (2011/12 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:674;Page:20525] 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Police) 
: 
 There is one thing that the member who has just resumed his seat Brendon Burns said that I agreed with which is that this Budget has delivered funding of $5.5 billion to the people of Christchurch and the Canterbury region at a time of great global difficulties in terms of the economy and a time when many people would have thought it would be impossible for a country of this size to deliver that funding during these tough economic times. The fact is that this Government inherited a recession. This country was in recession at the start of 2008—8 or 9 months before the rest of the world went into recession. We inherited a recession. 
After this Budget what did we hear from the Opposition when the Minister of Finance said we wanted to have a Budget that would protect our country’s credit rating? We heard from the Opposition that that was nonsense and rubbish and that we were just giving in to people like Standard and Poor’s and not standing up to them. Well we have seen this week in the United States what happens when a nation’s credit rating goes down. We have seen what happens. What happens is that interest rates go up—interest rates for the job creators interest rates for mum and dad investors interest rates for homeowners interest rates for people with mortgages and interest rates that translate through to everybody’s pocket. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: People with credit cards. 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: Interest rates go up for people with credit cards. Everything gets affected. 
There is not a word from the Opposition about how this Budget prevented a downgrade of our credit rating which would have affected every New Zealander in some way. Instead we heard some nonsense about taking GST off fruit and vegetables and food generally. We do not know whether that is for fresh food or for cooked food. Is that for a cooked chicken or a fresh chicken? What about a hamburger? I thought that was one of the best things when they talked about fruit and vegetables. Well what about a hamburger? Would the tomato have GST on it? The lettuce? Probably not. The meat patty? Yes. What about the bread? That is made out of flour which is made out of wheat. That would probably be covered. What a load of nonsense. The administrative costs alone for every small business in this country would kill them—just the business costs. Labour has suddenly promoted this. Why did it not do it in its 9 years of Government? Because its members know it is a nonsense. Michael Cullen knew what a nonsense that would be and he was right. 
Instead we have seen with this Government in the last 3 years that we have got on top of Government debt by keeping it below 30 percent of GDP. We will be back in surplus by 2014-15 at the latest. We have had a very responsible attitude towards government. Labour’s answer to everything is a capital gains tax. Some of the quotes Labour members have used from people who support that idea are amazing. They have talked about a comprehensive capital gains tax. Anybody who owns their own home should realise that that means them. “Comprehensive” means everything. If for instance someone’s parent dies and he or she inherits a property along with his or her three or four brothers and sisters what then? That would be a capital gain too. Yes that is absolutely included as well. 
Then there is every other little thing like shares and any extra properties. Of course this country already has a capital gains tax on investment properties—properties that are purchased for a business purpose. It already has that. So what is Labour after? By the way has anyone noticed that there has been a recession over the last few years? How many capital gains does Labour think there are in this country at the moment? Not an awful lot but Labour members have said they will go after people who have something. How many people in this country get to be 50 55 or 60 and purchase a second home for an investment? The reason they do that is that they do not want to put their money into failed finance companies which were allowed to go absolutely crazy during Labour’s 9 years of power. No they want to put it into something they can see every day. 
Do they want to put it in the sharemarket? That is a good idea. How about the sharemarket? Let us have a look at some of the companies: Air New Zealand. Oh that is right; it is partially owned by the New Zealand Government and it is also partially owned by people who bought into it as shareholders. What is wrong with that model? It seems to work really well but Labour does not want that model now. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Port of Tauranga. 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: Port of Tauranga is an example. It is an extremely successful port. In fact I would say it is the most successful port. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: 55 percent owned by ratepayers. 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: It is 55 percent owned by ratepayers and yet it is owned by other shareholders as well. Mixed ownership works. The fact is that Labour knows it works but Labour members just cannot bring themselves to use those terms. They keep talking about selling off the silver. The only person I remember in this place who sold off a lot of silver is the Hon Phil Goff when he had the chance back in the 1980s. He just sold everything roughshod. 
We are seeing a party in opposition that cannot bring itself to admit that this world is going through very difficult economic times. The last thing this country needed in this Budget was to have a Government that came in and decided to tax and spend as the previous Government had done for 9 long years. This Budget like the Budget before it needed to have a very steady eye a very careful consideration as to what was needed. 
Nobody predicted the Christchurch earthquake in February. Nobody predicted that would happen. Nobody predicted Pike River. Nobody predicted some of the tragedies that have occurred. Yet for a country of this size which is an exporting nation that exports fortunately to Australia and China as our main trading partners we have done extraordinarily well. We have not seen some of the behaviours in New Zealand that we have seen overseas. We have not seen our credit rating downgraded which has meant for instance that we have the lowest interest rates now for around 45 years. That means for mums and dads and families with a $200000 mortgage—which frankly in the Auckland region is a pretty modest mortgage—that they are now paying around $200 a week less in interest payments than they were in 2008. They now have $200 a week in the hand that they did not have before. That is why it is so important that we do not just spend spend spend and then turn round and say “Never mind; we’ll catch up later.” 
The fact is that as a small economy ours is one of the first that slows down when the world goes into recession or into a downturn. As a small economy it is also one of the last to come up again. 
Brendon Burns 
: Like in 2008? 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: Except in 2008 of course when there was appalling spending by Labour so we ended up in recession 8 or 9 months before everybody else. That is what happened. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: It’s called a drought. 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: Mr Mallard says it is called a drought. Well we have droughts almost every few years in this country I say to Mr Mallard. That is simply not good enough. The only thing that was in drought under Labour was some common sense in those last 3 years when it decided to tax and spend everybody to the hilt. 
In these tough times we have seen for instance a drop in unemployment. At a time when everybody was predicting an increase in unemployment there was a drop in unemployment in the last few months. Minister Bennett has done a great job along with her team. We have also seen a drop in the crime rate despite Labour members saying that if people are poor then they commit crimes. We on this side do not believe that. 
I noticed that the previous speaker spoke about the UK situation and what is happening in London and other parts of England at the moment. He said it was all because of social inequality. What a load of rubbish. It is all because criminals think they can act in a criminal manner. Nobody went looting for food; they went looting for plasma TVs gold and people’s property. They burnt down people’s property not because they did not have bread on their table but because they thought they could get away with it. That is what happens. It has nothing to do with social inequality. Most of the world has social inequality in some form or other but unfortunately that sums up exactly why crime rates went up so much under Labour. Its members are always looking to blame society for the acts of criminals. It is never the criminals’ fault; it is always society’s fault and because society did something wrong. 
This Budget is an excellent Budget. It is just what this country needs. I congratulate all my colleagues on the work they have done on it. This is one of the best Budgets we have had. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: Just before I call the last member I say that this is a 3-hour debate and there are about 8 minutes remaining. Jami-Lee Ross I will ring the bell with 2 minutes of your speech remaining.