Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): I just heard a Green Party member talk about why the Green Party is rational and it brought me back to a wonderful quote from Margaret Thatcher the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and she said Being rational is a bit like being a lady. If you have to say you are you're not." And that's the problem the Green Party has.I rise on behalf of the ACT Party in opposition to this Appropriation (2021/22 Supplementary Estimates) Bill. This is the bill where the Government passes a law to add or subtract money spent in each appropriation from the Budget. These appropriations—the original estimates—are in this book and if you want to see a thick book if you want to get a sense of how much money this Government is spending there it is. This is a Government whose spending is out of control.To put some numbers around that you know what in 2019—before COVID—when this Government said it was investing in the future and was certainly spending enough money it spent $87 billion. Now that was actually up a lot from the $78 billion Budget it inherited but it was $87 billion. This year this Government will spend $128 billion and it has increased expenditure by $41 billion in just a couple of years. That is sensational spending and it has an effect. It has an effect on the price of everything that New Zealanders buy because inflation—as another great economist Milton Friedman said—is too much money chasing after too few goods. When this Government increases spending by $41 billion in just a few years when it runs a deficit of $19 billion—that's what they call "the fiscal impulse"; $19 billion more money spent than it takes in tax—that means there's a lot of money sloshing around.The problem is it might be OK if we were getting quality for that expenditure but let me give you an example uncovered by ACT just in the last 24 hours: that is the expenditure on advertising for COVID boosters. You might think this is a minor thing but we've been tracking this expenditure. They've been spending about $2.4 million $2.7 million a month since last year.Hon Scott Simpson: How much?DAVID SEYMOUR: $2.7 million—he asks. We asked how many people are actually getting vaccinated after hearing that advertising. Well back in February there were so many people that it was $3 of advertising for every person that got a booster. Then in March it was $9 of advertising for everybody that got a booster. Then in April it was $29 of advertising for everybody that got a booster. And come May last month they spent $2765000 advertising for COVID-19 boosters. And how many people got boosted? Well 41000 got boosted—that's $67 of advertising for every person that got a booster.Now let's just think about this. If the people over here cared about New Zealanders' money if they showed them the basic respect for their taxpayer dollar when they know that people up and down this country are tightening their belts—you know they're making sacrifices. Do you know what people say? They say "We used to plan out meals for the week. Now we go to the supermarket and we shop the specials and we eat what we can afford." I get messages—because I'm down with the kids on Snapchat—and they say "We are sitting around our flat. We can't go out because we can't afford the petrol." And that's because petrol consumption has gone down 15 percent year on year. These are the facts: people are tightening their belts everywhere but not this Government.Back to our COVID vaccination advertising they had $2.765 million spent even though only 41000 people presumably heard the advertising and got vaccinated. Did they think at any time in the last four months "Gee we're spending the same money and getting less vaccinations? Maybe the advertising is not working. Maybe we need to change strategy. Maybe we need to start saving New Zealanders' money and show them some respect because they are tightening their belts. Maybe as the custodian of the public dollar we in the Labour Government should too"? And did they do it? No they did not do it. Did anyone on the Labour Party like to say "Did they do it?"Hon Poto Williams: Oh shush.DAVID SEYMOUR: Oh—oh. They've got nothing to say for themselves because they ploughed on and they spent the money to the point where it cost $67 for every person that got boosted in advertising alone. And when you ask the Labour Party whether they are accountable for public money—that's Poto Williams a Minister of the Crown—she says "Oh shush." That's what their attitude is to the New Zealand taxpayer and that's why they're on their way out. That is the arrogance and the out-of-touch attitude of a Government that wastes taxpayer money hand over fist—$128 billion.Well there is a better way. The ACT Party is the only party that has published a fully costed alternative Budget that shows how we could reduce expenditure by $6.8 billion and get back into surplus this coming year—not in 2025 not in 2026—straight away. And we'd do it. For example this Government has hired 14000 additional—beg your pardon Madam Speaker.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The Speaker earlier ruled that slogans were not to be visible from the floor of the House. I think the member has made his point and I thank him for that but if he could leave the slogan face down on the table I'd appreciate it.DAVID SEYMOUR: Well Madam Speaker I would never dispute your ruling but the "real change" Budget—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Good.DAVID SEYMOUR: —as written here is not a slogan. Madam Speaker you may come from a political tradition where when a Government says "We are going to deliver a Budget for real change" it's just a marketing exercise. But in ACT's alternative Budget it's not a slogan Madam Speaker.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! I'm now going to warn the member that if he continues to question my ruling and show a slogan to the House which is also against the Standing Orders I will warn him once. Thank you.DAVID SEYMOUR: Point of order Madam Speaker. The clock continued while you were on your feet and I had to reserve my—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! Then I would invite the member to get on with it.DAVID SEYMOUR: The ACT Party is the only party that has set out how we could reduce expenditure reduce taxes and get this country back on track. And it also has serious policy proposals that are not slogans that are not gimmicks. Simple questions like: can we afford to be the only country I can think of remaining that pays a pension at 65? Because do you know what? The United Kingdom the United States Germany Italy Ireland Spain Australia—all of those countries are now raising their age to 67. If we had the courage to do that here in New Zealand we could raise it by two months a year for 12 years to 67. People would barely notice it. In fact with the increase in life expectancy it wouldn't reduce the time they got the pension but it would save the taxpayer—and especially those younger taxpayers thinking of going overseas—$16 billion in the first 12 years. Now you just have to ask yourself: "Is New Zealand so wealthy that we can afford to be the outlier from Australia Britain America Germany Spain Switzerland Ireland and Italy?" Or do we have to start introducing rational policies?Do you know what? I won't hold it up. I'll cover up what you call a slogan and I call a title. It also says in our alternative Budget that the ACT Party would have foreign investors from democratic OECD countries allowed to send ideas and money to New Zealand without the normal obstruction of the Overseas Investment Office. Now we have per capita half as much foreign direct investment as Australians a third of what Estonian citizens have and Estonians are about to overtake us in productivity or GDP per hour worked. Can we really afford to be one of the hardest countries in the world to send investment and ideas to? Or do we need the kind of ideas that ACT promotes in order to make this a country that can hold on to its First World status its developed country living standards that can afford the cancer drugs that people need when they or their loved ones get ill that is a place that young people want to stay and build their futures?We've got two options. We've got the Labour Party who will spend and spend and spend and still there are no results. We have an alternative Government in waiting with the ideas of ACT that will make sure that this country not only survives but thrives and that's why we oppose this Government's spendthrift Budget. Thank you Madam Speaker."