King Annette; Tisch LindsayHon ANNETTE KING (Labour—Rongotai): First of all I too would like to acknowledge the passing of Malcolm Guy the former chairman of the Horowhenua County Council in the Horowhenua District when I was the member there. He was a fine man who could straddle the political divide. I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the passing of John Chadwick the husband of Steve Chadwick the Mayor of Rotorua but also a wonderful man in terms of the work that he did for law and Māori in the Rotorua District.I just want to comment briefly on the Hon Judith Collins' speech and say to that member that I find it interesting watching the rewrite of the economic history of New Zealand. We are told that the country was left in such an appalling state when we lost in 2008 because Treasury had predicted there could be a decade of deficits. There were not any deficits but there could have been. There could have been a decade of deficits. But you see the thing National members forget time after time is Bill English's speech in December 2008—that is after the election—when he was now the Minister of Finance.Dr David Clark: What did he say?Hon ANNETTE KING: What did he say? He said that this country had put away the funding for a rainy day. The rainy day came. It came with the global financial crisis and so this country was in a far better position because we had paid down Government debt we had put money away into the Cullen fund and we had protected many New Zealanders through Working for Families and by bringing in income-related rents and many other measures to protect them. So when we went into that crisis this country was in a good position and who was the economic manager of that?Hon Damien O'Connor: Labour.Hon ANNETTE KING: Nine years of a Labour Government. So I object to this idea that those members were left with an economy in an appalling state because it is absolute rubbish.But I have to say one great thing about longevity in this place: you get to see the annual Budget—you know the many veils that are stripped off in the Budget process. The first one comes from all the controlled leaks and the early announcements of the goodies that are coming and then you get the obligatory photograph of the Minister of Finance holding up his Budget at the printer's office. Then you get the headline What tie are they going to wear?"—well of course Steven got to choose from one of three ties—and then finally you get the presentation and the overenthusiastic standing ovation.I have to say that in the over 33 years since I was elected to this place I have seen big Budgets I have seen tight Budgets I have seen miserable Budgets and I have seen surprising Budgets and they were all given some sort of a name. Well we have had the "chewing gum Budget" the "block of cheese Budget" and the Black Budget. I have got a name for this Budget: it is called the "blowhard and blatherskite Budget" because it was presented by the Minister of Finance who is the master of blowhardiness and is the master of blatherskite. He is also the campaign manager so he writes his Budget to suit the campaign for the election that comes in 4 months' time. Steven Joyce said "We don't want to play political games with Budgets"—he said that today in an answer to a question. This Budget is all about playing political games. Government members crow about being the first Government to increase benefits for beneficiaries in 20 years or whatever it was. Can I say to the member across there: your Government was the first to reduce benefits to beneficiaries in the "mother of all Budgets" of 1991. Some of us remember our history. You reduced the benefits so let us say it is just about even only you did not restore it to the level that it was. I have to say people have asked me why Labour is not voting for this Budget. I say that we do support the crumbs that are thrown to Working for Families we do support the crumbs that were given in the accommodation supplement but we do not support the inequity that has emerged from this Budget—the inequity that has emerged because there certainly is. When you can find a full-time cleaner who gets a minimum wage increase through the tax changes of $11 a week only to find that they lose their independent tax credit so they are now $1 a week better off—one dollar. Inequity.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member.Hon Annette King: I was just getting warmed up Mr Assistant Speaker.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I can see that. I apologise that I did not realise it was a split call and did not give you the bell at 1 minute to go but you got a few seconds extra. There was a bit of licence there. I call the Hon Damien O'Connor."