McKelvie Ian: Budget DebateText is subject to correctionMcKelvie Ian: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 07 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11681. Text is subject to correction.]IAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): It is Mr Assistant Speaker. I am going to share it with Stuart Smith but before I—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Share the 5 minutes?IAN McKELVIE: No no no—I will share the 10 minutes that would have been mine were I more important than I am.Ron Mark: Wasted a minute.IAN McKELVIE: And I am now going to waste another minute on New Zealand First members because they have spent their life accusing the rest of this House of stealing policy—and I notice in the last moment or so the previous member went right back to the 1950s to steal a bit of Government policy around social housing. It is amazing how deep they will dig to find some policy to put up because it is exactly the policy that local government had in place for many years.I want to talk about a number of things in this Budget but I really want to talk initially about the result of the latest agreement between the Labour Party and the Greens. I want to talk about the two things that I think the Government has the upper hand on in respect of their historical—Denis O’Rourke: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The relevancy of an agreement—the political agreement between two of the political parties—has got nothing whatsoever to do with the Budget.IAN McKELVIE: Speaking to the point of order I was not able to expand on my point.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Well I think both members are absolutely right but unfortunately for Mr O’Rourke the Budget debate is one of the broadest and what we have seen within it—including from members on his own side—are some pretty general discussions about policy and politics in general. That has been the tradition and I am happy for that to continue.IAN McKELVIE: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I will—Dr Kennedy Graham: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Can you give the House an assurance that the scope within which the speaker can address the memorandum is confined to within the context of any reference to the Budget?The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): No.Dr Kennedy Graham: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Can you please explain to us why that would be the case?The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): First of all I cannot at any stage guarantee what a particular member says but what I have already indicated is that the Budget debate is a broad-ranging debate and has always included topical political issues. On occasions members from both sides of the House are not particularly comfortable with that but it is part of the arrangement. The Budget debates as with the Address in Reply debate have effectively become general debates. What we have seen in the House over the last few days has been a number of speeches from both sides of the House that have made only passing reference to the details of the Budget.IAN McKELVIE: All I wanted to say was that the National Government through its support from the Māori Party and ACT New Zealand now firmly owns the environmental space. This was clearly demonstrated by James Shaw’s questions to the Minister of Tourism today where he was desperately trying to claim back the space around freshwater policy which of course this Government is leading the way on and has put a significant investment into over the last few years. Also through the reforms started by Minister Bennett and continued by Minister Tolley the National Government has firmly claimed a very important space in the social space of our community.This is a responsible Budget. It has gone a long way to reinforce the work of the past 8 years by the Minister of Finance Bill English and I think it has set the country up for a very strong next few years. It is going to make a big difference to the way we are able to plan our next few years. It is going to make a big difference to the way the country runs in the next few years the way we are able to support those who need support in this country and the way we are able to establish and encourage business in this country.I want to speak briefly about that because there is a very good reason why in New Zealand we have to through the ministry of tourism—New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE)—the Ministry for Primary Industries and other agencies go beyond the norm to ensure our country is recognised internationally.The reason we have to do that is that business in New Zealand is not big enough on the whole to compete internationally without some significant input from the things that make New Zealand work so well. I use that term because if you look at New Zealand business really only Air New Zealand and Fonterra of our New Zealand companies are in a position where they are able to significantly impact on the world market for New Zealand. So it is most important that the Government invests strongly in this area and that it helps our businesses and manufacturers to find a place offshore where they can do really well. We also have a very important role to play in assisting this through our embassies trade missions trade envoys and of course as I said earlier NZTE. I think that the Budget gives a strong message to those organisations that we need to grow New Zealand’s opportunity in business.On the topic of jobs we have heard numerous times during this debate about the number of jobs that have been created in the last 3 years and the number of jobs that will be created in the next 3 years—some 170000. I just want to make the point that it is most important particularly for our primary industries sector that technology and science and research move very quickly. Of course the Government’s very large investment—some $411 million—into this sector over the next 3 years is going to make a significant difference. In fact it is $1.6 billion by 2020. That will make a significant difference in this area. But I also want to point out that it does not mean that we will have fewer people in employment in New Zealand. In agriculture in particular it will ensure that we have the opportunity for people to get involved in this sector who historically did not have that opportunity because manual work was basically the prime role that we played in agriculture. That has changed completely. So the increased budget for science and innovation is going to make a massive difference to New Zealand.I want to talk very briefly about public infrastructure and the spend in tourism in New Zealand which of course in the Rangitīkei electorate makes a significant difference particularly in the north of my electorate where we have cycle trails—we have a couple of major cycle trails and of course we are involved in the Mountains to the Sea cycle trail which goes down through the Whanganui River—and also the $12 million in this Budget that is being invested in infrastructure to assist with tourism. That of course was the subject of a question in the House today as well. It is going to be most important to New Zealand’s opportunity that we continue to invest strongly in the tourism sector and strongly in the smaller councils’ ability in New Zealand to put infrastructure in place for a very strongly growing tourism industry. Often in New Zealand the tourism industry grows in places where we have the least ability to pay for the infrastructure required. That particularly applies to the north of my electorate where what historically was a major winter sports area has now become a major summer sports area and of course that puts a whole different emphasis on infrastructure.I want to quickly talk about the environment because the environment to all in the primary sector in New Zealand is hugely important. The $100 million that this Government has put into freshwater and water quality is really important to us—particularly in my electorate with the Manawatū River and the Kiwitea stream which have had significant help from community-based organisations arranging that.I have great pleasure in supporting this Budget.