Guy Nathan: Budget Debate 
Guy Nathan: Budget Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:16552] 
NATHAN GUY (National) 
: 
 We are debating the Budget for 2008—the final throw of the dice for the Labour Government. After 9 long years the Government has delivered its final Budget. It is a Budget of lost opportunities. 
National has been calling for a tax reduction for years and now Labour has been led screaming and kicking to tax cuts because Michael Cullen is ideologically opposed to them. What has the Government done? It had to deliver a tax reduction package under urgency last week which we supported because we have been saying for years that hard-working Kiwis need more of their money and need to make their own decisions instead of being suffocated by this Government—the nanny State that knows best. 
But boy oh boy what a drop in the bucket the tax cut was! It was $16 a week for the average hard-working Kiwi and lo and behold they will get it on 1 October. That has ruled out an early election. We all know now that we will be going to the polls in October or more likely November. Hard-working New Zealanders will have to make a decision. As families go through this winter when food prices are soaring fuel prices are up and mortgage rates are up—they have doubled under this Government—they are finding it particularly tough. Do members know that 1.6 million hard-working Kiwis do not get anything through the Working for Families package? They will now have to wait until October and get through the winter— 
Paula Bennett 
: To get their $16. 
NATHAN GUY 
: —to get their 16 bucks as Paula Bennett rightly points out. 
Lynne Pillay 
: What’s yours going to be? What are you going to do? 
NATHAN GUY 
: I know that the member—I do not know her name—is worried about what the tax package will be when she gets booted out of Parliament. I know the Labour members will be worried when they are on the scrap heap. They want to know what National’s tax package will be because they are really worried about their retirement. When the voters turn round and say that they have had a gutsful that member should be ashamed of this Budget. 
Lynne Pillay 
: Give us a clue. 
NATHAN GUY 
: That member will just have to wait. She has been led down the garden path by Dr Cullen who thinks he knows best. 
Dr Cullen has been out there spouting on about his four-way test for tax cuts. Let me read that out to that member. The first test in Dr Cullen’s four-way test is whether there is physical headroom. Well the golden years have gone under this Government. The second test is whether there would have to be any borrowing. Dr Cullen says he does not believe in it. Well lo and behold there is borrowing in this Budget. Will it be non-inflationary? That is the third test of Michael Cullen’s ideology. Well interest rates are tracking back up after a week of maybe dropping slightly. The fourth test is whether tax cuts will lead to inequality. Dr Cullen has always said that tax cuts would lead to inequality but now on the verge of the election with this dying Government he has delivered just that. 
Dr Cullen says we need 4 percent growth in this economy even though he openly says that his policies will deliver only 2.4 percent of growth over the next 4 years. This is a huge big-spending Government. I have trawled through and done a bit of research and that member over on the backbenches of the Government will be interested to know that under the three terms of the previous National Government our surplus was a little over $8 billion. Over the three terms—over the nine Budgets that National delivered—we had a surplus of $8 billion in total. Now for the Labour one. In Labour’s first term the surplus was tracking at close to $5 billion in its second term the surplus was close to $15 billion; and in its third term the surplus was $20 billion. Over Labour’s three terms—9 years—it has been running a $40 billion surplus. 
This Government is a big-spending Government with a high level of waste. Today and yesterday in Parliament we have seen that Housing New Zealand Corporation should be embarrassed. It has 10000 of the most needy on its waiting list yet it sent its staff up to Tongariro Lodge. The sum of $65000 was squandered on that talkfest while 10000 of the most needy are waiting for a house. That Minister Maryan Street should be ashamed. That is just one example of the Government’s waste. 
Let us look at the bureaucracy that has grown under this Government. When Labour came to power in 1999 there were 26000 bureaucrats. That number has grown to 36000—an increase of 10000. 
Paula Bennett 
: Oh! 
NATHAN GUY 
: I ask Miss Bennett whether she knows what the most embarrassing thing is. It is the fact that the Government does not measure productivity. It does not have a clue whether the people who are coming in are actually making the economy spin or whether it is performing. I think that is an absolute embarrassment. I tell members to look at the growth in ministerial staff numbers. The number of managers is up by 22 percent and the number of communications staff—spin doctors—is up by 73 percent. 
Paula Bennett 
: How much? 
NATHAN GUY 
: There has been a 73 percent increase in spin doctors. The number of portfolio advisers is up by 80 percent and the number of political advisers is up by 40 percent. [ 
Interruption 
] Those members hate it do they not? They would prefer to put money in and never measure productivity. They just dump it in. I cannot wait for that member David Cunliffe to interject when I get on to the health portfolio because he should hang his head in shame. 
People here are voting with their feet. Over the last 12 months 44000 people have gone to Australia. They have said: “We have had a gutsful.” They are not going just for an OE; they are going because in Australia their wages are up by a third and they are paying less tax. The other day I worked out that that number is the equivalent of every voter in the Otaki electorate going to Australia. That is the same as having all the voters of Paraparaumu Waikanae Levin Foxton Shannon and the rural hinterland leave during the last 12 months. That is a shocking indictment on this Government. It should hang its head in shame. We are at least half a decade away from catching up with Australia. 
Let us think about this Government’s slogans because it is good to look back over the 9 years. Those members wanted to close the gap did they not? Yet we have widened the gap in terms of our OECD rating the barometer that measures countries’ wealth. We have gone down under Helen Clark’s leadership. Then we had the knowledge wave. Yet our youngest and brightest are choosing to head offshore. So that has not delivered anything has it? Then we had talk of growth and innovation. Yet Michael Cullen is forecasting less growth. Then of course we heard talk of carbon neutrality and the Prime Minister made a statement. She said she wanted to get rid of the big gas-guzzling Crown cars. And she said she wanted to replace them with BMWs by the way—BMW 7 Series. But lo and behold those Crown cars are now being driven around Auckland so the carbon footprint has not reduced. All those slogans do not make the economy go faster and this Government is out of touch and out of ideas. 
It is interesting to get out on the street in the Horowhenua community and listen to what some of the punters have said about this Budget. I think it is very important for the listeners out there and for the members in the House to understand what people in the most marginal seat in New Zealand are saying. Bernice McGillivray a retired woman from Foxton states: “I am a pensioner and it doesn’t impress me at all.” Kerry Henderson who is a retailer in Levin said: “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Mrs S McDonald a pensioner from Levin said: “It’s not much is it? And then it gets taxed before we get it taxed again so we’re lucky if we end up with half of that.” Sharon Skeet from Levin said: “People can’t get anywhere in life. The cost of living is ridiculous.” I could go on and I will. Sharon Hanson said: “Our health system sucks.” That is what Sharon Hanson from Shannon said. Mary Davis an administrator from Levin said: “I think it’s too little too late. It should have been done earlier and with the price increases.” 
That was a snapshot of Budget 2008 from the people on the street. [ 
Interruption 
] I am looking forward to Mr Ashraf Choudhary answering these questions—I think he is the next speaker for Labour. Does this Budget promote any economic opportunity for New Zealand? I want Mr Choudhary to answer that question. The answer on this side of the House is no. Will Mr Choudhary’s party be able to lift wages in this country? The answer from this side of the House is: “We don’t believe you and we look forward to hearing you say how you’re going to do that.” Will Labour be able to measure productivity? Let us wait to hear whether Mr Choudhary can address those three questions. I do not believe so. This Government is out of touch. People on the street are searching for change. John Key and National will deliver that change.