Wall Louisa: Budget Debate 
Wall Louisa: Budget Debate 
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LOUISA WALL (Labour) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker Roy. I am a day late but talofa lava. I trust all New Zealanders enjoyed Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa/Samoan Language Week. 
It is my pleasure to speak in this 2011 Budget debate. I will start with a quote. John Donne said: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent a part of the main;”. I will interpret that quote within a modern context and within this Budget debate because it pretty much symbolises where we on this side of the House sit in relation to what being a Government means. 
For us we like to collect taxes and we have a progressive tax system because we believe that people who earn more should give more. 
Sandra Goudie 
: Like to rip off the workers. 
LOUISA WALL 
: Not to rip them off but because they belong to a collective. That collective is called society which is called the community of New Zealand. For us when we collect taxes we want to invest in collective public goods and services. For us that means we want to invest in a public-good health system we want to invest in a public-good education system and we want to invest in a public-good social and economic system that will ensure that all New Zealand children—regardless of who they are or where they happen to be born as they are not in control of that—have access to general practitioners and early childhood education centres. We want to ensure that they are on a trajectory so that they can make the best of their lives. That narrative defines the difference between the priorities of team Labour and of National and its leader John Key. 
Let us look at what National has done. Every week we borrow $44 million— 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: How much? 
LOUISA WALL 
: —Forty-four million dollars—so that 10 percent of taxpayers can get 40 percent of the take. What does that 40 percent actually translate to? It translates to $17.6 million. Who are some of these people who are getting that $17.6 million? I will tell members. The source is a  
New Zealand Herald 
 executive pay survey from 30 April 2011. It states that the chief executives of New Zealand’s 47 biggest companies received pay rises of 14 percent on average while the median average income for all New Zealanders has fallen by almost 5 percent. 
Su’a William Sio 
: How much is that in real terms? 
LOUISA WALL 
: In real terms those chief executives got on average $500 a week each in their pockets from tax cuts plus they got 14 percent pay increases on average. 
But what does that really mean? I will break it down because this narrative has to be relevant to the electorate of Manurewa. The electorate of Manurewa has concentrations and pockets of people who live in poverty. They receive State assistance as the Hon Paula Bennett will know and these people care every week whether they have enough money to pay rent buy food and feed and clothe their children so that their children can go to school. When I went to the Manurewa Netball Centre opening a few weeks ago I had a conversation with a woman whose main preoccupation was the fact that she could buy only one 2-litre bottle of milk every week. Sometimes midway through the week she had to water down the milk so that she had enough milk to put on the cereal for her children. 
Su’a William Sio 
: They won’t understand that. 
LOUISA WALL 
: No I do not think members opposite understand that. I think some of them do. I think Paula does but the majority of National members have no idea about how our families are living. We make no apology on this side of the House for absolutely caring— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: How many children have you got? 
LOUISA WALL 
: I do not have any children; I am an auntie. I— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I have four. 
LOUISA WALL 
: Well good on Dr Smith. He is in a position where he does not have to worry about whether he can buy one or two 2-litre bottles of milk. I ask whether he has to worry about buying more than one 2-litre bottle a week. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I am very fortunate. 
LOUISA WALL 
: Dr Smith is very fortunate. We should all care about families who are in a position where they have to debate those issues every week. So why are we giving tax cuts to people whose questions are about where they should go on holiday this year whether they should upgrade their car or whether they should maybe sell and upgrade their house? That is the reality. 
Earlier this evening a few people on this side of this House went to a meeting called by Metiria Turei the honourable co-leader of the Greens and Rahui Katene. The meeting was about the Aotearoa Equality Group because we acknowledge that inequality is growing in our society. The invitation went to every single member of the House and do members know what is really interesting? Does anyone think there was a National person there? Do members think that anybody in National would bother to come to that meeting? Jackie Blue probably would but someone probably said she could not go to that meeting. It would have been great to see somebody from that side of the House come to the meeting but nobody bothered to come and that says to me that they do not care. Those members do not care that there is growing inequality in our country. There is a huge gap between rich and poor. 
Let us look at the legacy of this John Key - led National Government. He promised us a brighter future. What does that look like? What does that brighter future look like? Here are some examples and these are not from our policy unit. This one is from the Children’s Social Health Monitor 2010 update which was released on 13 December 2010. It states that poverty and hardship are rising admissions to hospital of children with diseases associated with poverty such as respiratory diseases have increased by more than 2000 per year since 2008—I think that was when National got in was it not—and Maori and Pasifika children are being hit the hardest. 
My critique of this Budget is to ask how it helps the most vulnerable children. How does this Budget help the most vulnerable children? The reality is that it does not. It does not help the most vulnerable children. In the electorate of Manurewa we have an underprovision of general practitioners and of early childhood education centres. The reality is that if our children do not have the basics to start their lives what happens? They enter the education system and what happens when they enter that education system? 
Sandra Goudie 
: What does she think national standards are for? Hello! 
LOUISA WALL 
: No Sandra Goudie does not care. They have reading ages of only 2 and 3-year-olds and that deficit follows them throughout their lives. 
If National is really serious about addressing poverty why does it not make sure that market failures are addressed that we ensure that there are general practitioners in communities that children have access to Well Child providers and that children have access to early childhood education centres? Our children need to enter an education system where they can make a good life for themselves and for the children they will have. That is the challenge for the Government: the question of how we redistribute taxes in a way that ensures that we do not create intergenerational illiteracy and intergenerational benefit dependency. The reality for a lot of our young people is that children are having children. I want to see some real practical policy initiatives that meet the needs of people who live in communities like Manurewa Mangere and Manukau East. That is what we really want to see. 
When I look at the Budget I see that it will not help anybody in my electorate. It will not make a big difference to the children who live in the electorate of Manurewa. But I have hope. I have hope that we on this side of the House will mobilise the people of New Zealand because we care about those kids and the circumstances of their parents. We will not be punitive and penalise them for the circumstances they happen to be in because any one of us could have been born in a context where we do not have the building blocks that Nick Smith’s children do where they have a parent who can look after their needs.