Duynhoven Harry: Budget Debate 
Duynhoven Harry: Budget Debate 
[Volume:626;Page:21079] 
Hon HARRY DUYNHOVEN (Minister for Transport Safety) 
: 
 I am astounded! That is a member of the National Party whom I actually have a little bit of time for—one who I thought was more able than most—and she did not even use her total speaking time. Every now and then as an MP one considers why one is here and what one has come to Parliament to achieve. Recently I reread my maiden speech just to check that my aims were still the same as they were then. A lot has happened during my 15 years as an MP. I came into the House with no children and I now have three. I am pleased that the same values that Labour and I have always stood for remain and are reflected in this Budget: fairness helping New Zealanders to build a stake in their country providing security for the future and building the conditions for growth while all the time a strong and credible fiscal stance is being maintained. Traditionally those things were expressed as the right to a job to good housing to health care for the sick to education for all and to security in old age. 
We have just heard a speech from one of the most able members of the National Party who because she was reasonably able was demoted a while back. That member to begin with said that every speech she had heard from Labour was about what was wrong with National and she then proceeded to ignore completely the last two Labour speakers. They hardly touched on National at all but talked about the Budget and the good things it was doing while she devoted her entire speech to bashing Labour without actually saying what National would have done differently. 
Mr Brash used to say that there were too many beneficiaries and that he would take 100000 of them and get them off benefits. That was what National was going to do. Well National is too late I tell Mr Brash. When Labour came in the legacy left by the previous National Government in 1999 was I believe 400000 beneficiaries but we have fewer than 300000 people in total on all sorts of benefits today. So Mr Brash is too late and he should think of another new slogan. The unemployment rate was 6.9 percent of the workforce when Labour came into Government; it is now 3.6 percent—the lowest rate in the OECD. I have friends in Germany and in other countries of Europe who are astounded at how well New Zealand has done over a period when their countries have struggled. In New Zealand a combination of policies has seen progress continue to be made. All that we hear from the National Party now is the same faded old nonsense we heard in the 1990s when the word “intervention” hardly existed in the lexicon of words and when the word “plan” was just anathema to National. 
We have turned this country round. This Labour Government can be very proud of what it has achieved because it has done a huge amount. As I said before our Budget will build upon the strong fiscal position we have created. It is a very responsible Budget and is the sixth this Government has put in place. It invests in health and education and commits additional resources to health that will total over $1.09 billion a year by the 2008-09 year. We are increasing our investment in early childhood education by $152 million over 4 years as we continue to deliver on our commitment to make early childhood education more affordable more accessible and more inclusive and of the best quality possible for all New Zealand families. We are already seeing the benefit of that. My wife is a primary school teacher and I know how much of a difference the policy of increasing the funding in the early childhood education sector has already made in our schoolrooms. 
Our commitment to having more and better-paid teachers in our schools continues with a total investment of $1.43 billion since Budget 2004. I think—and the Minister of Education is here; he will correct me if I am wrong—there has been a 29 percent increase in the overall education budget since we have been the Government. That is a huge difference and even if people look only at simple little figures and I am doing this especially for the benefit of the member for Taranaki - King Country Mr Ardern who just wrote the most appalling column— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: A simple figure. 
Hon HARRY DUYNHOVEN 
: A simple figure of 13.3 percent I tell Mr Ardern is the increase above inflation and above roll growth in schools’ operational funding on average since we have been the Government—from 1999. So in the period in which we have been the Government in real terms there has been a 13.3 percent increase in the operational budget of schools above roll growth and above inflation. I tell the member that his article in the  
Opunake 
 and Coastal News  
is the most negative whingeing article I ever thought I would read from an MP. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: You are not quoting from that—because there is some outrageous stuff in there. 
Hon HARRY DUYNHOVEN 
: There is some outrageous nonsense in there and I will not quote from it although I will say that it is the most negative article I have seen. 
We as a Government have struggled very hard with a number of issues but the major one is the building up of a momentum in this country that sees the regions prosper. That is one of the really significant things that has happened under this Government. We have seen the conditions for growth improve dramatically. I can look at my own region. These last 4 years have been the first time in my 15 years of being a parliamentarian that there really has been an era of continued strong growth—when the problem has not been one of how to keep a specialist in Taranaki but of how to find more specialists in Taranaki and of how to bring more of them to Taranaki. The problem used to lie in finding enough work to keep the ones we had busy. Now we have so much going on in our regions right around the country—not just in Taranaki but obviously Taranaki as usual leads the way—that we have a situation where we are continually expanding. Every company asks me where to find extra engineers extra welders extra fitters and turners extra builders and extra electricians. That is because the previous Government simply neglected the apprenticeship system totally. I come from the trades sector originally and I then went into teaching apprentices and into teaching at high schools. In this transition time we have seen our country change dramatically. But we have also seen a continuing demand for tradespeople and this Government has done something about it. I am delighted to say that this Budget goes on to reinforce that by putting more money into the sector. 
In the regions we have had significant growth. The regions now lead the country—not the money markets but the regions. We look at the productive activities going on and we know that we need tradespeople to underpin those activities which is one of the things that this Government should be and is especially proud of. We have revamped the apprenticeship system and made it attractive for young people to consider a career in the trades. Recently at New Plymouth Boys’ High School I attended a major careers Expo that focused on the trades. I was absolutely delighted at the number of young people who were there with their parents and who were expressing a real interest in becoming skilled people in our community—tradespeople. I have told this story to some of my colleagues: it is really invigorating for a tradesperson to hear an accountant moaning about the price of a plumber. I think that actually says something about society. We do need to value our tradespeople and this Government has done so. Our Modern Apprenticeships programme has already exceeded expectations; we continually have to revamp the targets. I am only sorry that we cannot take on every young person who wants to be an apprentice but we are working on it. 
I am really pleased that during the time of this Government we have focused on the substantial things that build up a country and that see our pride in what we are able to do increased—even things such as the cultural activities of this country in terms of the money that has been put into New Zealand music New Zealand arts and New Zealand drama. All those things make up our sense of well-being about being New Zealanders and we can export that good feeling to the world. One can look at the films that are being made here and see that in my area as well there is another film coming on. We see how good it is to be in New Zealand and how we can bring people here to partake in that. People want to come to our country—they want to visit and be part of this country. New Zealanders want to see a continuing progressive Labour-led Government go on and this Budget was certainly part of that. 
I agree with one or two of the previous speakers that the Budget has not been received as well by the public as it should have been. That is largely due to the fact that many of the good stories about the spending in this Budget such as the family support package spoken so eloquently about by Lianne Dalziel were already out in the public arena before the Budget was delivered. The Opposition meanly and miserly talks about a tax cut of 67c a week or whatever it may be. The Opposition members forget that the average family with children will be better off by many tens of dollars or $100 a week and forget all about the tax cuts in Australia that in a similar circumstance to that of New Zealand delivered $6 a week.