Henare Tau: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Tau: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 29 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10505. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TAU HENARE (National): I want to start by giving a message to my relation Shane Jones that if he thinks he is the new standard-bearer for Māori he has got another think coming. What he has to do is actually turn up to the Māori Affairs Committee to do some work. If he wants to be deputy chair he should turn up to work; not just say “Oh I’d like that job.” but never turn up to the select committee and do the hard yards like Nanaia Mahuta or like Rino Tirikatene who is a new member and he has been there chugging away and doing the work. Oh no not Mr Jones. He wants to be deputy chair but does not want to come to the committee and do the hard yards. So that is the first message.Here is the second message and I want to read out about some of the “excess and greed” of this Government—the “excess and greed” of this Government. Economic growth is at its highest in 5 years. It is at almost the same rate as that of Australia and higher than that of almost every other developed country. Yes if that is excess and greed we will take that. Here is some more “excess and greed”: wages are growing cost of living increases have been modest and interest rates although they are not at their lowest for 50 years are at their lowest in 48 years. If that is excess and greed we will take that as well.ACC levy cuts will leave another $300 million—yes that is right $300 million—in the economy for businesses and households in 2014-15 increasing to around $1 billion next year. If that is the excess and greed that Annette King talks about yes we will take that as well. The allocation of $1.5 billion of proceeds from the successful Mighty River Power share offer in Christchurch will put money into Christchurch hospitals irrigation infrastructure the upgrading of schools and also the KiwiRail Turnaround Plan. If that is excess and greed we will sign up to that too—and Meridian Energy will be next.How about this for “excess and greed”: $100 million over 3 years goes to insulate 46000 more homes than we have done. Already 215000 homes have been done have already been insulated and now we are doing an extra 46000. And they say that is excess and greed. I have one message for my friends in the Green Party: keep doing what you are doing because at least you believe in what you are doing at least you put the message out there that says: “This is our plan and we are going to stick with it.” So congratulations to the Green Party. Shame on the Labour Party. Do you want to hear what Labour members say about their mates in the Green Party behind closed doors and round behind the bike shed? It is not nice—it is not nice.If you thought for an instant that it was poor form for Annette King to talk about excess and greed just imagine what Labour is saying about the likes of that honourable member over there Kennedy Graham.Grant Robertson: Not “That is outrageous.”?Hon TAU HENARE: “That is outrageous.” But here is the other outrageous thing. We have seen the so-called comeback of New Zealand First. That is not really in the polls it has not shown up in the polls yet. But what are members of New Zealand First doing? They have got nowhere else to go so what do they do? Well what they did was they sacked one of their MPs Brendan Horan for having a family dispute OK but they would not sack the man who got up and talked about “Wogistan”. They actually said “Oh no you can stay because boy have we got a policy for you.” Just wait till I talk about the Chinese—“sin city”.Tracey Martin: Oh here we go.Hon TAU HENARE: That is what he—oh no it is not here I go. It is here Winston goes—it is here Winston goes. It is rolling out. I am just waiting for his ostentatious housing speech to be coming online next week. New Zealand First members should be ashamed of themselves. This is the so-called former Minister of Foreign Affairs talking about—Andrew Williams: No he’s not.Hon TAU HENARE: Oh he was not a foreign affairs Minister? He is not a former? Oh OK. Now they are trying to tell us—Andrew Williams: He helped sign the FTA.Hon TAU HENARE: Exactly. He helped sign the free-trade agreement—Tracey Martin: No he didn’t.Hon TAU HENARE: He signed it but then what did he do?Tracey Martin: He never signed it.Hon TAU HENARE: Oh he never signed it with the Chinese. Now they are trying to tell us that as Minster of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters never signed the free-trade agreement never even helped sign it never even helped work out the details and never once went to China. I bet you he was never even ever in China in his days of being the Minister of Foreign Affairs. For goodness’ sake it most probably was one of the baubles of office that he misplaced. He misplaced one of his baubles.But this is the lie of the land. This is such a good Budget—this is such a good Budget—that if you open up theDominion Post this morning and you open it up on page 2 what does it say? It says that 49.7 percent of the country believe that National is the one to pick for the next election—49 percent. [Interruption] I will leave out the other little bits—49 percent.Dr David Clark: 51 say no.Hon TAU HENARE: OK. Yeah OK. Look I know about Swiss accounting. Let us just round it up to 50 percent and be done with it because that is what it is talking about. That is what it is about—that is what it is about. The country is in such a great state that no one wants change. No one wants a new Government—Andrew Williams: Half the people don’t want it.Hon TAU HENARE: Well at least—no I should not say that. My friend Rajen Prasad looks at me in an incredulous way and I say to him that I accept that. Not everybody wants change—not everybody wants change. In fact 49 percent of the people actually quite like the fact that National is in Government—quite like the fact that National is in Government.Here is how many people would have voted for New Zealand First if there was an election yesterday—2 percent. You cannot have a party—I mean at least Labour got 30 percent of the poll and that is good. That is good—and that is good.Grant Robertson: What about Mauri Pacific?Hon TAU HENARE: He asks the question: what about Mauri Pacific. Well that just morphed into the National Party. I am glad that I am a member of this party. I am glad that we have got this country back on the road. I am glad that in the next 3 years it will still be a National Government.I should not have missed the opportunity to welcome back Mr Clark from his overseas holiday. It is good to see people back at work. It is good to see people not in the trough of the public purse. It is good to see people at work hard at work. So I just want to say welcome back from being over in America for about 6 months.