O'Connor Simon: Budget Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
O'Connor Simon: Budget Debate 
[Sitting date: 12 June 2012. Volume:680;Page:2812. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SIMON O’CONNOR (National—Tamaki) 
: 
 As I was saying what a great Budget that was and a fine Budget for our time. I want to congratulate the Minister of Finance on that Budget. I also want to thank the many people who are involved with it. I think all of us in the House appreciate that these things do not come together just on the whim of one or the work of one so I want to acknowledge them as well. One thing I do want to say is that I really love the Budget application. I thought it was very much like the National Party—it was innovative it was leading edge and it was No. 1.  
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! I apologise to the member but could I just remind members that today all microphones are live. If members want the public to hear a circumstance in the House that the public may not be impressed by just keep making a lot of noise and I suspect the public will not be impressed. So I just alert members that today because of the sound system’s malfunction members need to be just a little more circumspect about the level of interjection the wittiness of interjection and the intellectual content of interjection because the public will judge what they hear. Normally they do not hear some of this stuff. 
SIMON O’CONNOR 
: Intellectual interjections—I have not heard those yet but I am conscious there is noise. I was talking about the iPhone Budget the iPad Budget and thinking again that it is a great Budget and a great Budget application. I just wanted to note as well that I have spent a lot of time on the Labour Party’s Budget application  
Angry Birds 
. I want to thank the Labour Party for its application  
Angry Birds 
. As we have just heard Opposition members do a lot of squawking ruffling their feathers and throwing themselves at the Budget over and over again. You see National is here because we are trying to build something—to build a brighter future—and these angry birds as we heard earlier today just continue to throw themselves squawking ruffling feathers and they have all gone conspicuously silent at the moment.  
These are tough times—these are tough times—and it is all about cutting your cloth to suit. This Government has maintained the services and prioritised those services for the people. This is a Budget that is responsible it is a Budget that is focused on growth it is a Budget that is about value for money and it is a Budget about front-line services—a Budget that understands what the people want and is open to engaging with the people. 
Chris Hipkins 
: But you don’t want bigger classes! 
SIMON O’CONNOR 
: Oh see—they continue. I must have run afoul of them there—I must have run afoul of them. I have noted in reading some of the other Budget speeches that there has been a lot of talk about Charles Dickens coming from the Opposition members. But they have missed one of the more interesting characters. Wilkins Micawber was a character who knew all about the importance of careful financial management and I am not really surprised that they are not familiar with him. Mr Micawber had an interesting philosophy and to paraphrase if I may read this he said the difference between happiness and misery is whether you are spending 10c less than you earn or 10c more than you earn. The Opposition and Labour in particular has never subscribed to this idea. But every household in New Zealand understands what it means. Labour is happy to spend the extra 10c the extra $10 million the extra $100 million. So I reject outright the amendment put forward by the Opposition which is working against this Budget. In itself it is illogical. The very amendment is illogical.  
Opposition members complain. They complain that this Budget has not made the tough decisions but then they are complaining because we have made the tough decisions. This is a Budget for the time and it is an appropriate Budget. We could have taken the easy way—we could have taken the Labour Party way—to spend spend and spend some more. But then the bill comes and it is time to pay up—it is time to pay up. The people of Greece are learning this lesson a little bit late but because of this Budget New Zealanders will not have to suffer the fate that Greece and other continental powers are suffering at the moment.  
I want to turn my focus on to education. 
Hon Members 
: Ha ha! 
SIMON O’CONNOR 
: Here we go again—throwing themselves at the wall. I want to focus on education notably tertiary education. It is an area of great interest to me. It is an area where a number of friends and colleagues have raised their points and have been engaging across the sector over the last few weeks asking questions. You know there have been a lot of complaints coming from people particularly those doing postgraduate degrees be it masters or PhDs. And I note that change is always hard; I want to acknowledge to those postgraduate students that yes change is hard. But I want to put a bit of context around these changes because there has been a lot of noise and a lot of well squawking—I think that seems to be the word of the day for them—around this. So the context around the changes: currently if you study at the universities the Crown pays 70c in every dollar; 70 percent of course costs are already paid for by the taxpayer by the Crown. We have interest-free student loans. They are available to all who choose to study—undergraduate or postgraduate. We also know that effectively between 40c and 50c in every dollar has to be written off on those student loans a further cost—or a gift if you like of the Crown to those who are choosing to study.  
We also know that there are a multitude of scholarships available to students from the private sector and from the public sector. I note that the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes were announced yesterday. So already we have a picture here of the generosity of the Crown the generosity of the taxpayers to people who choose to study. As I said 70c in every dollar goes towards their studies; interest-free student loans a significant write-down on that; scholarships; and of course we still have 200 weeks of student allowance for those in undergraduate degrees including those who choose to do honours. But I am aware that people are not happy and I have to say particularly to those students who are unhappy I find that the generosity of the taxpayer really is nothing short of astonishing. If you look at it in that context the giving that the taxpayer provides is nothing short of astonishing. But of course some people are still not happy. 
Jacinda Ardern 
: Is education a public good? Is it a public good Simon? 
SIMON O’CONNOR 
: And although I cannot fully hear the interjections I am aware that some people are still not happy because you realise there are about 20000 people in this country who are doing masters or postgraduate degrees. That is 0.5 percent of the population. And what is being asked for here in the complaints around this Budget to do with tertiary education is that the 0.5 percent want more: they want more than 70 percent of their fees paid they want more than 200 weeks of allowance they want more than an interest-free student loan they want more than the scholarships they want more than the opportunities. As we well know for most who do postgraduate studies there is opportunity to earn money through their teaching and tutorials and so forth. I say this not just as someone who speaks in theory but someone who has done two postgraduate degrees. I am very conscious that you do this freely and through a choice. For the record I did my first postgraduate degree while working full-time and studying part-time because I was aware of the financial consideration. And just to add to it because I recall the Green Party making an emotional but empty series of statements when I did my second postgraduate degree I was doing that working full-time and studying full-time. You see education is a choice and choices can be made and I for one as a postgraduate student have appreciated what the Crown has done.  
As I wrap up I would like to say that in theory I would wish that everything was free. It would be great. But that is not the world that we live in. Only in Labour do they think that everything should be free. I am conscious we are only a few weeks away from the mid-winter Christmas if you like and Labour does have a Christmas list that is a mile long. But Santa is not going to pay for the bills and the gifts that Labour wants to give away because in the real world we understand that grown-ups have to pay the bill. So we are not going to allow Labour to have people sit on its lap and demand gift after gift because it is ultimately the taxpayer who is going to groan and pay the bill.  
I come back to where I started: this is a sensible Budget. It is a Budget for its time. I am proud of the decisions that have been made. I am proud of the decisions that have been made in education and particularly in the tertiary sector. Thank you.