Coleman Jonathan: Budget Debate 
Coleman Jonathan: Budget Debate 
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Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (National—Northcote) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to speak in this debate on the Budget and especially to speak to the motion of no confidence in this Labour-led Government which was put so aptly by Dr Brash last Thursday. After the ranting and raving we have heard from the members of Labour’s death row caucus—the “third XV”—tonight I think it is quite apt that we restate this motion of no confidence. The motion is as follows: “… this House has no confidence in this Labour-led Government because for 7 years it has demonstrated a lack of vision and a lack of the policies to transform New Zealand into a high-income high-growth nation and has instead wasted the opportunities provided by buoyant international conditions by overtaxing New Zealanders and wasting billions of taxpayers’ dollars on low-quality spending programmes.” That is the gist of this whole debate. 
On Thursday Michael Cullen delivered his final Budget. As Dr Brash said it is the “Bondi Budget” and we know why that is. It is because there are no incentives in the Budget to keep decent hard-working New Zealanders here within the shores of New Zealand. People want to stay here but this Labour Government is driving them offshore through economic necessity. The Budget was devoid of vision. It was devoid of leadership. 
The “third XV” members opposite are right when they constantly state that only a Labour Government could have delivered this Budget. That is dead right. We would not see a Budget like this from the National benches. The reason is there are no incentives in the Budget to get people working. It is criminal that in this country if the salary of someone earning $38000 and married with two children goes up to $60000 he or she takes home only another $2000 a year in the pocket. There is no incentive for people to do anything—to look for promotion to work harder and to do something with their lives to better their role and the position of their family in society. 
The sad reality running through this whole debate as we have heard Labour member after Labour member recite the Budget figures is that Labour members really do not understand what is necessary to get this country going. They think we can pour millions of dollars dollar after dollar down the black hole of health education or whatever and it will fix the problem. What we really need is leadership and vision. We need a Government that understands the big-ticket items that will grow the economy that will achieve step changes. It is about improvements in education improvements in infrastructure. It is about providing the incentives for people to work harder. It is about providing company tax rates that mean people want to build their businesses in this country. 
It is a real shame that the Minister of Health will not be taking a call in this debate. He had plenty to say immediately after the Budget and he released plenty of statements about spending on health but the reality is that despite the 66 percent increase in health spending over the past 6 years no one can tell me that one New Zealander is healthier because of it. The country is sicker. Our children have diabetes. Our children are fatter. The people of New Zealand cannot get the operations they need. This is despite an extra $4 billion of spending under this Labour Government being put into health every single year. 
Mr Hodgson probably thinks he has left behind the nightmare of the New Zealand health system. He probably thinks he has left behind the 24000 people who have been waiting more than 6 months for an operation the 7000 New Zealanders who have been waiting more than a year for an operation or the 3000 people who have been waiting more than 18 months for an operation. He probably thinks that at the moment he can forget about the 14000 New Zealanders who have been returned by the hospital to their general practitioner without even seeing a specialist. He is probably trying to put out of his mind the 8100 people who had been given certainty about having an operation but were sent back to their general practitioner. 
In fact on Monday he was probably enjoying a few days away from the blowtorch. He was probably sitting around the swimming pool in Geneva at the World Health Organization—probably chatting to a Minister of Health from North Korea Cuba or some other far-left State. But suddenly he gets a call from Sean Plunket. It is Sean on the line and he is saying that National has found out that the salary bill for health bureaucrats has topped half a billion dollars for the first time—that is 1 percent of Government spending each year is being spent on health bureaucrats. There has been a 23 percent increase in spending on health bureaucrats over the past 6 years. Frankly Mr Hodgson can run to the other side of the world but he cannot hide from the facts on health. 
 The fact is there is nothing in this Budget to address the crucial health issues facing New Zealanders. There is nothing in here to address the shortage of medical staff. We are having to import doctors and nurses because we cannot keep our own here. There is nothing to address the criminal waiting-lists for surgery that our hospitals are experiencing. The state of health in New Zealand would be funny if it were not so serious. After 7 years of waste and bureaucracy in the health sector under Labour we now have a Government that will pour another $750 million a year into it after this Budget and it does not even know whether it will have any effect on the health of New Zealanders. 
I can tell members how dumb this Budget is. This Government is pouring $76 million into obesity—it does not say that it is actually over 4 years—and it does not even know how it will spend it. That $76 million is supposed to make our population slimmer but the Government has not got a clue how to spend it. If that is not wastage and misdirected spending I do not know what is. That really sums up for me what is wrong with this Budget. 
Let us look at what is happening in the transport sector. It is a good example of how National is now dictating the agenda. Suddenly Labour is putting all the tax from petrol into transport. It is something we have been hammering on about for ages. Labour is playing catch-up football on transport—there is no question about it. 
Ron Mark 
: That has been New Zealand First policy for 9 years. 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: If Mr Mark looks right through the Budget he will find out that there is nothing in it that will actually improve traffic congestion in Auckland. My constituents in Northcote will still be sitting in their cars every morning for an hour as they wait to go down Onewa Road; that will not change under this Government. There is no leadership under this Government in regard to transport. There is no plan. Transport in Auckland is a mess; it is an uncoordinated mess. The Minister of Transport does not have any plan for getting out of this mess other than trying to pour whatever money Dr Cullen will give him down the drain to further his own ends. 
If one looks at the root problem with this Budget one sees that it does not provide the incentives for people to stay and build a life and earn their living in New Zealand. It is indeed the “Bondi Budget”. When it comes down to it there is a severe lack of understanding of what is needed to make the economy grow. The problem is we are not going to get that from this Labour Government because it does not have the talent on its benches. There is not the depth of knowledge in the Labour caucus to get this economy growing again. It is devoid of ideas. There are no policies. Having a tax cut is absolute anathema. Labour members will not do it. They are ideologically dug into a trench. They know that a tax cut is something they need to do to get the New Zealand economy going and just before the next election they probably will face the music and acknowledge that that is what they have to do to have even a glimmer of hope. 
But I can tell members that they do not have a chance. They are going out big time at the next election. They can throw all the rhetoric at us but really they know that they are on death row. If one looks at those people one knows that not too many of them will come back in 2008. National’s time is coming. New Zealanders are aligning with the vision we have for growing this economy and for making this country a great country in which our children and grandchildren can earn their living and grow their families.