Lotu-Iiga Peseta Sam: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Lotu-Iiga Peseta Sam: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
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PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the Imprest Supply (First for 2011/12) Bill as well as the Appropriation (2010/11 Supplementary Estimates) Bill for this financial year. It is an honour to speak in this Parliament. Before I begin I congratulate the Prime Minister on his address to the Australian Parliament yesterday. It was a historic speech: the first time the leader of this country has addressed the Australian Parliament and the eighth time a foreign leader has spoken to the Australian Parliament.  
One of the reasons why this National Government is delivering on its promises is because of its leadership. It is leadership not just from the Prime Minister but also from the Minister of Finance. It is about the economic plan that this National Government set out when it first took office in November 2008. It is an economic plan that relies on the tax system being streamlined and made more effective in order to allow New Zealanders who are out there working and saving to keep more of their real income. Real income after tax has never been better for New Zealanders than since this Government took office 2½ years ago.  
Some of the other points made this afternoon are ones I would certainly like to reinforce in my speech. There was one about regulations. Under the Clark Labour Government regulations red tape and bureaucracy increased dramatically. I attended and spoke to the small-business conference last year with the honourable member Ross Robertson and the one thing that small-business owners tell me in my electorate of Maungakiekie and they also told me at this conference was that red tape and regulations had got out of control for small businesses. That is what this Government has addressed in its 2½ years. It has addressed and cut red tape and the Hon Rodney Hide has introduced legislation to deal with regulations which is currently before the Commerce Committee. That is the type of regulation-cutting exercise that this Government is becoming more and more well known for.  
In these financial hard times the Government has been committed to infrastructure spending. This Budget has demonstrated that commitment not just to build roads but also to build on our plan in relation to broadband delivery the building of schools the building of roads and the building of hospitals. We all know—even the Labour Opposition would concede—that infrastructure spend is the type of spending long term that will increase our economic growth rates increase productivity in this country and provide better jobs and opportunities for our communities. So infrastructure is one of the key cornerstones that this National Government has put in place around its economic plan.  
It is also about innovation and trade. We know that the Minister of Trade the Hon Tim Groser has been one of the hardest-working Ministers negotiating free-trade agreements throughout the world. That has resulted in increased exports and we heard this afternoon that the current account is in surplus for the first time in many years.  
Hon Maryan Street 
: He hasn’t done one of his own yet. 
PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA 
: I ask the member Maryan Street what happened under the Labour Government when we had 5 consecutive years of export contraction. I will repeat that for the member: we had 5 consecutive years of export contraction. That was because under Labour Government spending and growth in the Government sector crowded out private sector investment crowded out exports and crowded out this economy which had been travelling so well throughout the 1990s under the National Government.  
This Budget is also about Government services and making more effective savings in Government bureaucracy. We estimate that in the next 3 or 4 years we will get savings of just under a billion dollars. Let me emphasise that: savings of just under a billion dollars in Government services that had become so bloated under the Labour Government that they had expanded threefold. This Budget is not only about making Government services more effective but also about delivering more services to the front line. Let me just elaborate on how we are delivering those services to the front line. In 2008 we campaigned on bringing about more effective services in the front line so it was about more nurses and it was about more police. We have seen that in South Auckland. We have seen what more police on the streets in South Auckland has done to crime rates in that area. We have seen the impact on our communities in South Auckland. People feel safer and people feel more secure in their living environments and in their working environments. That is what front-line services and an increase in Government spending on the front line deliver to our communities.  
It is also about education. In the last 2½ years this Government has stood for national standards. It has stood for standards in education whereby children and their parents understand what standards are required. If children do not achieve those standards then the types of learning environments and resources that will be required to meet the standards expected of our children throughout this country—national standards skills training and the like—will be very much part of this Government’s agenda in order to not only expand our economy but also to provide for our children going forward.  
In terms of infrastructure spend this Government as I have already said has put a vast amount of money into ultra-fast broadband: $942 million will complete the Government’s funding commitment and $28 million will connect fibre to schools across the country. We have also seen in health and education the type of spending that will be more effective on the front line. We are looking at $18 million for 40 extra medical training places. We also have a bonding system whereby our young our bright and those who have recently graduated in nursing and medicine are better able to stay within the country rather than go overseas. That is the sort of bonding where they can realise their potential within our work environment in New Zealand.  
Schools have had an increase in operational and capital expenditure over the last 3 years. I am particularly proud of our National Government for spending $550 million for early childhood education particularly focused on those children who do not access early childhood education. We are talking specifically here about Maori we are talking specifically here about Pasifika children and we are talking specifically about those high-needs children who do not have that chance in life that start to life that is so important in early childhood education. This Government is supporting the construction of many early childhood centres in those high-needs areas. I attended one such opening with the Minister of Pacific Island Affairs the Hon Georgina te Heuheu. It was in Mangere the place where I grew up in South Auckland. We saw the delight and the joy in the children’s eyes and in their parents’ eyes when they felt that their needs were being met through funding for their early childhood centres not just to get early childhood education but also language education in their respective Pacific languages and that is a victory for this Government. It is a victory for those who are in high-needs areas.  
I reiterate that this Government has a plan and it is a plan that is about promoting jobs and opportunities. It is about promoting our front-line services. It is about having education and skills training in place in order for our youth to be better promoted into jobs and opportunities. It is about infrastructure spend and the long-term goals around economic prosperity and economic growth which the Labour Party sadly does not understand. I support obviously this Budget. It is one that in these straitened difficult times is prudent but which also invests in the future.