Bond Ria: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBond Ria: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 28 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:4156. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RIA BOND (NZ First): I am happy to rise to take this call on behalf of New Zealand First to speak on the 2015 Budget. I have heard since last Thursday this Budget described in various ways shapes and forms from Split Enz to a Budget that National has delivered by delivering a sudden raid on KiwiSaver by abolishing the $1000 kick-start contribution. This came without any warnings and it is outright mean to introduce a retrospective law that did not give New Zealanders the time to register to take advantage of the kick-start contribution.I have heard from the Government that economically we are heading in the right direction and that a Budget surplus will be found in 2017. Yeah right! This sounds more like a Tui ad except a pig just flew right past it. What happened to our rock star economy? Where are the rock stars now? We all know that Auckland and Christchurch have their own rock star standout economic status but this is not caused in the case of Auckland by massive corporates relocating head offices there. It is caused by Auckland acting like an economic vampire. It is sucking the life out of the regions in order to fuel Auckland’s growth. Lurking in the shadows are the smaller regions that do not share this National Party’s love.Just think of the word “national” which is meant to include Northland Gisborne Manawatū Whanganui Wairarapa Hawke’s Bay West Coast and Otago. These regions have all natural assets going for them except one—love from central government. Gisborne for instance has the smallest contribution to New Zealand’s GDP at only 0.7 percent. Why? Well I will tell you what—a new rail line would help at a fraction of the cost of Len Brown’s train set. Where is the help to grow Gisborne in this 2015 Budget? There is zilch in this Budget. Let us look at the regions that are currently performing in the spotlight—Southland Waikato mid-Canterbury Taranaki. These regions are facing factors that could drag them down like the doubt around the Tīwai Point aluminium smelter falling dairy prices falling oil prices falling timber prices and a strong New Zealand dollar. I think it is safe to declare that we have in fact come off the rock star peak as a country.As my colleague Denis O’Rourke said recently we need an inquiry into sea freight road and rail. He cited one company in Taranaki that may have to leave the region because it has lost its container services. Guess where it is going to be ending up? A lot has changed in the way that we now no longer add value to our export commodities like sending raw logs and unprocessed fish offshore. Milk powder as ingredients is value-added but not if the processes are overseas-owned right along with the farms.Where are and what happened to small businesses in this year’s Budget? This Budget is surprisingly light on initiatives to support the vital small business sector which makes up 96.5 percent of allbusinesses in our country. Small to medium sized enterprises employ 754820 employees. Small businesses contribute to nearly 30 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. There is no doubt that small business is really in fact bigbusiness. If we count family farms they contribute most of our exports too. Big things do come in small packages. Small businesses are known for being the safety net and the backbone of this country’s economy.This Budget does not put cash back into owners’ pockets it does not help improve the movement to retain skilled workers and it has no incentive to close the productivity gap. Why in the last 40 years has New Zealand’s GDP per capita slipped from being 20 percent above the OECD average to now being approximately 30 percent below? We are slipping down the productivity ladder. We as a country need the Government to help small to medium sized enterprises. A strong focus in the Budget should have been to help small to medium sized enterprises fight their way up the OECD ladder. This Budget has been rather underwhelming for small to medium sized enterprises.I will tell you where this Budget failed to deliver and that is to small businesses. It does not tackle the market failures because there has been no funding allocated in the 2015 Budget. The Government needs to understand the characteristics of small and medium sized businesses that determine their success. Again I do not see this evident in this Government’s 2015 Budget. I would like to suggest that this Government has taken a shotgun approach with this Budget but it has not loaded a shot to grow small businesses.I know that small to medium sized enterprises have been left wanting more from the Government’s Budget. They wanted to see more specific policies that recognise the importance of growing that vital sector of the economy. I know that small to medium sized enterprises in Invercargill will be looking to the Government to provide them with reduced bureaucracy reduced compliance costs and things that will make an immediate difference across the board. Is this the Government’s plan for the Resource Management Act? New Zealand First along with the rest of the country wants to see your plan and proposals for the Resource Management Act reforms especially the things impacting homeowners businesses and farmers.Small businesses are concerned that workplace safety reforms will see them responsible for an electrician injuring themselves on their worksite because at that point in time the electrician will be considered an employee. In Australia the health and safety laws are so stifling that one church had cancelled its weekly food service for homeless people because there was a risk that someone could get sick from the surplus food.This Budget did not invite any stimulation at all. In fact according to the latest Mind Your Own Business survey 71 percent of small to medium sized enterprise operators thought that small businesses should have received more attention especially in the retail and hospitality sectors. When I walk around Invercargill and count how many empty shops there are in the central city area I am concerned—I am really concerned. One only has to scratch below the surface to see that there were cracks in the Government’s Budget even before it was delivered.Although Mr Key talks up Air New Zealand it is a monopoly in Invercargill and acts like a monopoly. Westport Kaitāia and Whakatāne—they know what I mean. Then we turn to the lack of funding for roads despite Southland being key to New Zealand’s tourism as it is to the exports we generate on and off farms.I cannot finish without saying that we need core services like policing and health. Yet Bluff has lost a third of its police presence while the Southern District Health Board gets crumbs—so much so that our crumbs will come down from Auckland to be reheated. Sadly the jobs it will cost cannot be reheated.It is a sad day when even Treasury recognises that a surplus from Bill English has become a forlorn hope pushing out the estimate to 2019. This Government has mastered the skill of switching small sums around to give the people of New Zealand an illusion—or should I say it is a deception—that this projected surplus will come from prudent management of the economy although it comes from raiding KiwiSaver and the future prosperity of our children. Thank you.