Key John: Budget Statement — Budget Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Key John: Budget Statement — Budget Debate 
[Sitting date: 24 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2403. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 That speech from David Shearer went about as well as the Facebook float did. All I can say is that that was a zero response to a zero Budget—not one single idea. The kindest thing I can say about that speech is it is 20 minutes of my life I am never getting back. Do not worry one person liked it: David Cunliffe. He was licking his chops like Scar from  
The Lion King 
; trust me he is ready to pounce on Simba over there. Seeing as it is a zero Budget and there is not a lot of money to spread around let me give some free advice to David Shearer: when David Cunliffe has a shave be worried because he is coming after you. This is all very interesting because according to—[ 
Interruption 
] Well they were barking about that loudly out of the Skycity tent at the Rugby World Cup final. But do not worry they will keep; we will come back to them.  
According to David Shearer New Zealand is not doing very well on a relative basis. That is his proposition. Well the trouble is that to believe that you have to live on “Planet Labour”. You see this is the way it goes. On “Planet Labour” New Zealand was not in recession in 2008. We did not have an overpriced housing market that was getting out of control; we did not have an export sector that had been in recession for 5 years. On “Planet Labour” the previous Labour Government did not go to the 2008 election campaign and promise a deposit guarantee scheme that ended up costing taxpayers of New Zealand billions of dollars. On “Planet Labour” the global financial crisis never happened. You see according to them on “Planet Labour” Greece is this happy little place where ruins are the sorts of things you visit rather than an apt description of its banking system. On “Planet Labour” the Christchurch earthquakes never happened—never happened. On “Planet Labour” trillions of dollars were never wiped off the global stock exchange. And on “Planet Labour” 24 is the number of people that the Skycity box can host for the Rugby World Cup final not the unemployment rate in Spain. That is what it is like on “Planet Labour”. 
The trouble is that that will not wash with anyone because back in the real world New Zealanders actually know what is going on. They know there is a global economic crisis and in their own homes they are doing exactly what this Government is doing. They are saving. They are paying off their debt. They are being conservative with what they do. In the real world New Zealanders in their homes know that you have to earn your way in the world. The only response they have on “Planet Labour” is to spend money that comes from someone else. You do not earn it; you just borrow it and spend it. In the end when you spend more money than you earn it is called Greece and you go broke. 
David Shearer said there was not much to feel good about in terms of the New Zealand economy. Apparently it is all bad at the moment. So let us have a look. According to a range of economists over the next 3 years New Zealand will grow faster than the United States the United Kingdom the entire eurozone Canada and Japan. In fact the—[ 
Interruption 
] That is right. In fact—Mr Speaker you were educated in Australia. You were not Mr Australia although I am sure you would look good against the other contestants— 
Hon Member 
: He would have won. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: You would have won. In fact we will be growing at the same rate as the minerally very wealthy Australia over the next 3 years. But David Shearer says that that is not good enough—that is not good enough.  
Let us have a look at unemployment. Yes the unemployment rate in New Zealand is higher than we would like at 6.7 percent. Let us acknowledge that. But let us also acknowledge the following: more people have jobs in New Zealand than ever before in our history—more people have jobs. That is right. They are the facts. Over the last 2 years 60000 jobs have been created in this economy—60000—and 154000 will be created in the next 4 years. More people are employed as a percentage of the population in New Zealand than in Australia—more people are employed. And thanks to the Minister for Social Development there are a touch over 50000 people on the unemployment benefit in New Zealand at the moment which is 14000 fewer than 18 months ago. Apparently all that is not good enough! 
So let us have a look at the unemployment rate just for a moment. New Zealand’s unemployment rate is lower than that of just a few countries. In fact it is lower than that of Chile the Czech Republic Belgium Canada Finland—remarkably—Sweden Denmark all of Britain America—[ 
Interruption 
] It is true. It is also lower than that of Slovakia Italy France Poland Hungary Estonia the Slovak Republic Ireland Portugal Greece and Spain. And that is only including the OECD. They are all countries that have a higher unemployment rate than New Zealand.  
 The National-led Government has been very ably supported by our friends in ACT United Future and the Maori Party and we thank them for their support and contribution to this Budget. They are sensible people who are committed to growth jobs and economic stability. So anyway apparently—if I did pick anything up from David Shearer’s speech—on “Planet Labour” it is easy to create jobs apparently pretty easy. So let us do a little test shall we? OK. So let us go through all the pro-growth initiatives and let us just see for a moment which ones the inhabitants of “Planet Labour” are in favour of. OK so starting off let me give you a small tip: it is longer than  
Letterman 
’s top 10 but we will come back to that in a moment. So No. 1 do they support future intensification and development of our agricultural sector?  
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No they do not. No they wanted to put it out of business last time. Do they want more mining or more oil and gas exploration?  
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No OK. Do they even want Australian companies moving jobs to New Zealand?  
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No. Do they want welfare reform and mutual obligation?  
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No. Did they support the 90-day probation period? 
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: Did they support any of our labour-market reforms? 
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: Did they support the $1.5 billion we put into ultra-fast broadband? 
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: OK. Do they support foreign investment in New Zealand?  
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No. Did they support the 3000 jobs that came off making the two  
Hobbit 
 movies?  
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No they are  
Hobbit  
haters as I said last year. Do they support the national convention centre? 
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I tell you what though they will go to the opening I reckon. Probably they will go to the opening. Well that is assuming David Shearer actually knows that there is an opening because apparently he did not know we were building a convention centre which we announced in June with Skycity and he went off to the world cup that was in October—apparently anyway. Do they support public sector reform?  
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No. Do they want a less onerous emissions trading scheme?  
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No. Do they support the irrigation of the South Island or parts of the North Island? 
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: Do they support roads of national significance?  
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No. Do they support— 
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No they do not. Exactly—they do not. Do they support reform of local government?  
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No. And do they support the $5 billion to $7 billion coming out of the mixed-ownership model going into 21st century schools? 
Hon Members 
: No. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: That is right. They have agreed. They have passed the test. They do not agree with any pro-growth initiatives at all not one of them. That is right. And David Shearer did not have one pro-growth initiative in his speech but on “Planet Labour”—where the three Davids like each other and Grant Robertson is not really auditioning to be the next leader—money grows on trees and jobs are easy to create. I give up on them because that is what the rest of New Zealand has done. It ain’t like that in the real world. 
Let us go on to the Budget for a moment. It was a very sensible Budget for uncertain times a very sensible Budget. Let us have a look at what it delivers. In health over the next 4 years $1.5 billion will go into health—$1.5 billion. There will be more New Zealanders getting elective surgery—4000 extra elective surgical operations. More money is going into cancer care. There is more money to support the people of New Zealand following a Government whose first action was to fully pay for Herceptin for women in New Zealand who have breast cancer. Free half-hour doctors’ visits for under-sixes more money for maternity care more money for dementia care and more money to eradicate a Third World disease like rheumatic fever—that is what comes in Budget 2012. And all of that new expenditure comes because this Government knows how to manage the economy. It does not just borrow money from other people; it makes savings. 
Let us go to education—$512 million more over the next 4 years. That is a spend of just under $10 billion. Those members talk tough over there but this is the party that is actually putting more money into early childhood education for vulnerable Maori and Pacific kids. That is what is happening. This is the party that is lifting participation rates for early childhood education. This is the party that is putting more money into school operation grants. This is the party that is putting more money into professional development so that we can have better teaching outcomes for our kids. This is the party that is putting $1 billion into 21st century schools and this is the party that is putting money into the youth mental health programme. 
So let us talk for a moment about those class sizes. Let us have that conversation on nationwide TV right here and right now because this is what has happened. In the last decade the number of teachers in New Zealand has gone up by 12.5 percent so we approximately have about 50000 teachers in this country. In the last decade it went up by 12.5 percent. At exactly the same time the number of children went up by 2.5 percent and the outcomes we were receiving from those schools have broadly plateaued. So here is our chance. Here is our chance to actually focus on teaching outcomes and quality teaching for all of those 52000 teachers and kids. Just so that we understand what is happening if your child goes to school for 13 years—and we hope they do in every one of those years—for 4 of those years out of 13 the class sizes will rise; in 3 of them they will actually fall; and in 6 they will stay the same. David Shearer said before: “Oh by the way it was 1:15 and it might go to 1:28 next time.” Well actually the ratio was pretty similar before that and for 90 percent of New Zealand schools across the country the change will be either plus or minus one teacher. So let us answer this question: do we want a few more teachers in this country or do we want to pour money into lifting teacher quality and teacher outcomes? If you do not believe me in your workplace ask your mate this: do you want your child sitting in front of a teacher who is a really good teacher who is committed to the outcome of your kid with quality professional development when there are 16 kids in the class or do you want to have a situation where there are only 15 in the class but the teacher is no good and does not get quality professional development? Well I know which one I would rather have. 
Let us have a look at welfare. This is a party that is prepared to tackle the fact that 12 percent of New Zealand’s working-age population is on a benefit. It has to change; it should be a lower number. They deserve better choices and better outcomes for their families. We are investing $287 million into more childhood education more training and more education for those people. 
This is a party that believes in science and innovation and puts its money where its mouth is: $326 million into science and education $166 million into the advanced technological institutes $60 million into the national science challenge $100 million into the Performance-based Research Fund and more funding for engineers and scientists. Yes there will be $5 billion to $7 billion coming out of the mixed-ownership model and yes it will go to building 21st century schools and hospitals and advanced technological institutes. This is the truth: on the balance sheet of New Zealand the assets New Zealanders own will be going up over the next 5 years; they will not be going down. 
Let us put it like this: the world is a pretty tough place and it has been tough for the last 4 years. Yes there has been a global financial crisis. Yes there have been earthquakes in Christchurch. Yes there has been a recession that we have had to inherit. But in that time this Government has got on top of the mess we inherited from these people. We have got the export sector starting to grow. We are starting to properly fund ourselves. We will be back in surplus by 2014-15. We are protecting the entitlements of the vast bulk of New Zealanders and in years to come when they look back on this Government will they say: “Thank goodness they are there and there is not all this debt.”? Or will they say: “We wish they had those people who live on “Planet Labour” who just want to spend money from people who live on Planet Mars or some other place and one day will have to pay it back with interest.”? That is not leadership; that is passing the buck to a future generation of New Zealanders. They are wrong. This is a good Budget for the times. Bill English has done a great job.