Curran Clare: Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Curran Clare: Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:672;Page:18977] 
CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South) 
: 
 I am pleased to speak on Part 2 of the Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill as it relates to the cuts to KiwiSaver and Working for Families. This Government makes stuff up and that is what this Budget is based on. We have heard so much stuff that has been made up. In the time I have been sitting in the Chamber this morning I have heard a lot of it. Before the Budget was released a few days ago a headline in one of the newspapers said this Budget would be about higher wages and more jobs. What a load of rubbish; absolutely. We have heard today that this Budget is about protecting the next generation. What a load of rubbish that is. Where are the jobs for that generation? Where are the decent wages? What is to stop them from going overseas? That is one of the major issues this Budget should have addressed. We have heard also from another member who claims that there is so much innovation happening in New Zealand right now as a result of his Government. What a load of rubbish that is. There is nothing in this Budget that promotes innovation will promote jobs and will promote strong export-led industries which is what this country needs. Instead we have cuts to KiwiSaver and cuts to Working for Families which is what Part 2 is about instead of the Budget providing the things we need most. John Key was on Radio Dunedin this morning just a few minutes before I was. He was asked where these 170000 jobs would be coming from. He fudged it. He did not have an answer because there is no answer from this Government in this Budget. 
This Budget should have been about hope. It should have given people hope for the future that things will get better that they will be able to pay their bills that they are not going backwards and worse still that they will not end up in financial strife. They should have been given hope that their kids will get jobs when they leave school and that they will not go to Australia. Unfortunately the Budget is about cuts—cuts to KiwiSaver. KiwiSaver is growing and is actually giving people an incentive to save. It will provide certainty for people’s futures. But instead we are seeing cuts we are seeing the burden placed on employees and employers and we are not as members have heard from previous speakers on this side of the Chamber going to see wage growth. Government members are making stuff up. It is not too much to ask for a Budget to provide hope for a Budget that gives us hope as nation. A Budget that will set a course for the future will show us where those jobs of the future will come from. 
Peter Dunne earlier in this debate talked about equity. Equity for whom I thought to myself—equity for whom? It is not equity for all those hundreds of thousands of families across the country who are struggling with their budgets every week—every week. The do not know whether they will be able to afford pay their bills: their telephone bills and electricity bills their rent or mortgages—the bills they have to pay—let alone petrol and their food bills. They are not bills just for buying new clothes or going on a holiday but the bills they have to pay to get through the week and through the month. Where does this Budget address that issue? Nowhere; instead it is a Budget that just makes stuff up. It forecast 170000 jobs—170000 jobs. Where will they come from? I heard what Stuart Nash said earlier on today about the forestry sector and that jobs are going in that sector. We heard that John Key talked about commodity prices strengthening and therefore jobs will come from that. Where will the jobs come from? They will not come from the manufacturing industry let me tell members. If this Government actually invested some money instead of cutting KiwiSaver and cutting Working for Families if this Government invested some money in this economy in a way that actually stimulated the economy and stimulated skills in the economy—