Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Mr Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to take a call in this Budget debate. You have to ask the question: who was this Budget written for? It seems like it was written for Australia and written for Brisbane rather than written for New Zealand because that is what many many New Zealanders will be doing after looking at this Budget. This is not a Budget which will help keep New Zealanders here. This is not a Budget which gives tax cuts and tax relief to hard-working middle-income earners like the ones that I represent in the Pakuranga electorate. This is a Budget for people moving to Brisbane and that is unfortunate because unfortunately this Government has lost sight of what their job is to do and that is that their job is to serve New Zealanders to make sure that they are able to get ahead and not to go backwards. Unfortunately this Government is growing the size of its bureaucracy and spending money in all the wrong areas rather than focusing on what they need to do.I was expecting this Government was going to provide some tax relief. For the last six years New Zealanders have seen a Government which increases taxes which spends like there's no tomorrow which wastes money like it grows on trees and now we see the Government is wanting to spend more—$7 billion more of expenditure yet they couldn't find some money to provide tax relief for hard-working New Zealanders who deserve that tax relief.Todd Muller: Tip it into the potholes.SIMEON BROWN: That's right they tip it into the potholes with 54000 potholes—a record number of potholes they had to fill last year. This is a Government which has failed when it comes to transport.I just want to give a few numbers when it comes to transport in this Budget. You would've thought after last year's record number of potholes on our highways that they would've increased the amount of money being spent on road maintenance but no the amount spent on State highway maintenance is going to go down from $660 million to $496 million. That's gone backwards and the amount for local road maintenance: down from $744 million to $429 million a more than 40 percent reduction in local road maintenance. This is a Government which wants more potholes which doesn't care about the State highways which move our goods around our country which doesn't care about people who drive on our roads who have noticed that the roads are in the worst state ever.But what has this Government got money for in this Budget: $131 million for some land acquisition for Auckland light rail—Auckland light fail" which still hasn't even left the consultants' train station. It's now spending $131 million on some land acquisition on top of $250 million for vehicle kilometre reduction plans because "We want you to get out of your car; at the same time we don't build new public transport. We spend six years talking about light rail in Auckland six years talking about Let's Get Wellington Moving"—which sounds more like "Let's Get Wellington Consulting" not that they needed more consultants in Wellington—"and at the same time spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to force you out of your car." This is an ideological Government which hates the fact that people choose how they drive around this country and wants to waste our transport money in all of the wrong areas when New Zealanders are saying "Get back to basics." It was meant to be a no-frills Budget. Well there's money for Africa when it comes to what this Government's own ideological pet projects are but there's no money for getting the basics done right and doing that job properly.A National Government will make sure the National Land Transport Fund is focused on doing its core job of building and maintaining the roading network. That is what New Zealanders pay their petrol taxes and road-user charges for. This Government sees it as a slush fund to spray that money around for its own ideological purposes.But what's more is it's quite scary what Treasury said about the transport fund in New Zealand. It's now listed the National Land Transport Fund as a fiscal risk. There are 11 fiscal risks when it comes to transport in New Zealand greater than any other area in terms of what Treasury has highlighted for fiscal risks. Transport is the top of that pile and it's across the transport sector we are now seeing fiscal risks. The Inter-island Resilient Connection Project is a fiscal risk. The National Land Transport Fund is a fiscal risk. Transport local government's share is a fiscal risk. Auckland light rail is a fiscal risk. Let's Get Wellington Moving is a fiscal risk. This Government has destroyed transportation policy in New Zealand. National will get it back on track."