Dunne Peter: Budget Statement — Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDunne Peter: Budget Statement — Budget Debate[Sitting date: 15 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17929. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future): One of the principles on which United Future was founded was to promote a better deal for New Zealand families and that is exactly what we see in this Budget coming after many years of challenge as the country confronted and then overcame the obstacles posed by the global financial crisis. We do not realise the extent to which that crisis impacted around the world on the standard of living of various populations. And it is true to now observe and even contrast with our near neighbour Australia the impact on this country which has been far less because of the good stewardship over the last 6 years of the current Minister of Finance. Today in a Budget that brings in a small but significant surplus and forecasts more to come the pathway is laid for a long-awaited dividend to be paid to New Zealand families.I am particularly pleased about a number of aspects of the Budget especially the increase from 6 to 13-years-old for free doctors’ visits and free prescriptions. We know according to all of the evidence available that our most vulnerable people are our young people our very young people. Anything that we can do to enhance their access to health services when they need them and to make it easier for their parents to take them there day or night to get that care has to be important and I applaud the decision to extend free medical care up to the age of 13 for those children. I hope that we see a significant uptake of that policy and I look forward down the track to improved health status occurring as a result.Similarly the $156 million more invested in early childhood education is a significant step forward and recognises the reality that many children today—indeed most children—will be in some form of early childhood education. That is consistent with the Government’s long-term commitment of moving to around 98 percent of children in early childhood education by about the year 2020. So they are good moves. So too is the extension to paid parental leave. We know the arguments. We have had them back and forward across this Chamber for a long time. The opportunity for parents to bond with their new children in those early months is critical to their future development. In just the same way as access to good health care through the medical system is important so too the time that a parent is able to spend at home with a new child is important as well and the extension announced in the Budget is a positive step forward in that regard. As an ideal United Future would like to see us move over time to 52 weeks’ paid parental leave because that is the ultimate opportunity to provide a good start for our children and a good positive future for them to embark upon.If you look at a number of other moves in the Budget you see that they are all progressive and they are all about building a pathway down which the country can advance for the future. I welcome for instance the additional transport investments. Transport infrastructure is a huge issue not just for our major cities but for many of our families in getting about and doing the jobs that mums and dads do with kids day in day out and out of school on weekends. So having good networks and having good ways of getting around our major cities is an important part of strengthening the role and importance of families in the New Zealand framework. I applaud the Minister for what he has been able to achieve in that regard. In the Wellington area we have our own range of projects we look forward to proceeding with very soon and I am sure the Minister knows exactly to what I am referring.There are some issues though for the future that do need to be addressed. There has been the veiled hint around this week’s Budget announcements that tax cuts for the future are now a possibility and I applaud that. I think there is huge scope for a number of significant changes to the tax arrangements for New Zealand families. I would like tosee a top tax rate for top income earners of 30c in the dollar. I would like to see a middle income tax rate of 20c in the dollar and a low income tax rate of 10c in the dollar—a progressive 10c 20c and 30c rate. The threshold points can be developed as we look at income rates over time but setting that goal I think is a very important part of not just giving a dividend to New Zealand families but also pitching us very competitively with other nations particularly our neighbour across the Tasman. It would give us a huge advantage in that respect.I also think that in the context of family income and family support—and this argument has been had a little earlier in the year—there is merit in picking up again the United Future bill regarding income sharing which still sits on the Order Paper of this House. When the Labour Party earlier this year with its Best Start policy proposed assisting families with a household income of up to $150000 a year and then introduced a raft of exclusions that meant most families would not qualify it reminded me that income sharing which has its benefit of assisting families earning up to $140000 per year as a household is a much simpler and more straightforward way to go. It is a fairer way of recognising the equal contribution that both parents make to raising their children and I think that is an idea whose time has now come and ought to be pursued more fully. I look forward to that being part of the tax debate that we will have inevitably as a result of the good economic conditions being foreshadowed by this Budget.At the other end of the scale my colleague from Epsom referred earlier to the issue of retirement. I take a different view. It is important though that we do have an ongoing discussion and debate about the way in which we support people who are in their retirement picking up their pension income. United Future will continue to promote its Flexi Super policy where the basic age of entitlement for New Zealand superannuation will remain at 65 but people will have a choice of a lesser rate from the age of 60 or a higher rate if they defer to the age of 70. We would supplement that by making KiwiSaver a compulsory savings scheme. So what you would have in the future moving forward is most people—and the figure in the Budget today was 80-odd percent—in a KiwiSaver scheme guaranteed a payment from KiwiSaver at the age of 65; the possibility if they choose to do so of picking up their New Zealand superannuation at 65; but also having the capacity to bridge that if you like by going earlier at a lesser rate and therefore having a dignified retirement income platform.That is a popular policy. What it does is recognise that the choice of retirement income rests not with the State to determine the age of eligibility but with the individual to make that choice for themselves. What the Labour Party and those who argue for a higher rate are effectively doing is telling working people that they have to work longer to get their pension. What they are doing is telling people that they have to work longer to get the pension to which they say they are entitled. Flexi Super actually puts the choice into the individual’s hands about how they make their retirement plans and that is a good thing that most New Zealanders support and that we want to see progressed.I spoke yesterday in the general debate about some changes that could be made in the longer term in the tertiary education area particularly in terms of encouraging entrants from families where previously there has not been a history of tertiary education but also looking to whether we can deal with the issue that we now have about significant tertiary education costs through fees. I think there are some other things that we should look at in the future as well in terms of our conservation management. I am particularly keen to see us establish a national planting programme along the riparian strips of flowing waterways in order to prevent erosion to help clean up those waterways and to get us back to a swimming standard for most of our rivers. I alsothink that there is scope for establishing a national pilot programme for hunting and trapping for possums for fur purposes as part of our national pest control strategy.The key point about all of these things is that we have to earn the income to pay for our dreams. What today’s Budget returning to surplus is all about is demonstrating in an ongoing way this country’s capacity now to earn its income and to pay its way. That then in turn creates the leeway to give opportunity for some of our dreams to be implemented. The contest of ideas in the future will not be around this degree of pessimism versus that degree of pessimism. It will be about optimism and hope for the future. The pathway and the platform that the Minister has laid in this Budget means we can constructively and positively look to the best options for our families in terms of New Zealand moving forward.United Future will campaign this election on the points that I have outlined in this address this afternoon. We look forward to engaging with the public of New Zealand and with other political parties around those ideas and we look forward to being in a position to advance them when this Parliament reconvenes given the platform laid in this very laudable Budget this afternoon.