Salesa Jenny: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSalesa Jenny: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 26 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:4007. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JENNY SALESA (Labour—Manukau East): Malo soifua talofa lava. The National Government has repeatedly stated that it is improving the economy. The Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister claim that Budget 2015 delivers to those who are in hardship but the people of Manukau East along with many other ordinary hard-working Kiwis are falling further behind. Their ability to live with dignity to support their families well and to see their children flourish is being affected negatively by this Government’s failure to deliver on its promises.The curtain has dramatically been drawn back and this Government’s Budget reveals only that there is hardly anything there for ordinary hard-working Kiwi families. For hard-working families the cupboard is bare. The Budget surplus that was promised by this Government is not there. The promise of a 150000 increase in the number of jobs and higher wages has not been reached. The promise of no new taxes has been broken—we now have three sneaky new taxes. The promise of more affordable houses has been broken and hard-working New Zealanders are losing their KiwiSaver kick-start incentive to save for their future. This has been a Budget of broken promises and there is not even anything in this Budget for the high and ever-increasing rents for families.Aotearoa New Zealand’s poor vulnerable children do not choose the parents whom they have. They do not choose their country or the neighbourhood they are born into and they do not choose their race or their religion. In fact if they had been born into another OECD country they would probably be less likely to be born into poverty. Having so many thousands of children—over 250000 kids—grow up in poverty is really expensive for all of us as taxpayers. Child poverty is really expensive in the long runfor us all and it is an issue we should address in a comprehensive and planned way. The lost productivity extra health costs and law and order costs—to name but a few—add up to millions and millions of dollars per year. For far too long the Government has allowed the level of child poverty to remain really high. The reason or justification if any is given at all is often that action to address child poverty is too expensive. But inaction as done by Budget 2015—with a few tweaks here and there and a fiddle at the margins—completely misses the other side of the equation which is the fact that the cost to all of us in society is much too expensive. Inaction and a lack of comprehensive action to address child poverty has its costs.Good things better outcomes in life are worth paying for. I believe that having food shelter—a house—and investment in early childhood education in order to get kids ready for school and education in an equitable and fair way are things that all children should have. This is something that should be of a higher priority instead of corporate welfare and tax breaks. Why is it that National can afford tax breaks of over $3 billion since it has been in Government thus far and it is already promising tax cuts for 2017 even though it cannot even balance the books right now? Why is it that the Government is wasting $26 million on a flag referendum that most New Zealanders say is a waste of money and yet in the same breath it is saying that we cannot afford to make sure that every child is fed and every child is housed or to invest in a comprehensive way in our children who are the future of our country?A key driver of child poverty is the public policies that we have. We will know when the Government is actually addressing child poverty because when it does we will actually see that it will apply principles of inclusivity and it will have principles of non-discrimination which will help protect our children from poverty as equally well as they protect our elders from poverty. Child poverty matters to the Labour Party. Child poverty matters to me as a mother and it matters to my electorate and to the rest of New Zealand. Our children deserve to be treated fairly and they deserve to be given equal opportunities.A responsible Government would be a Government that actually has a plan—a plan to competently address the long-term challenges that New Zealand faces a plan to lay the foundations for a sustainable and healthy future and a plan that would grow incomes and invest in a productive and diverse economy. This Budget has been long on promises and short on solutions. It is a Budget that contains nothing significant for diversifying the economy or for supporting our manufacturers and our exporters or for developing the skills that our workers will need in the new economy. Growth has now passed its peak and it is expected to halve by 2019 and not reaching surplus at the peak of the economic cycle is a huge failure by this Government. It makes a mockery of National members’ claim that they are good economic managers.Our Prime Minister John Key in his open letter to New Zealanders after the election promised: “Over the next two years we expect to see about 150000 jobs created.” The National Government will fall short on this promise by 60000 jobs and it has pushed the date of delivery back a few more years—yet another broken promise. Also in John Key’s open letter to New Zealanders after the election he promised: “Over the next three years we expect the average wage to move from $55000 to $62000 …”. The Budget shows that the Government will fall short by $3000 on its wages promise. In fact we are unlikely to even get to the promised wage level until 2019—in another 4 years.Manukau East in South Auckland which is the wonderful electorate that I represent is a young electorate. The median age in Manukau East is 29 years. The national median age is 37 years and one-third of the people living in Manukau East are under the age of 20. Many are on low and limited incomes. In order to get ahead and to contribute to the future of New Zealand they need properly funded education correctly targeted skills training jobs to go to that pay decent wages and the ability to save for the future.New Zealand used to be the land that led the world with the lowest unemployment rates in the OECD. This was under Helen Clark and the last Labour-led Government. Today we rank 13th and the general situation in my electorate is compounded by it having one the highest unemployment rates in the country. This Budget will not fix that. The Government is failing to act on jobs and wages for ordinary everyday New Zealanders.We have heard the other side trumpeting the fact that for people on a benefit who have children receiving $25 extra a week will make a huge difference. Well it will make some difference but I would not call it a huge difference. Although an increase in benefit levels for those with children is good news those who are working with children and families and who have Working for Families will receive only $12 per week. This makes working families relatively worse off than when this Budget was announced. For families the Government will claw back this $25 through reduced accommodation supplements. The Budget offers no firm pathway out of poverty and the $25 a week cannot—it cannot—fix 7 years of neglect and the mismanagement of our economy.Cutting the $1000 KiwiSaver kick-start initiative demonstrates the absolutely short-term thinking that is typical of this National Government and this Budget. This cut will detrimentally penalise our young people who are going to be less able to get ahead and to save for their future. In 2011 the Prime Minister promised to retain the $1000 kick-start for new KiwiSaver members as it was at the time. The Government has now cut it entirely—yet another broken promise. Now around 500000 people mainly young people and children will miss out as a result of this cut.This Government is wandering aimlessly with absolutely no long-term plans for our economic future. It has failed to deliver a Budget surplus for 7 years now. We pay millions per day in interest because the Government cannot get the books into balance or deliver a Budget surplus and it is continuing to fail to meet the needs of New Zealand families. The Government’s latest Budget might be clever in a political sense as it has robbed Peter to pay Paul but having a collection of short-term jabs and a few high-profile targets does not a comprehensive strategy for the future make. Thank you.