Collins Judith: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCollins Judith: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 22 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18259. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Justice): What a fantastic Budget we have had. What a fantastic Budget.Grant Robertson: How would you know? You weren’t here. You were on leave.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: I loved being here last Thursday to be here for the Budget but Mr Robertson missed me so much he was dreaming about me. But it is all right I was here.Grant Robertson: It was a nightmare.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: He says it was a nightmare because he is worried that I will come for him one day. Having said that it might just happen.When this Government was elected in 2008 we picked up a mess that Labour left us—Labour and its leftist friends. They left us a 50 percent increase in Government spending in their last 5 years high interest rates nearing 11 percent—Jami-Lee Ross: How much?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: It was 11 percent Mr Ross—11 percent. The cost of living increase was over 5 percent inflation of 5 percent an export sector going backwards and a country in recession for the last 4 years. I should also note that it was a country where crime was getting out of control. We had about 70 murders in 1 year as opposed to the usual 45. It was a country where people did not respect the Government and they were desperate to get rid of it and they did and they gave us the honour of being able to be their Government.This Budget is the Budget that brought us back into surplus. We inherited a recession that had been in place for a whole year before we came into Government. It was a recession that had been in place for a year before the rest of the developed world went into recession. It was a recession where New Zealand led the world into recession under a Labour Government—a Labour Government. The only thing I would say is thank goodness it was not the Greens-Labor Government of Tasmania because there would have been a recession 5 years before everyone else. We inherited a decade of deficits—a decade of deficits. We were told—all the forecasts said—that this country would have deficits for 10 years. Actually this year we are out of recession. We are out of deficit.Hon Annette King: And you increased GST put taxes up—put taxes down for the wealthy and up for the poor.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: We have also been able to produce a lot more than that because balancing a Budget is not just about saving money or spending money Mrs King. A balanced Budget means actually producing better for our New Zealanders.In my own justice portfolio I have to say that working with the justice sector Ministers Chester Borrows and Anne Tolley and the Attorney-General we have had the most wonderful time working together to make sure we bring the crime rate down. The crime rate in New Zealand per 100000 New Zealanders is now the lowest it has been in 35 years—that is since 1978. Some of us can just remember 1978 unlike Ms Ardern who was still a twinkle in her daddy’s eye. In that time what we have been able to do with the work of the marvellous New Zealand Police the Department of Corrections the Ministry of Justice and the courts is bring that crime rate down and retain that. The last 4 years of the National-led Government have led to a 20 percent cut in crime a massive decrease—a massive decrease.Andrew Little: No it hasn’t.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Mr Little does not like that but I am sorry that is true.In addition let us look at ACC. My colleague the Hon Nick Smith inherited an utter mess from Maryan Street. What a useless Minister for ACC she was. She was only slightly better than the other useless Minister the Hon Ruth Dyson. Having said that we had to deal with the levies and in fact this year and for the last few years we have been able to drop the levy rates. We are now in the position of being able to tell Kiwis that after a decade of Labour running down ACC and removing any confidence in the system we have been able to retain it. We are able to say that actually ACC is now one of the most competitive services in the world compared with anything even remotely comparable with that. What we have been able to do is say that we can deliver sustained levy cuts. There is no point delivering a cut one year and then putting the levy up the next year—absolutely hopeless.In this Budget we have also been able to say something for transport. I want to deal with transport for this reason. This Government is delivering $200 million for the southern corridor. For those of you who are not intently interested in the southerncorridor like I am that is the southern motorway. So that is really from Hill Road in my electorate down through to Drury in my electorate. I have to say it is a marvellous thing that we will be widening that southern motorway. That will save people so much in terms of money and time. It will save the environment. It will save so much in terms of productivity. That will be one of the biggest differences for people in the southern region of Auckland and also for those travelling from Hamilton—those who have to use that area. That is one of the biggest things that I am most proud of in this Budget.I am not quite as proud of that as I am of what the Hon Tony Ryall has been able to produce in health I have to say particularly the free general practitioner visits and free prescriptions for all children under 13. In my opinion that is the standout result of this Budget. It is a fantastic result for New Zealand families all over the country. I know that in my electorate of Papakura people are so excited by that so thank you Tony Ryall.What we have been able to do is to do much better than just spending money. Where we have been able to we have used the money more efficiently. We have also been able to ask professionals who are involved in these areas how they would spend the money. They have come up with all sorts of ideas. If you look at the rheumatic fever work that Tony Ryall has done that is the sort of thing where—in many parts of my electorate there are decile 1 2 and 3 schools; not all of them but many of them. One of the things that teachers say to me is making a huge difference for children is the fact that this Government has put social workers in all of those low-decile schools. That is the sort of thing that I think this Government can be immensely proud of. We have not been able to do it just by ourselves. We work with our support parties: the Māori Party United Future and the ACT Party. I would like to acknowledge the help they have given us to be able to bring this about.Unfortunately when I look at some of what has happened over the last few years I would ask what it is that the Opposition has in fact supported. Well actually not a lot. Did it in fact support any savings that this Government could make to get the country back into surplus in any of the previous five Budgets? The answer is no not one. Did Labour for instance support the welfare reform that has seen so many New Zealanders get themselves back into work and get a sense of actual independence? No is the answer. Did Labour ever support tax changes to reduce tax rates paid by every single New Zealander across this country? The answer is no. Did Labour support 90-day probationary periods which were so good for small businesses to get people some confidence to get back into work and for small-business owners to have the confidence to give people a chance to give people an opportunity? The answer is no it did not care.Did Labour support Resource Management Act reforms so that people can build their houses faster and support the growth of businesses? Well the answer is no. Did Labour support housing accords so that we could have special housing areas? They are in my electorate by the way as well—three of them now in my electorate of Papakura. Well the answer is no. Did Labour support the making of theHobbit movies in New Zealand so that 5000 jobs could be created here? No. That party’s members are the Hobbit-haters. The only party members even worse than them in their record of not supporting the Government’s moves are the wilted and bitter Greens.