Bennett David: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 20 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18122. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): This is a good Budget. It is a great Budget for New Zealand and it is a Budget that New Zealanders can be very proud of. I think that we need to acknowledge the Hon Bill English and the work he has done in making this Budget work all New Zealanders who have gone out there and sacrificed over the last few years to make sure that we were on the right economic track and the Prime Minister for delivering the management and vision to see this Budget become a reality. When we look at the Opposition there it is a very very sad state of affairs. That last speaker Phil Goff spoke about immigration. I remind that member of what David Parker said onQ+A this weekend on TV. He said that over 40000 people coming into New Zealand is wrong. He said that a positive 40000 people immigrating into New Zealand is wrong in Labour’s eyes.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Go campaign on that in South Auckland.DAVID BENNETT: Go out there into any city in New Zealand and any town and campaign on that. Labour is telling New Zealanders who have come here recently—the 1 million people who have become New Zealanders over their lifetime—that they are not welcome. That is what Labour is saying.Denis O’Rourke: That’s a misrepresentation. Nobody ever said that.DAVID BENNETT: That is what New Zealand First is saying as well. It is not a misrepresentation because how do you get to have those people come into New Zealand—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! The member interjecting cannot use the phrase “Tell the truth.” It is out of order. There is Speaker’s ruling 42/3. I ask the member not to use that phrase in the future.Jami-Lee Ross: Tell the truth about your boyfriend.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! I have just ruled that that phrase is out of order and I will not have it again.Denis O’Rourke: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I take offence at that comment and would ask that the member be required to withdraw and apologise.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): The member has taken offence. I ask that the member withdraws.Jami-Lee Ross: I withdraw and apologise.DAVID BENNETT: To all those New Zealanders out there who have come into this country recently to all those generations before who were migrants and to all those people who see New Zealand as their future and their home I say that they should remember that Labour is going to have a cap on immigration. Labour will cap immigration. If that is the case then that will be a disaster for New Zealand going forward. All those people are New Zealanders—they may not have been born here but they have made New Zealand their home. They have a future in this country but Labour believes that they are not welcome here. That is the Labour Party of new. That is the Labour Party that has sold out to New Zealand First. That is not what this country stands for. That is not what the people of New Zealand want.We want a free open and tidy society in which people can come and make their future in this country. We want a country where people who are educated can see the future of this beautiful successful country as a place they want to be. We want to encourage those people to come here. I look around this House and I see many people who were not born in New Zealand. Would they be here under Labour policy? No. They would not get into New Zealand under Labour policy. That is the reality of what Labour is talking about.Hon Ruth Dyson: How is this in the Budget?DAVID BENNETT: Stick to the Budget. That is what David Parker talked about onQ+A. So it would be quite good if Ms Dyson actually read what her spokesman said. But you want to stick to some of the facts OK? In 2008 New Zealand was in recession. Now we have got growth at 4 percent. Under Labour mortgage interest rates were 10.9 percent; now they are 6 percent. Food prices were up 10.9 percent under Labour in its last year; now they are up 1.5 percent. House prices were up 96 percent over the 9 years of Labour. Let us say that again. House prices were up 96 percent in the last 9 years of Labour. They are up 28 percent under National. When we look at this debate here Opposition members have talked about housing housing and housing. That has been their focus of debate. Well I say to New Zealanders to look out there and look at the facts. Under Labour house prices went up 96 percent—you did not see Labour members say that once in their speeches today did you? House prices have gone up only 28 percent under the National Government.When we go back to those interest rates—let us look at them again. Mortgage interest rates under Labour were 10.9 percent; now they are 6 percent. To all those people who own homes or intend to buy homes or want to be homeowners in the future I say they should remember that the biggest issue you will face as homeowners will be interest rates. Interest rates under Labour—10 percent. Under National—6 percent. For new homeowners the biggest issue they will face is whether they can pay the interest on their debt. That is the point of difference between the two parties. This Budget is a Budget that delivers a surplus. By delivering a surplus we have reinforced interest rates that are as low as possible in the New Zealand economy.The other option was to have a borrow-and-spend Labour - New Zealand First Budget which would have put interest rates back up to that 10 percent. That is what would have happened under an Opposition Budget. Under this Budget New Zealanders get interest rates of 6 percent. Electricity prices were up 72 percent under Labour but they are up 20 percent under National. The current account deficit was at 7.9 percent under Labour but it is now 3.4 percent. And 3000 New Zealanders a month were leaving this great country under a Labour Government but they are all coming back now because they see the future in this country.This is a good Budget for New Zealand. This is a Budget that delivers the economic credibility that New Zealanders have been looking for. It delivers a surplus in the most trying of economic times. It delivers the rebuild to Christchurch. It delivers the infrastructure to Auckland. It delivers the future for all New Zealanders here and for those yet to become New Zealanders. It is a progressive forward-looking Budget from a Government that is looking to the future.When I look at my great city of Hamilton we do well out of this Budget. We get new schools for the north of my electorate. When Labour was in Government it came and looked at bits of land and said “That would be a great place for a school.” but never actually promised anything or did anything. Under National we have rebuilt that hospital. Under National we have made the roads of national significance a reality and the Waikato Expressway a reality. Julie Anne Genter and the Green Party and the Labour Party will not support that road going past this election and that is something the residents of Hamilton are very much aware of.In this Budget there was spending on the southern motorway in Auckland. Every dollar spent on Auckland infrastructure is good for Hamilton. Every dollar spent up there is good for us because we get 10 percent of the growth out of Auckland. So as Auckland goes to 2 million people Hamilton will overtake many of the other cities of New Zealand and become one of the biggest cities in this country moving from fourth-biggest. And I say that one day we will be taking on Wellington for that third-placed position. That is the reality of a forward-looking future country. Auckland Hamilton Tauranga—that golden triangle will be part of what is a modern Pacific Rim world. It is a multicultural world that has an ambitious future and a future that will track towards success growth and development. It is not a future based on the Opposition trying to take it apart as it looks across the table at other people in envy and hatred. It is a positive future a positive Budget that delivers surpluses so that New Zealand can repay its debt so that New Zealand can go forward and actually start handing out to its people the services that they demand—the services like the free medical care to under-13-year-olds. That is what people wanted to hear and that is what they are getting.This is a good Budget. It delivers a surplus and it delivers a vision for New Zealand that is strong and prosperous and forward-thinking. It is a Budget that the people of Hamilton like. It is a Budget that the people of New Zealand will like too. Thank you.