Bennett David: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 26 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3963. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): It gives me great pleasure to rise in this debate and also to follow that last speaker David Clark who came to Hamilton some months ago and tried to debate economic policy in the Hamilton community. He left with robust articles in the paper really just destroying his credibility and showing the inane comments that come from that side of the House. They showed that that member who is supposed to be talking about economic development actually has no idea of what economic development is. Next time he comes to Hamilton he will be driving on those beautiful new highways that we have built he will be visiting those beautiful new schools that we have built and he will be seeing that lovely new hospital that we have built. He will see a university that has gone into Tauranga. He will see broadband being delivered first of all in that city and around the country.Dr David Clark: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I feel like I have entered into a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member will take a seat and now he will apologise for that comment. If he has really got a point of order he will make it.Dr David Clark: I withdraw and apologise.DAVID BENNETT: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and a very good Assistant Speaker we have as well in doing that because that member has got—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! It was not 5 minutes ago when I told the member who raised the point of order that he was not allowed to comment on rulings. It does not matter whether it is a positive or a negative comment—the member is not to comment.DAVID BENNETT: That member came to Hamilton and tried out the Labour economic policy and was resoundingly told where to go just like the Labour Party members are resoundingly told where to go all the time when they come into this House with their economic policy.Dr David Clark: Arrogant out of touch.DAVID BENNETT: They are saying “out of touch”. Well let us have a look at being out of touch. I remember that member’s speech last weekend when we were talking about KiwiSaver. He said: “Let’s give $1000 to everybody who signs up to KiwiSaver.” His exact words were: “The reason to do that is because it will make people feel better.” Those were his exact words. That is the economic policy from somebody on that side. Why do we not just make it $10000 if it will make people feel better? What about those people out there who stand and work for 60 years in hard labour working in hard jobs who will be made to feel better when they sign up but who will actually lose money because the Labour Opposition wants to means test them when they come to get their superannuation and it wants to make sure they do not get their superannuation until they are 70? Go out there and tell somebody working on the farms and in the factories of New Zealand today that when you are 18 we are going to put $1000 into some account to make you feel better but you are going to have to work until you are 70. You are going to have to stay in that job when you have done 50 or 60 years of hard labour in that work. Go and see how that goes down with those people. That is the reality of what you are saying.Look at the statistics around KiwiSaver. The Inland Revenue Department put out a report on Saturday and it showed that 38 percent of people who signed up for KiwiSaver never make another contribution—38 percent of people who sign up for KiwiSaver just take the 1000 bucks because they know it is a gift from the Government. That is the kind of thing we do not need to do as a country. Those are the statistics. Read the report. It also says that two-thirds of the people who should be in KiwiSaver—the bottom income earners—are not in KiwiSaver. The people who are in KiwiSaver are the upper and middle income earners and 38 percent of them are just taking the $1000.That is the great economic policy of the Labour Party—make them feel good make them happy we will give them another $1000. Well that is $500 million you have to find in the next election campaign and that is $500 million that Grant Robertson promised without going through his caucus. That is $500 million that we could spend on vulnerable children and vulnerable families. That is $500 million that we could spend on infrastructure to make sure the people of Hamilton get what they deserve and what they want. They know what they want and they want that infrastructure so they can grow. They want to have that ability to look after the people in their communities who are in the most need. For 43 years—43 years—the Labour Party has been in this House and not delivered for those people.The Labour members will talk about Muldoon. They go back to Muldoon. Well there has been a Labour Government or two between now and Muldoon and they did not do anything in that time. They did not bring in a savings plan.Hon Phil Goff: It’s called KiwiSaver you idiot.DAVID BENNETT: They did not bring it in to the same extent that you were talking about here as a compulsory savings scheme—that is what David Clark was talking about. That was not brought in. There was no compulsory savings scheme. So they can go back to Muldoon but that is not the reality. When they had a chance they did not do anything.Hon Phil Goff: What do you call the Cullen fund? What do you think the Cullen fund was?DAVID BENNETT: There is Mr Goff there now—he is another economic genius. He would know all about these things would he not? He is still trying to work out things about foreign affairs let alone economics so we would like to hear his opinion on this.But 2 weeks ago there was a Budget delivered in Australia. In the country right beside us called the Lucky Country guess what its deficit was? It was A$41.1 billion. Guess what New Zealand’s deficit is? It is NZ$684 million. GDP growth in Australia is under 3 percent; in New Zealand it is over 3 percent—under 3 percent there over 3 percent here. In 2014 we grew faster than the US the UK and Japan. Net migration is positive in New Zealand for the first time. People are staying. People are coming here because they believe in this country they believe in this Government and they believe in what we stand for. The unemployment rate in Australia is over 6 percent; in New Zealand it is under 6 percent. All the economic statistics stack up in our favour—Dr David Clark: What about the latest ones?DAVID BENNETT: —because we have come through the recession we have come through rebuilding Christchurch and we have delivered the best for New Zealanders. That member there will talk about economic policy and he will go back to the Muldoon days. I say to those members—and do not let anybody in New Zealand forget this—that the Labour Government put New Zealand into recession before the rest of the world. Before the global financial crisis even came along the Labour Government had New Zealand in a recession. It had 10 years of huge deficits ahead for this country. It destroyed this country’s economic potential 10 years ago. We have taken 6 years to get it back and it is back now at a stage where it is better than our biggest competitor and our biggest neighbour which typically has done better than us.It is really rich of Labour Party members to come into this House and pretend that they look after people pretend that they want to look after the vulnerable people in our communities and pretend that they actually care about economic growth when they have no interest in that. The Labour Party always has been and always will be about power because that is all Labour stands for. Labour is about the union-dominated power of the workers. That is what the Labour Party’s core fundamental beliefs are. It sees itself as some kind of privileged elite whose members can sit in here and make judgments for other people. It does not believe in giving people the chance to get a good education to have health care and to have the infrastructure to grow. That is what this Budget does. This Budget delivers that for New Zealanders. That is why New Zealanders out there understand this Budget and actually believe in it.I remember when we had the Budget speech. Bill English delivered a very competent speech about the Budget as you would expect and the Labour members’ heads sank. They absolutely sank. They did not want to look up. They were looking at their papers trying to work out what was happening. They were embarrassed for their own party. I give credit to one member of the Labour Party though who was not embarrassed. There was one member on the front bench who actually looked at the Minister of Finance and she smiled. She is here today—Nanaia. She knew every one of those policies were good policies for her people for the people of Waikato and for the people of New Zealand. I did not see her head go down. She was smiling nodding and saying: “Yes this is good stuff—this is the stuff we should have done 9 years ago. This is the stuff we should have done 12 years ago.” She knew that it was good. And then the Labour leader stood up. He was stunned. He was a stunned mullet. He had no idea what was going on. Then the Prime Minister stood up and absolutely carved him up—destroyed him shredded him to pieces.That was the story of Budget day 2015. What a great Budget day that was. So New Zealanders will not forget that. They will not forget that this is a Government that has delivered to all New Zealanders. It has delivered not just to the ideological elite that the Labour Party preaches to—it actually has delivered to not just one core set of voters—it has delivered to all New Zealanders as it should and as it needs to do to keep people engaged and progressing in this country. I ask you members of the community and members of this House to remember that. We are not going out there making fickle promises about spending $1000 just to make you feel good. We are not going out there and attacking your superannuation after all those years of hard work that you have put in. We are not going out there and doing silly policy things on the hoof like the Labour Party did this weekend. The Labour Party will not retract those policies. It has had 2 days to say that it made a mistake. It will not. We know that going into the next election this is what it will do.Jacinda Ardern: What policies? You’re making things up.DAVID BENNETT: And then we have got Jacinda Ardern there. I tell you what Jacinda I remember that great policy of capital gains tax that you had at the last election. Then the Labour Party retracted it—the Opposition members and their leader said there would be no capital gains tax under Andrew Little. They said there would be no capital gains tax under Labour. Then we brought in a tax on people selling properties within 2 years and the Labour Party cannot do anything because it has said no to that policy. It has said no to that policy because it does not want to have any taxes. That is the Labour Party that will say one thing do another and does not actually deliver for New Zealanders. This is a great Budget.