Dunne Peter: Budget Statement — Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDunne Peter: Budget Statement — Budget Debate[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10049. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future): This afternoon I sat through the 30th Budget that it has been my privilege to hear presented in this House. There has been a range of Budgets over the years. I think that in terms of my involvement there are two Budgets that stand out. The first was the 2006 Budget delivered by the Hon Dr Michael Cullen. That stands out because it introduced the concept of KiwiSaver the long-term national savings scheme and in many senses it put an end to what had been three very ugly decades of debate on the superannuation issue.The second Budget that stands out is the Budget presented earlier this afternoon by the current Minister of Finance for an entirely different set of reasons. Unlike Sir Roger Douglas’ “great rescue Budget” of 1984 which had to deal with the excesses ofMuldoonism—in other words the internally generated problems in having the most regulated economy at that time outside the communist world—today’s Budget deals with positioning New Zealand for the future in the context of an international situation that has been far from certain in recent years.We have been through as the Minister of Finance pointed out in his speech the greatest international economic crisis since the Great Depression. If that is not bad enough if that is not something any of us have any direct experience of previously add to that the greatest natural disaster the country has ever seen and in terms of cost one of the greatest natural disasters the world has ever seen in the form of the Christchurch earthquakes and the Government’s problems compound dramatically. But it does not stop there. We have just been through a summer of enormous drought which is expected to make a significant impact on GDP and on our economy.So when you put all those factors together I think it is a remarkable achievement that today in the Budget we see the Minister of Finance project with confidence a return to a Budget surplus of modest proportions in the next financial year but considerably stronger in the out-years from there. When one bears in mind all of those upheavals and the fact that that process of change is occurring in just 5 years that is a remarkable transformation for this economy.For those who say that we have not seen the benefits I think that part of the problem in a funny sort of way is that we never got to the pits of despair. We never saw the depth of recession in New Zealand that we are seeing in France at the moment that we have seen in Cyprus and that we have seen right through Europe. We never got to the depths of despair that we are now starting to see even in Australia where earlier this week a strong projected Budget surplus has suddenly amounted in election year to a massive Government deficit.New Zealanders through prudent management over the last 5 years have been insulated from the worst of those economic impacts. Although unemployment has moved upwards and is still unacceptably high it is about half what it was projected to be and it is about a third of what it is in most other countries of our type the world over. We are still none the less now well-positioned for the challenges that lie ahead. I think they contain some opportunities and some risks.Let me deal with the risks first. We heard in the speech of the Leader of the Opposition this afternoon—one of the weakest Opposition leader’s speeches I have heard in recent times I might say but be that as it may—what was essentially an ideological prescription such as it was for the nation’s cures such as higher taxes picking on certain groups of the population and setting them against each other; the politics of envy returning. And I have to say with the greatest of respect to my colleague to my left that there were overtones from a different perspective of an ideological approach in his remarks just a few moments ago.The reality is that we actually live in a post-ideological age and there needs to be a level of pragmatism and studied care in terms of the management of economies and the transitions out of the situations we have seen New Zealand in in recent years and moving forward. There are some lessons to be learnt which I think the Government is learning and I acknowledge the work of the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery and the Minister of Finance in particular in terms of what is going on in Christchurch. When those events occurred the rule book went out the window in terms of how you recover and how you restore—in that case—a regional economy. There was no guiding set of principles. There was no ready reckoner or reference book to go to. The Government had to act pragmatically as the circumstances dictated. A lot ofthings happened that were completely foreign to the way in which public services were delivered previously.The challenge now as we move forward is to capture those good innovations and use them in terms of the way in which we manage the public sector of the New Zealand economy as a whole. It is not about that old competition for resources as much; it is about the smarter use of the resources that are available. I think one of the themes in this Budget is very strongly about the smarter and better use of available resources rather than that constant David Copperfield - like clamour for more and more and more.The next thing I want to say in respect of that change is that the initiatives announced this afternoon with regard to housing are I think a superb example of that approach at work. We all know and have known for too long that the proud State housing system which is really part of the New Zealand national tapestry is creaking. We have people who are trapped in those houses people who cannot get access to State accommodation when they need it and this peculiar notion which has been allowed to build up that the houses that people were occupying were effectively theirs for life even when their circumstances had moved on.The changes that this Budget foreshadows will make it easier for people to transition to different types of accommodation more suited to their needs at particular points in their lives and also make it easier then for the people who might need the three and four-bedroom homes at an earlier stage to have access to them. I acknowledge the work the Minister of Housing has done in this sense. I think it is smart and I think it is innovative. I think it is working within the system to achieve positive gains a better use of the assets better rewards for the people whom we serve and fundamentally a more pragmatic approach overall—equally so with the decisions that we will make a little later in this sitting with regard to the housing permits concept where again with a problem that we all know successive Governments have struggled with this Government is achieving cut-through.So when you look at the Budget you can play the traditional political game if you like and sort of do the unders and overs and say that it is not fair or this sector has not gained as much as that one. But I think those days are past. I think what people look at now—whether it be the public sector the non-government sector or the private sector—is who is best placed to deliver services to deliver the things that people want and how we work with them to facilitate those opportunities.For example in the health sector—and I will give the House two examples with which I am directly involved—we launched a new mental health plan at the end of last year. For the first time we will be actively engaging with the 300-odd NGOs in the mental health sector to make sure that they can be part of the solution not constantly left to one side as advocates for something better. Shortly we will announce a new suicide prevention action plan and again that same principle will apply. It is not about a clamour for more resources. It is about saying: “How can we much more smartly and intelligently use what we have to advantage to serve the people well?”.Hon Member: Are you all right?Hon PETER DUNNE: I almost seem I should be in need of the health system but it is that time of year. Can I simply conclude by saying that this is a pragmatic sensible well-shaped Budget—one that is adequate for the times.