Robertson Grant: Debate on Budget Policy StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Debate on Budget Policy Statement[Sitting date: 11 March 2015. Volume:703;Page:2133. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): It is quite difficult on this side of the House to take a lecture on prudent economic management from National Party members in a week when they have decided that it is OK to go out and bribe the people of Northland and buy a by-election with tens of millions of dollars for the bridges of Northland. It is like some kind of tragic latter-day Simon and Garfunkel song as Simon Bridges and Steven Joyce wander around Northland with their bridges over a troubled electorate unable to find a way of actually winning the electorate on National’s record and having to go up there and drag out these 10 bridges. This week it is 10 bridges next week it is “Ten guitars” then it is “Ten lords a-leaping”. Who knows where they will end up? We will have a Sky Tower in Kaitāia and we will have some kind of Taj Mahal on the Treaty grounds before we finish. This is what National is about and it is lecturing this side of the House on prudent economic management when this National Government has proved time and time again that it is the short-term political ends that are driving its economic agenda.That is never more obvious than in the debacle that was the overcharging of New Zealanders for ACC. Time and again in this House we have seen National members including the finance Minister Bill English get up and tell us that the ACC levies are being put up only because his Government knows best. Every official piece of advice that the National Government got from ACC from Treasury and from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment said that ACC levies could come down and could come down significantly. Once again the National Government has chosen to prop up its meagre monthly surplus on the back of New Zealand workers and employers paying more than they need to for ACC—$350 million ripped off New Zealand workers and businesses because this Government has decided that it wants to project some kind of made-up surplus. It is time for the National Government to be straight up with New Zealanders about the economy and admit that after 7 years of promising surpluses and of seven Budgets there is still no surplus coming. Although Bill English can crow for 1 month my prediction is that when he stands up here in May he is not going to be able to do that. He will have come with a seventh Budget with no surplus in it.That stands in stark contrast to the record of the Labour Government which delivered surpluses every year—every year that Bill English stood up in this House and said: “Give out tax cuts. Spend that money.” But no the Labour Government stuck with delivering those surpluses and in turn in the last 7 years the National Government has failed to deliver one. Two election cycles seven Budgets and no surplus coming through. It is important to pick up one aspect of David Bennett’s contribution.Dr David Clark: Ha ha!GRANT ROBERTSON: Just one. Everybody on this side of the House recognises the damage wrought by the Canterbury earthquakes—the damage that they did to people in those regions and to those regions. But the reality today is that it is the rebuild from the Canterbury earthquakes that is propping up the New Zealand economy. It is time for the National Government to be straight up with New Zealanders about the fact that it is the Canterbury rebuild that is allowing it to have any kind of economic growth. The National Government cannot continue to rely on the short-term politics of telling New Zealanders that things are getting better when so many of them know that they are not.This Budget Policy Statement is a tale of three things: broken promises hopeless complacency and dodgy meddling. We have got the broken promise around the surplus. It was not just that there might be a surplus; it was John Key telling New Zealanders that there would be a surplus. Why does the surplus matter? It matters because that is the test that the National Government has set itself for its economic credibility. Nobody else did it. It was the National Government that said: “This is the test of whether we are running the economy well.” After 7 years it has failed that test.It is also a tale of broken promises about what is going to happen in this economy. There was an instructive moment in the election campaign: when Bill English was asked for one new idea about what could happen in the economy he could not come up with one. It is complacency. It is a belief that we can go on for ever on the back of commodity prices and recovering from disaster. Well what we have seen with commodity prices is a drop of 17 percent. What we have seen with exports in the face of a promise that exports would lift from 30 percent of GDP to 40 percent of GDP is that they have declined to 26 percent—a broken promise. Just this year we have seen the value of exports drop overall by 9 percent and a 30 percent drop in dairy. This economy needs a Government that is prepared to back those who will grow those export dollars.Where is the diversification strategy in this economy? It is not there. It is a complacency that we will get by—that when we walk past the port in Wellington and we see the raw logs there that it will be OK. The reality is that if our economy is to thrive and if we are to go beyond just Aucklanders selling houses to each other then we need an economy that benefits widely across New Zealand where we add value in the regions and where we grow jobs in the regions. Whatever statistics Mr English might be able to stand up in a minute and throw around the reality of existence in places like Wanganui in places like Gisborne and in places like the far north of New Zealand—the reason why people are laughing at Mark Osborne when he stands up and talks about 8000 extra jobs in Northland—is that life for people in those regions is far far different from that. Those regions in New Zealand are struggling because this Government is complacent. It has broken its promises. And it is also responsible—[Interruption] They do not like it but it is also responsible for the dodgiest meddling in the economy that we have seen in many years. My colleague David Clark will talk about this more in a few minutes.When we look at that Skycity convention centre deal it says everything about what is wrong with this Government because the cronyism and the corporate welfare is what is driving it—the short-term political ends. What is missing is the long-term plan and it is a long-term plan that on this side of the House I am proud to say we are developing right now. That is about a relentless focus on work and on jobs—on decent work that pays decent wages. Nearly half of all New Zealanders missed out on a pay increase last year. Nearly half of all New Zealanders struggled to make ends meet. When we have got an economy that says it is OK for 260000 kids to grow up in poverty that is not an economy to be proud of and that is not the economy that the Labour Party wants to see us work towards.What we have seen in recent times is that an economy in which inequality grows is an economy that slows down. What we have seen in recent times are studies that show us that wages have fallen 16 percent behind where they should be in New Zealand—behind productivity. We have got an economy where a small group of people do well and the vast majority of New Zealanders struggle in their daily lives to make ends meet with housing prices going through the roof and with rents going through the roof. It is not good enough just to sit there complacently and look at the statistics on inflation. Look at the reality. The reality for people in South Auckland whose rents have gone up by 8 and 9 percent in the last year is that they have not seen a pay rise of 8 or 9 percent for a very very long time.The Labour Party is focused on the future of work and on what kinds of decent jobs can be created. There is no room for complacency when studies out of the United States are showing that 47 percent of jobs are at high risk from technology. There is no room for complacency when we know we have to create more sustainable jobs that stop damaging the planet and grow the economy and the environment together. There is no room for complacency when the latest unemployment statistics show a rise in unemployment years after Bill English and John Key declared the recession to be over in New Zealand. And there is no room for complacency when small businesses are being ripped off and overcharged by this Government.On this side of the House we believe that the Budget Policy Statement represents a Government that has broken its promises to New Zealanders that has been complacent about the future of the economy and that has meddled with dodgy deals. It is time for the Budget to focus on how New Zealanders will have decent work opportunities in the future and on how New Zealanders will be able to ensure that future generations grow up where everybody has the same opportunities to succeed not just the fortunate few. On this side of the House our focus will be relentlessly on growing jobs on ensuring there is opportunity for all New Zealanders and on supporting small businesses not ripping them off to the tune of $350 million.