Tizard Judith: Budget Debate 
Tizard Judith: Budget Debate 
[Volume:626;Page:21093] 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD (Minister of Consumer Affairs) 
: 
 It is my great pleasure to support this Budget just as I have supported the last 6 years of a responsible Labour Government that has worked for New Zealand—for all children for all New Zealand families and for all New Zealand communities—so that we have the building blocks we need to made a great future for every New Zealander. This is the only Government that has understood that every New Zealander is vital not just to this country’s present but also to its future. We must invest. We must invest in children in health in education and in research and development. We must develop all our capacities so that New Zealanders can go forward together. 
What do we hear from the other side of the House? We hear that Opposition members would cut taxes and increase spending on health education and biodiversity. I was very encouraged when Shane Ardern told us that the National Party wanted to increase biosecurity funding. So what does he say to Don Brash who said that we should have covered up the hoax when we were threatened with foot-and-mouth disease? That was what the National Party’s response was. It was not better investment in biosecurity but to lie cheat and lose the trust of our trading partners and of our producers. That is a scandal. I would almost say that that response is treason when it is in an area that is as important as New Zealand’s biosecurity. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member has just accused the Leader of the Opposition of lying and cheating and she then went on to say that it is a matter of treason. I find that completely unacceptable and I ask that she withdraw and apologise for those comments. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: Come on stumpy! 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I thank the member for his contribution. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I am already on a point of order. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: While I was speaking and you were answering my query the member opposite interjected while you were making your ruling. [ 
Interruption 
] 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: No that only makes the matter worse. Can I say that I thought the member was skating on thin ice and we have to be careful of course of the words we use in any debates. What was being said was close to an imputation and members cannot get around rules against unparliamentary language by circumlocution. So I would ask the member to withdraw and continue her speech. 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: I withdraw. National Party members cannot hide from what they have said. They cannot hide from the fact that they are proposing to put New Zealand into a diabolical position where they would borrow for their own political advantage. Indeed tonight I have just come past a certain restaurant in Wellington where I had been to a meeting up the road and I saw Rodney Hide waltzing in arm in arm with Katherine Rich. Now sometimes we have to make some awful compromises in politics but I say that if that is as far as the National Party is prepared to go I think we should just dismiss all of its ludicrous irresponsible and damaging statements about this Budget and what the National Party is proposing to do. 
We know that tax cuts will mean health cuts tax cuts will mean education cuts tax cuts will mean biosecurity cuts and tax cuts will mean cuts in arts in innovation in business in research in design in export and in law and order. We know perfectly well that the people who oppose us will say anything to get into Government because they believe they were born to rule. They believe they were born to look after their self-interest and that they were born to rule. I have to say that New Zealanders will deal with them as they dealt with them in 1999 and 2002 because this Government has put in place a solid hard-working Budget that maintains a strong and credible fiscal position. 
It is fair it is inclusive and it actually says to New Zealand: “We treasure every child in this country and yes we will give you tax cuts.” We will give tax cuts to low and middle income families with children first. That is where we will put the tax cuts—not into the fat cats who just want to have a more expensive bottle of wine down at the Green Parrot. 
I say that this Budget builds every New Zealander’s stake in our country it is building conditions for growth and it is securing our future. I am proud to be part of this Government. I am proud to work with a Prime Minister and a Minister of Finance who understand that all of New Zealand has to work together. I am appalled to hear Maurice Williamson standing up and saying that he will put money from roading taxes straight back into roads but then he said “over time”. I hope people will listen to that because I hope they are the people zipping down the new Whangaparaoa road and across the Puhinui viaduct the people who are going along the extension of State Highway 20 and the people who are looking at that new bridge across Herald Island and all those major works on the North Shore busway. 
I hope those people are as we speak zipping down the new double-tracked western rail lines—so that we can do transport and public transport at the same time—and people who are pulling into those new stations and who are looking at the huge amount of work that this Government is doing. The Government is putting over $500000 of new work per day into Auckland. 
What does Maurice Williamson say? He says that National has made a commitment. Well I remember Maurice Williamson saying in 1999 that he had made a commitment but his commitment was to Better Transport Better Roads. What was Better Transport Better Roads? It was a proposal to flog off New Zealand’s roads and make New Zealanders pay to drive down them. We are proposing more roads and better roads not charging New Zealanders for the right to drive on their own roads. 
I am absolutely appalled that Maurice Williamson has the cheek to say that he supports a tax cut for rich people and then to say that he will borrow for the basic services every New Zealander needs now and will need in the future. We are facing a vast increase in the number of older New Zealanders and an increase in the education and health needs of younger New Zealanders. 
I am very proud to be the Minister with responsibility for Auckland Issues and I want to talk briefly about the broader range of measures in that area. I am very proud of what we have done in transport. No we have not fixed it. Indeed the most common complaint I now hear is about roading works. People are complaining about the work we are doing because we are determined to spend more than $500000 a day and to go on doing so. But we do not want to see the whole of Auckland gridlocked unlike the Automobile Association with the failed National candidate for the Tamaki electorate and the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern). 
Members of the Employers and Manufacturers Association approach me weekly saying: “We are so embarrassed about what that idiot Alasdair Thompson says.” I ask why they keep employing him. After all he was a failed Social Credit Party candidate in Thames. He was actually quite a good mayor in Thames but I suggest that Alasdair having sold his soul is now just proving how thoroughly he has sold it. He is telling lies about what is being done in transport in Auckland and I am ashamed to see him dragging along people who should and do know better. Ports of Auckland told me: “We had no idea all this work was being done.” I said: “But I send information to you monthly.” and got the answer: “Yes but Alasdair Thompson tells us different.” 
So we have a political agenda running here and all I can say to that is: “Yeah right!”. Let us see the combination of good roads and good public transport system we will deliver—because we know that National never will. 
I was at Middlemore Hospital on Friday seeing doctors and nurses. These are the terrible bureaucrats the National Party tells us this Budget is supporting those people who have good incomes—all of those for example whose incomes have gone up over $60000. I am delighted that many more New Zealanders are being paid over $60000— 
Hon Marian Hobbs 
: Nurses and teachers. 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: Particularly nurses and teachers. The nurses I saw said how much they are enjoying working for the first time in a hospital in a difficult area like Middlemore where they have good equipment and good staffing and where they have retained more senior specialists and junior doctors than ever before. They tell me they enjoy working there. What they are most proud of is that in some areas like diabetes they are doing fewer operations—because one does not cut healthy limbs off people with diabetes who have had the treatment they need to keep their limbs healthy. 
I am delighted by what we have done in many areas including health and education. The National Party’s proposals for making Auckland gridlocked again by removing our very good and fair zoning system for schools is a catastrophe and indicates how badly out of date National is. 
I want to talk about the new jobs partnership for example whereby this Government is working with the Auckland chamber of commerce to provide good jobs for new residents. I want to talk about what we are doing with local government in so many areas of sustainable cities—youth development energy water clean air in Auckland. I want to talk about what is happening in the arts where we are developing good New Zealand films and great New Zealand music. We have seen better funding for community arts professional arts and regional museums. We are seeing massive investment in these areas and New Zealanders are responding with energy optimism and hope for the future. That is what a Labour Government and a Labour Budget are about.