Yates Dianne: Budget Debate 
Yates Dianne: Budget Debate 
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DIANNE YATES (Labour—Hamilton East) 
: 
 I have just had an idea for a new comedy by our wonderful film director Peter Jackson. I think it would be a really really interesting fantasy movie. It would have Don Brash all dressed in red in a Santa suit grinning from ear to ear and walking down the street saying: “Tax cuts! Tax cuts! Tax cuts!”. Coming along behind him with a great big black bag would be John Key as “Black Peter” who would be putting them all back in the bag again—before Christmas. Don Brash is promising like some Santa Claus that he will give us tax cuts before Christmas and John Key is saying: “Don’t be stupid; you can never do it. Don’t be silly!”. Yet this man who is making such absolutely ridiculous promises was the Governor of the Reserve Bank. 
I am proud of our Budget. I am proud that this Budget from Michael Cullen is a family-friendly Budget. I am particularly proud of the family assistance in theWorking for Families package. That family assistance is financial help for families with children. It is paid by the Inland Revenue Department to families whose main income is from working. Some people out there think it is just for beneficiaries. Some people think it is a benefit when it is actually paid by the Inland Revenue Department. 
Family assistance as we are reminded in this wonderful booklet I have is made up of four types of payments for which people may qualify. There is family support which increased for many people on 1 April this year. Then there is the in-work payment which replaces the child tax credit. That is tax relief. In addition to noting the help people can have with childcare costs and affordable housing detailed in the pamphlet that all New Zealanders should have by now  
Is Your Family Entitled to Extra Money? 
 I want to give members the example of Sale and Barbara who will be $169 better off through family support. They have three children aged 5 9 and 12. They live in Onehunga. Sale works fulltime and earns $52000 per year before tax. Sale and Barbara pay a mortgage of $385 a week and get an accommodation supplement to help with their mortgage. 
Last year they got $14 more in their accommodation supplement and were better off. On 1 April this year they got $41 more in accommodation supplement and $44 more through family assistance. That took them to $99 a week. So they have gone from having $14 more on 1 October 2004 to having $55 more on 1 April 2005 and they will have $99 more on 1 October 2005. In April 2006 they will receive $40 more in family assistance which will take them to $139 more and by April 2007 they will have $30 more. That is a total of $169 more a week. Just think how many groceries that would buy! 
Hon Marian Hobbs 
: That’s a tax cut! 
DIANNE YATES 
: It is a tax cut. Now the National Party would have to cut tax at a rate of 9c in the dollar to beat that. It would have to be 9c in the dollar I tell Mr Brash. 
Darren Hughes 
: That can’t be right! 
DIANNE YATES 
: That is why I am telling him we have to make that fantasy movie of Don Brash making things up in his Santa Claus suit and John Key coming along as I just said saying: “That can’t be right! Put it all back in the bag because the kids are not going to get that this Christmas. Let’s be real.” 
We have just heard people talking about roads—Maurice Williamson talked about roads—and a lovely person wrote to the  
Waikato Times 
 recently saying that a few weeks ago Don Brash stood up in Parliament and opposed the motor spirits tax. A week later Don Brash turned up in Hamilton and said he would spend $750 million of that tax in the Waikato. The person wrote a letter and said that a week is a long time in politics for “Santa Claus” Don Brash—and not only that but the editor of the  
Waikato Times 
 had written an editorial that said “Yeah right!”. He had not believed a word of Don Brash’s statements either. So there is that strange Santa Claus promising things and poor old John Key—who has a few brains—coming along behind him and saying “Uh uh. Come on Santa Claus put it back in my bag. You cannot possibly deliver this.” It is as we have said a false promise. 
Not only do I think that Working for Families is excellent but I think that the KiwiSaver scheme will encourage people to save. Why? It will do that so that people can have that Kiwi dream of homeownership. I want to point out a number of things in terms of homeownership that Labour has delivered to families. We have brought in income-related rents. We have brought in Kiwibank. Now we have brought in this KiwiSaver scheme that will encourage people to have their own homes and that will give families stability and security. Having stability and a home provides for better educational outcomes for children and also for better health outcomes for families. That is what is important about homeownership. 
Mr Brash has made his promises. We in this House all remember when National was in Government before and gave us tax cuts. Who were the first people to miss out? Effectively there were three cuts to superannuation. All those people who are a little bit older than I am and who are retired should just forget it if they are thinking of voting for National. I say to those people who are thinking they will get home ownership with Dr Brash’s tax cuts—if he ever got around to implementing them—that those tax cuts would mean enormous rises in interest rates. People would have to forget homeownership with those rises in interest rates. So there we have it. 
Comparisons have also been made between New Zealand and Australia. Australians are what—$6 per week better off? What can people do with that? They cannot even go to a movie on $6 per week let alone take their kids. 
Jill Pettis 
: Baloney! 
DIANNE YATES 
: It is absolute baloney. In this last week I have attended the Janus conference of women in Wellington. It was about looking back and looking forward. Let us look back at Labour’s accomplishments for women. We have the family allowance more people in work paid parental leave cheaper visits to the doctor for children subsidised quality childcare more money for out-of-school care and recreation in the recent Budget and more childhood education—and I thank Michael Cullen for the new playcentre and new early childhood centre in my electorate. We have lower and fairer tertiary costs increased family incomes more affordable housing 4 weeks’ secured leave—what was Dr Brash going to do to those holidays?—guaranteed Plunket funding women Modern Apprentices and huge support for New Zealand’s arts and culture. Those are things that Labour has delivered over a period of time. Women at that conference in Wellington congratulated Labour on the work it has done. 
I note not only all that but that women are on our front bench in this House. We have a woman Prime Minister. I ask people to look at the party list of other parties in this House to see how those parties regard women in our society. When National was in power it made cuts affecting the elderly and cuts to benefits affecting children. In respect of women let us not forget those wonderful stories about Michael Savage and Peter Fraser. They said that how a Government treats women children and old people in society is how we can judge the kind of Government we have. 
I also quickly acknowledge Shane Ardern’s remarks. Two hundred and four million dollars are going into research and there was a letter in the  
Waikato Times 
 from agricultural research people who said thank you for the Vote Science Research and Technology increases which will make things much better for them. I thank the Government for the Waikato Innovation Park and the money going into the aviation cluster and I thank Michael Cullen for economic development in my electorate—which we never had before. We had meetings with National for 13 years when it was in power but we never saw that development. 
There is a lot for us to say thank you for and a lot to anticipate in this Budget. A great deal of development is going on and we Labour MPs are extremely glad for the growth and development in our electorates. I say again that not only is this a family-friendly Budget but it is also a Budget for economic development.