Bennett David: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 31 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11491. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): A Budget is a very important document for any country. It sets out the revenue expenditure and priorities for the year ahead. This Budget continues on that great trend set by the Minister of Finance the Prime Minister and the National team of having a prudent and important way of looking at our finances so that we actually do invest in the social infrastructure of New Zealand we do invest in the economic infrastructure of New Zealand and at the same time we do it in a responsible and fair-handed manner.Not many countries in the world can say that they are now in surplus. In the Western World it is rare indeed. New Zealand is one if not the only country in the Western World that can say so. When we look at Canada a $29.4 billion deficit; Australia a $39.9 billion deficit. I will repeat those numbers for those listening: $29.4 billion for Canada; $39.9 billion for Australia. That is the reality of the modern world; that is the reality of the people who we judge ourselves against. They have Governments that are dealing with high expenditure low income and terrible Government deficits that at some time somebody has to pay back or at some time there has to be a reduction in expenditure to meet the increased spending that those Governments have faced.That is not the case in New Zealand. In New Zealand we have not got that hanging over our heads. We have a strong Budget surplus and we have strong Budget surpluses projected into the future. That means that New Zealanders have options. That means that all New Zealanders out there can be proud of the Government that they have elected which has given them the options to repay debt to actually go out there and spend more money on infrastructure and to go and give more services to New Zealanders when and as the times permit. Those are options that very few other countries have and we should be celebrating that in this House.There will be Opposition parties that will argue that everything and anything should be spent on everything and anything. That is their job that is what they do and we understand that and nobody takes any notice of it because they are in Opposition.I just want to acknowledge thattoday was a very important day for the New Zealand Labour Party with its capitulation to the Green Party in their memorandum of understanding. Why a large party like that which has such a strong history in this country and in this House has flown the white flag today and given in to the Green Party I will never know.Dr Kennedy Graham: It’s a great deal.DAVID BENNETT: It is a great deal for the Green Party. It finally means that the Labour Party admits that it no longer controls the left and that is a sad day for all those Labour Party strongholds and those people who have given their lives to the Labour Party who now find that they have been taken over by the Green Party. That is a sad day for that Labour Party over there. But it is a good day for the Green Party and I acknowledge the work it has done over a number of decades now in building a brand that has actually destroyed the Labour Party—and it has achieved its purpose. New Zealanders will not be fooled by that because New Zealanders know what sensible economic management is. New Zealanders know what it is to run a household and New Zealanders know that they cannot be voting for promises that are unrealistic. They are going for—Carmel Sepuloni: They know what it means to run a household because it is costing them more under National.DAVID BENNETT: “Costing more under National.”—that is what the Labour Party member says. Well the Labour Party is going to make it so much easier is it not because we all know what the Labour Party is going to do: it is going to introduce higher taxes on households. We know that that is the Labour Party policy. Grant Robertson has said that he will increase taxes on New Zealanders. He has not said the amount—and he will not say the amount going into the election—but we all know that he will increase income taxes on New Zealanders. That is the first thing the Labour Party has said.The second thing the Labour Party has said is that it wants to bring in a capital gains tax. The Labour Party will bring in a capital gains tax. The third thing we know from the Labour Party is that it does not like the emissions trading scheme (ETS) as it stands and it wants to change the ETS. We know that the Green Party will be the dominant party when it comes to environmental issues in this coalition agreement and so we know that New Zealanders will face a carbon tax if that party—the “Labour-Greens”; I do not know what it is going to be called—actually gets elected in a future election.Those three taxes are coming to New Zealanders. New Zealanders know that they will be getting higher income taxes New Zealanders know that they will be getting a carbon tax and New Zealanders know that they will be getting a capital gains tax under a Labour-Green coalition.But under a National-led Government what do they know they are getting? They know that they are getting investment in the innovation sector of the New Zealand economy—$761 million of investment that focuses on growing our science and producing the skills that are necessary for New Zealanders to succeed and prosper in the modern world. They know that there is a $2.1 billion infrastructure investment programme in this Budget.Tim Macindoe and I and the Waikato are being very generously supported through that Budget at the moment with the Waikato Expressway getting to the formative stages. We turned the sod on the $973 million project that is the Hamilton bypass earlier this year. That will be a game-changer for our area and shows that there is a Government investing in the regions—an investment that never happened under Labour an investment that can never happen under the Greens and an investment that New Zealand First does not want to happen. The punters in Hamilton know—they know—who is delivering for them. They know who will never deliver for them and they know who has stood up against that delivery and that is the Labour and Green parties which did not want to see that delivery in our city.We see a social investment package to support vulnerable New Zealanders at their most vulnerable time and that is something that has built on the last Budget and really reflects the approach that this Government has taken. It is looking after all New Zealanders. We have looked after all New Zealanders and not just those voting bases that the left seeks to capture.The fourth thing that you see is a significant investment in the health sector—a massive investment in the health sector in fact. When we look at the health sector it is something that all New Zealanders benefit from and that all New Zealanders have no problem with investing in. You see that the investment in the health sector includes some very important areas in providing top-quality health-care. Again in Hamilton we have seen the benefit of that. We see it day by day in the great Waikato District Health Board and the work that it does in our city.When you look at economic growth of 2.9 percent in the coming year—2.8 percent on average for the 5 years to 2020—that is a good-news economic story that New Zealanders should be proud of. When we look at 200000 more people in work than 3 years ago and another 170000 new jobs by 2020 that is a good-news economic story that New Zealanders should be proud of. When you look at unemployment reducing to 4.6 percent and average wages expected to increase to $63000 per year that is a good-news economic story that New Zealanders should be proud of.New Zealand has a great Government doing great things and providing strong economic management. Do not let that slip and let a left-wing coalition that would put New Zealand into high debt high spending and more taxes take any part in the future of this country because New Zealand can ill afford that. We are on the right track to being a very successful member of the world and of the new world order and economy and we do not need a shift back to communism and the left and we do not need a shift back to the nationalism of the New Zealand First Party. We need a future that is strong reliable and focused and that is what you get out of this Budget. Thank you.