O'Connor Simon: Appropriation (2014/15 Supplementary Estimates) Bill Imprest Supply (First for 2015/16) Bill — Second ReadingsText is subject to correctionO'Connor Simon: Appropriation (2014/15 Supplementary Estimates) Bill Imprest Supply (First for 2015/16) Bill — Second Readings[Sitting date: 17 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4527. Text is subject to correction.]SIMON O’CONNOR (National—Tāmaki):I believe that this may well be the last speech in the second reading of the Appropriation (2014/15 Supplementary Estimates) Bill and it is a pleasure to follow the penultimate speech by my colleague Alastair Scott. As he said we are moving in the right direction. This Budget was delivered against a very positive backdrop. This is an economy that is growing and it is sustained growth over many years. We are seeing rising wages and real wage growth. There are more jobs low inflation and so forth. If I think particularly of my own electorate it is important for things like low interest rates not only to the wider demography but also I think to some of the younger people in my electorate who are even younger than myself who are moving on to—[Interruption] Indeed younger than myself. That is fantastic. It is more a reflection on me than on them.The lower interest rates are incredibly important but for me what I think illustrates where this Budget lands is a small anecdote. The other day was actually the commemoration for Bomber Command at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and that in itself was quite a moving moment. As I was leaving the museum I went through what is known as the Minecraft exhibition which is about the whole Gallipoli landings and is a wonderful way for our young people to engage. As I am wont to do as a constituent MP I started talking to people and there was a young family there who said thank you for the difference that has been made by the whole benefit changes. The Government has made a lot of changes and rightly so.For the first time in 42 years the real rates of benefits have changed. Talking to this young family on a benefit the word was “thanks” and I do not say that with any sort of sense that we need to be thanked—there is no sense of that. It was more that they felt that something had been achieved here and that the Government which they would not normally associate with these changes had made a difference. That little anecdote that little conversation has stuck with me—that this Government has rightly made the changes necessary in the benefit structure in order to help those most in need. Talk is cheap as the adage goes and we have much of it and we have heard much of it from the other side tonight but this Government has acted particularly on the social development side.Look if I turn somewhat selfishly to my own electorate the Budget delivers for Tāmaki. We often hear a lot about housing. Tremendous work is going on around housing in Tāmaki. The taxpayers of New Zealand are effectively providing millions and millions of dollars in funding for what is known as the Tāmaki Redevelopment Company. New homes are popping up right throughout the electorate particularly in Glen Innes. It is tremendous to see. For a while the community has understandably been a bit reticent about the changes because they were being asked to move into changes that they did not understand but now as these new homes are being built—warm dry homes that are the right size for the families be they large or small—real differences are being made. If you go down Line Road in Glen Innes now you will see the most wonderful new music and arts centre Te Oro. Again it is a really fantastic facility that our young people in particular have been crying out for and I want to thank the local board and others who were behind that.We hear a lot about transport and we know that there has been further spending on transport by this Government. Just one small expression of it for us in Tāmaki is around public transport. I think about $9 million is going to be spent on cycleways not only connecting people of the electorate to the city but also connecting the communities together so that those in Glen Innes can go through Meadowbank and Oraki and on to Tāmaki Drive and the other way around. So there are some real substantial differences and changes there that this Budget has brought and is bringing.We have also heard a lot tonight about the whole element of the surplus. I think actually that the analogy that my colleague Alastair Scott gave around income and whether you are a hundred below or a hundred over is quite apt. What I think the Opposition has probably found most difficult is that we said—quite rightly honestly and transparently—earlier this year and through the Budget that actually we cannot quite make that surplus. We are in the right direction and we are working hard on it. I think some members have used that oft-used scholastic analogy of Jonathan Swift’s about the angels on a pin and in this case how you could put a Boeing 747 on one but we said: “Look it’s going to be jolly difficult.” Of course the Opposition has delighted in that and has trumpeted it. And of course in more recent weeks—if not days—we have heard that it is actually possible that we might make surplus. I want to be clear—I have used a conditional there—that we might make surplus. I am not going to trumpet that myself.Dr Megan Woods: You’re making an announcement Simon?SIMON O’CONNOR: That is right. The MP for Tāmaki is making an announcement. That is right. Thank you to the honourable member there Megan Woods. No that is slightly beyond my pay grade. But we are moving in the right direction. I also think that it shows the volatility in predictions. In fact we only need to think of the election where the predictions said one thing and then we came home not just by a nose but by a head—just to put an analogy to my father who is possibly listening. Speaking of those who are listening just to embarrass the chief whip I just want to do a shout-out to Mrs Macindoe a fine constituent. Your son is doing a good job tonight.But look what we are seeing is a Government moving in the right direction. The last thing I want to talk to—and it will be no surprise to the House—is around health.Scott Simpson: Tell us about Tāmaki.SIMON O’CONNOR: Well Tāmaki is a fine place—a fine place—but no I am going to move to health Mr Simpson.Hon Member: You look like Robert Muldoon.SIMON O’CONNOR: Well I am not quite sure how I could look like Robert Muldoon but anyway—[Interruption] Dearie me. Anyway the health spend is $15.9 billion the largest it has ever been. Look at some of the highlights: $320 million more to district health boards. In doing so with the extra spend to district health boards I want as the chair of the Health Committee to acknowledge what has been happening in Southland today. I want to acknowledge what I think is a good and right decision by the Minister of Health. I know in the committee particularly when we had the Southern District Health Board come before us to talk about the challenges that they were facing that the board themselves understood the problems and I understand today of course as they are asked to step aside that that will be a challenging decision—but I think the right one. Also moving around in the electorate down in Clutha Southland and the likes the challenges are there and so I applaud that decision and the extra funding—the $320 million that is going to district health boards. I noted in a previous speech about the appropriation legislation that there is $76 million for palliative care and hospice care. I think that is a really great initiative. One initiative that people may not know so much about partly because it is one of those topics that you do not want to talk about is bowel cancer screening. Another $12.4 million I think—Scott Simpson: How much?SIMON O’CONNOR: $12.4 million—Scott Simpson: To what?SIMON O’CONNOR: To bowel screening Mr Simpson. Let us hope that for some of us it remains a theory rather than an experience but it is something that is relatively important actually. The initial pilot for this screening has been seen to be efficacious. A pre-Budget announcement—and as is the wont in politics it is often forgotten days afterwards—but just before the Budget we announced $98 million—Chris Bishop: How much?SIMON O’CONNOR: $98 million Mr Bishop. Look I am flattered by the encouragement of my colleagues here tonight. It is a team effort. That is probably a sign of what is different about this side of the House from the other side when it comes not only to this Budget but also to the appropriations which are ultimately appropriations about bringing things together. This National Party and this Government is a team and they bring things together competently and strongly unlike the other side and I will end there.