Goudie Sandra: Budget Debate 
Goudie Sandra: Budget Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:16414] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 You know our magnificent leader John Key was absolutely right: Labour members are buried in the past. They are totally and utterly buried in the past. How far back do the reminiscences the member was indulging in go? How far back was that—18-what? If he wants to think about things that were happening in the past— 
Nathan Guy 
: In the 1990s when you were a teenager. 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: Oh how sweet. The member is so sweet. But that member opposite is mired in the past. If we are going to talk about the past we need to think about what our leader John Key reiterated in the House when he spoke in response to the Budget speech. He talked about closing the gaps. Do we remember that? Then there was talk of the knowledge wave. Do we remember that? Well I think those Labour members opposite have forgotten those things yet they are so mired in the past one would think they would remember. 
There was talk about closing the gaps. What gaps? What were the other things? There was talk about the knowledge wave and the hundreds of information technology companies that would have a turnover of $100 million. What happened to all those companies? What happened to the knowledge wave? I have not heard anything much about it in the last couple of years so that is gone; there is no more talk about that. 
Does anyone remember the talk about the economic transformation? Hello! No! There seems to be a huge degree of memory lapse on the Government benches. Those members cannot remember what has happened recently but keep resurrecting things from many many years gone by. So as far as economic transformation goes we are still waiting. What about growth and innovation? What happened to growth and innovation? Maybe the Minister would like to take a call and tell us about that. What about carbon neutrality? Actually we did not hear anything about that in the Budget speech either. Perhaps it is because as has been pointed out the Government benches have finally realised what that means. It means we lose jobs we lose people and we lose opportunities. Most of all all we do is export carbon dioxide emissions around the world. 
I have to say that it was quite a relief that in this particular Budget speech we did not hear the word “sustainability” about 30 times. I think in the Budget speech a couple of years ago we counted how many times that word occurred and found that it was about 30 times because it was the buzzword of the day. What do we hear about that now? Thankfully we do not hear it being constantly repeated. What we do hear is what our young people are saying. You know New Zealand is a wonderful country a fantastic place to live in but I was speaking to a young person after the Budget was announced who said he saw a fellow on TV slap $16 in front of the Prime Minister and ask: “How will that stop our young people from leaving New Zealand?”. All of our builders electricians nurses teachers and police—you name it—are heading to Australia. 
This young man—he is 26—also said: “This place is stuffed.” Those were his exact words. He said that his friends are going to Australia. Personally I think it is an absolutely tragedy. It says in spite of this Government’s rhetoric that $16—a block of cheese—has just not cut it. Not only are young people leaving but also families and older people. It was only about 2 weeks ago that the average Australian worker got a $100 tax cut. Something like that would see Cullen frothing at the mouth. He is so opposed to tax cuts— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: You must use the member’s full name. 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: Michael Cullen would be frothing at the mouth because we all know he cannot stand giving tax cuts and we all know that we have to ratify the legislation in order to make sure it happens. As my colleagues who have spoken previously have said we have had the “chewing gum Budget”; now we have the “block of cheese Budget”. It does not seem to improve at all. 
Another young man whom I have been speaking to recently said— 
Simon Power 
: What’s his name? 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: I will not say his name although I could tell the member off the record. Perhaps he might like to talk to me later. This young man said that last weekend he had four different farewell functions to go to. Why was that? The reason was that his friends are all going to Australia and the UK. They are leaving in droves. Why are they leaving? They are escaping low wages and high taxes. As far as they are concerned taxes here are high. And it is not just young people. As I said before families and older people are also leaving. That is incredibly sad. Sixteen dollars does not give our young people hope for the future. It does nothing to make them feel that this country is moving forward; nor does it do anything to drive productivity innovation or prosperity. Quite frankly if it were not for agriculture we would be truly stuffed. 
It is not just people who are leaving this country but businesses also and that means the loss of jobs. No jobs mean reduced income for the Government to fund all those people who depend on Government support and who actually look to the Government for services like health education and law and order. At least we can be thankful that our superannuitants gained something out of the Budget. From 1 October a married couple will receive $45.88. Yes that is right—1 October. 
Paula Bennett 
: Oh what a coincidence! 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: Exactly—1 October. What is happening around 1 October? Oh gosh could it be an election? Well we think it might be. So we might plan for 18 October. Was that not the giveaway by “she who is always obeyed” by the Government benches? 
The offer of extra money is the lure. That is the election bribe. This Government actually thinks it can lure votes by promising free public transport on the SuperGold card. We should not be fooled. For starters most of New Zealand does not have public transport. It is only in the larger city centres. There is no public transport anywhere in my electorate. 
Ron Mark 
: What about trains in the Wairarapa? 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: Excuse me there is absolutely no public transport in my electorate. Then will the Government actually fund the entire cost of public transport because I would hate to see any further costs loaded on to local government. Constantly loading costs on to local government is something that this Government is really really good at. It cannot seem to help itself. One has only to consider the proposed national Coastal Policy Statement things like the walking access bill the New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill and the sorts of bills constantly being put through this House that look at putting added costs on to local government. One also has to look at bills like the Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill and the New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill as being bills that constantly undermine our freedoms and our democracy. Those are some of the pieces of legislation that actually do that. The public is largely unaware. This Parliament is a constant battleground not just for our freedoms and our democracy but also for providing some sort of vision for our country into the future. That is what National is going to do. 
We can ask ourselves some pretty serious questions about why after 8 years of a Labour Government we are paying the second-highest interest rates in the developed world why the growing gap between our wages and those in Australia and other parts of the world is getting bigger and bigger and why we get a tax cut only in an election year. Why cannot our hard-working Kiwis afford to buy their own homes? Why do we have one in five kids leaving school with grossly inadequate literacy and numeracy skills? Why has the health system not improved when billions of extra dollars have been poured into it? And why is violent crime against innocent New Zealanders continuing to soar? Labour cannot do anything about it. Well Simon Power sure as eggs will. 
National will focus on the real issues facing New Zealand. We will not fixate on the old tired political debates from 20 or 30 years ago which is what those guys opposite do all the time. We are not going to come out with policy in a great hurry either. Those members will have to learn a bit of patience. There is no imperative on us. We can wait. We are happy to wait and we would rather wait and do it once and do it right. 
We will lift wages by driving economic growth—make no mistake about that. We will invest in infrastructure ongoing tax cuts and monitoring the quantity and quality of Government spending—make no bones about that. This Government is totally out of control. It has no idea how to budget how to restrain its own spending— 
Simon Power 
: Tongariro Lodge. 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: Well Tongariro Lodge—for goodness’ sake! The Government is totally out of control. There are New Zealanders out there who are really struggling and have been for months. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: I am getting a circle—the whole picture; the moon. Start again—go back to the beginning. National wants our young people to stay. We want them to have a future and National will give it to them.