Upston Louise: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
Upston Louise: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
[Volume:670;Page:17068] 
LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupo) 
: 
 Two weeks ago Christchurch was dealt a cruel blow with another vicious earthquake. The shocks reverberated around New Zealand and in fact across the globe. One of the things that has been particularly moving is the response not just from my own community but from those across New Zealand in Christchurch’s time of need. I thank all of those who have volunteered in the efforts to rescue and recover those who perished in the Christchurch earthquake. I also take this opportunity to thank those who are working in a less visible way—people like those who work at GNS at Wairakei for the vital monitoring work they continue to do around the clock. 
This is the debate on the Budget Policy Statement and this Government is providing significant assistance. Budget 2011 will have two main areas of focus one of which very clearly will be Christchurch. The Budget this year will ensure that the Government provides adequate resources to support the people of Christchurch and to help rebuild their city. But the Budget will also ensure that the Government plays its part in improving New Zealand’s savings by controlling spending increases and setting a very credible path back to Budget surplus. This is a Government that is rolling with the punches and Christchurch was a particularly hard body blow. It is the Government’s job to provide strong leadership and that is exactly what we have had with Prime Minister John Key. 
Sound fiscal policy was the priority for the Prime Minister when he gave a statement to Parliament earlier in February and sound fiscal policy is still the priority: promoting economic growth getting our books in order and controlling spending. These challenges are the same as businesses up and down New Zealand. Community organisations and families have to control what they are spending and reduce their debts. The previous speaker Mr Parker said that the contest is on on 26 November. Absolutely it is on. The biggest gap that is emerging is in the economic policies between this side of the House and that side. Members opposite want more tax and more spending. I can tell members that when I talk to my constituents they know that when they work hard every day they want to keep a little more of what they earn. 
I want to focus for a few minutes on the Christchurch earthquake before coming back to the other planks of our economic policy. As we have heard today Christchurch is an important part of where the Government’s priority will be. It will have a significant impact on our books not only in terms of increased spending but also in the loss in tax collected. We will take a responsible balanced approach to that increasing debt in the short term but also taking a closer look at our spending priorities. I think it is fair to say that the response to the immediate needs of the people in Christchurch in terms of rescue recovery and welfare has been outstanding. The focus now though is on restoring and rebuilding the city. 
National says that we are building the foundations for a stronger economy because we know that that is the only way we will provide New Zealanders with a better future. It is the only way that families will have more income through better jobs and therefore improved living standards. That was the Prime Minister’s priority before the earthquake and it will continue to be the priority. This is a Government that is focused on building a stronger future. We will continue to rebalance the economy away from debt-fuelled consumption focusing the Government’s spending towards savings investment and exports. 
I am not sure whether the Opposition has been listening to what the National Government has been saying in terms of priorities. Continuing to build world-class infrastructure helps businesses compete. In my own electorate the geothermal developments are a massive part of what is going on in Taupo. It is exciting to see continued projects such as Contact Energy’s Te Mihi project. Those will continue to create jobs in my electorate. More importantly we must help exporters to sell more of their goods to the world at better prices. Again the jobs in my electorate are coming from farming and forestry so we have to make sure that our export sector is growing not shrinking as it did in the last 5 years of the previous Government. As my able colleague Mr Bennett said we cannot spend money that we are not earning so I am not quite sure why members opposite think that money grows on trees and that they can increase their spending commitments as they already have—$5 billion and counting. 
We have to focus on reducing our reliance on foreign debt and on building up our own pot of savings and investment here in New Zealand. In order to see the importance of why we need to lift our national savings we need to look back at the state of the economy that we inherited from the party opposite. The economic growth we had in the latter part of the 2000s was fuelled by consumption and debt which ultimately was unsustainable; it does not take much to figure that out. In the 3 years leading to the global financial crisis our average annual GDP growth was less than 1 percent and on a per capita basis it was negative. That meant we went into recession at the start of 2008 9 months ahead of the global financial crisis. 
We need our export sector to be strong healthy and growing. As I said earlier the vast majority of jobs in my electorate come from farming and forestry. In the last few weeks it has been exciting to hear from our Crown research institutes and to find out just exactly how much value they are adding and will continue to add over the years ahead to our export sector whether that is in forestry agriculture or in exciting industries such as mining. A company in Tokoroa is expanding its export base because of work it is doing with Crown research institutes which means more jobs in Tokoroa and more export dollars for the country. 
On the issue of spending in the last two Budgets we have identified $2 billion of spending and redirected it to higher-priority areas—front-line services whether that is in health education or as our Minister of Police is doing so well keeping our communities safe. We are expecting to continue that work in Budget 2011. It is about paying down debt and spending a little less to make sure we have a solid foundation for sustainable growth because we do not want to have growth that is not sustainable over the longer period of time. 
I will talk briefly about our assets and about the fact that this Government needs to look at the assets we own and the model of ownership we have. Some of the State-owned enterprises that are being looked at in terms of a change of ownership model such as Mighty River Power have a significant operation in my electorate. It is interesting to talk to people about whether they believe we should be looking at changes to the way those assets are owned. It is quite heartbreaking to listen to constituents who have lost massive amounts of money they have saved and saved over decades in the collapse of finance companies. Those people see the opportunity to invest in solid companies such as Mighty River Power as an opportunity presented to them that was not there before. 
Another significant group who are interested in those investment opportunities are iwi groups. Following some of the Treaty settlements that we are proceeding with at a rate far faster than the previous Government ever did all of sudden we will have communities that will have money they will want to invest. They will invest locally in areas that will create jobs in their communities. Budget 2011 is about getting our books in order controlling our spending and reducing our debt.