Bakshi Kanwaljit Singh: Budget Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Bakshi Kanwaljit Singh: Budget Debate 
[Sitting date: 31 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2794. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI (National) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the Appropriation (2012/13 Estimates) Bill. I begin by congratulating our Minister of Finance the Hon Bill English on planning and producing a very strategic Budget which I believe will ensure investment in the brighter future of New Zealand and its citizens.  
This Budget also focuses on the growing economy less debt more jobs and strong and stable Government. We are also promising the rebuilding of Christchurch. The Minister of Finance and his team have ensured that spending is made in areas that are proven and cut in areas that are not pulling their weight. The Budget I have little doubt will ensure that New Zealand returns to Budget surplus by 2014-15 which will strengthen our economy create jobs and lead to economic and business growth particularly for small and medium sized businesses.  
Although the focus of this National-led Government is on ensuring that we return to surplus it does not mean that we are not focusing on providing quality health and education and also ensuring that we maintain law and order in this country of ours. The Budget has made it a clear priority to deliver better sooner and more easily available front-line health services and this is our goal despite the very difficult financial crisis. This Government has decided to spend more on health care than any of the previous Governments. Our effort has provided some great results but we are certainly not resting on our laurels. Rather our Minister of Finance has listened very closely to the Minister of Health and provided $14 billion towards front-line health funding along with an additional $1.5 billion towards priority investment in front-line services and funding for disability support. 
Andrew Little 
: Give us an example. 
KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI 
: If I can be more specific—it is coming—$48 million of this will go towards elective surgery $33 million towards better and faster services for cancer patients $15 million for quicker access to important diagnostic tests and $144 million towards improving disability support. 
 This significant amount of funding in health will help all New Zealanders including migrants from all ethnic groups. In Counties Manukau we have got one of the country’s biggest hospitals—at Middlemore. As Manukau is an area that houses multiple ethnicities I am sure all of them will welcome this initiative from the National-led Government towards improving the public health service to ensure that people’s health and well-being are well taken care of. I acknowledge the work of our Minister of Health the Hon Tony Ryall towards all the initiatives that I have just mentioned.  
Apart from health the other area that I feel will need a significant amount of work is education. Educated and healthy New Zealanders will want to positively contribute to this country. The Government must ensure that we are providing people with the necessary skills knowledge training and qualifications for them to do so. This Government understands that unless the basics of the child are strong it may not be possible that the child will attain its full potential. Towards this end the National Government’s education plan is ensuring that five out of five kids get the qualifications they need. At the moment this is four out of five kids. We want to increase the participation in early childhood education to 98 percent and would like to see 85 percent of all 18-year-olds achieving National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 within 5 years.  
These are ambitious targets. Once again we are not going to rest on our laurels. We understand that to achieve our targets significant investment must be made in the quality of teaching as this raises a child’s achievement. Once again the Minister of Finance has listened very closely to the Minister of Education and the general public. He has allocated an extra $511 million over the next 4 years to raise this achievement.  
Once again the money for education will assist all New Zealanders regardless of their ethnicity. Migrants will benefit from gaining access to the world-class and well-established education system which seeks feedback towards improving its services to students. In my own community I have received very positive feedback about this. I congratulate the Hon Hekia Parata who is working hard to uplift educational quality among all New Zealanders.  
The third point I want to talk about today is law and order. In the Manukau and South Auckland region law and order used to be a major issue. However ever since the National-led Government has been elected we have deployed an extra 300 front-line policemen and have taken a number of other measures to reduce crime and bring back the rule of law. This Budget further extends our commitment to ensuring that New Zealand and South Auckland in particular remains a safe place for us to live and raise our children. National firmly believes that Kiwis deserve to be safe at home on the streets and in their communities. Keeping this in mind the Government has rolled out a number of initiatives such as the $50 offender levy for victim support 600 more police officers and DNA testing for serious offenders among a number of other initiatives.  
The Budget seeks to capitalise on the good work that we have done so far. The Government aims to reduce reoffending by 25 percent by 2017 along with 18500 fewer victims of crime every year. Our efforts will not be limited to tackling crime. We are keen on rehabilitating those who are in jail thereby providing 33100 offenders with access to drug and alcohol treatment. We have established 7855 more rehabilitation places along with 2950 in education and training. All in all our efforts are toward the integration of offenders back into society as normal hard-working positive citizens who can contribute positively and live their life with their families and society. Towards this end I acknowledge and thank the Hon Judith Collins for her commendable work.  
Today the Hon Anne Tolley opened a new building—the Otahuhu Police Station. This is the second new station within 2 weeks opened in Counties Manukau by our Government. The first was opened in Botany. I acknowledge the work of our Minister of Police the Hon Anne Tolley towards these initiatives and many others. There are many more areas that I would like to discuss here today some of which have been spoken about by my other colleagues. It is with a lot of excitement that I commend this Budget to the House. Thank you.