Genter Julie Anne: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Genter Julie Anne: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
[Sitting date: 13 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8495. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green) 
: 
Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tena koutou e te Whare. Firstly I would like to acknowledge that the Budget is about choices. All Government policy and spending makes trade-offs that reflect its priorities. This Government has some very clear priorities. It likes to pretend that any criticism of these priorities is simply saying “No” full stop. But that is not the case. The Government has in choosing its priorities said “No” to many sound sensible policies that would lead us to develop a smart green economy that works for all New Zealanders. My question to this Government is: why is the Government not prioritising a smart green economy that works for all New Zealanders?  
John Key and Steven Joyce are not governing in the interests of all New Zealanders or the wider New Zealand economy. In fact they are mismanaging the economy and blaming the global financial crisis. It started several years ago with tax cuts that largely benefited top income earners which cost billions and contributed to growing the deficit. Now the Government is using Government debt as an excuse to sell off public assets. This is another example of a wealth transfer from all New Zealanders to just a few. Most likely the sell-off is going to result in large amounts of foreign ownership of our strategic energy companies and it will according to Treasury’s own numbers leave the Government books worse off. 
 Instead of looking after our “clean green” brand John Key and Steven Joyce and their Nat buddies have said “No” to investing in clean technology and harnessing the power of our public State-owned energy enterprises to develop green jobs that would allow New Zealand to respond to growing global demand to respond to climate change and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This was a proposal that the Green Party put forward before the last election but the Government would rather say “No” to creating green jobs and then sell off our public assets. That will not even leave the New Zealand Government books better off but it will enrich the Government’s mates—the top income earners who have the spare cash to buy shares in these companies. 
The Government is not looking after all New Zealanders or our “clean green” brand but it is happy to lay out the red carpet for big international mining and drilling companies by offering tax breaks tens of millions of dollars in free research maintaining low royalty regimes and refusing to put in place decent protection of our coasts in case of a catastrophic spill resulting from risky deep-sea drilling. The mining and oil drilling business will create very few jobs for New Zealanders and it certainly will not make us more wealthy but it will put our “clean green” brand at threat. Drilling and fracking will worsen climate change and will actually undermine our transition to a “clean green” economy that works for all New Zealanders.  
This is a Government that claims to be about building a competitive economy when action after action shows that it is systematically protecting its mates like Skycity and Fletcher’s and the private bus companies from having to compete. Any economist can tell you that what is good for private monopolies is not good for the economy.  
Finally if I could get to rebalancing the economy the Budget Policy Statement clearly shows the account deficit worsening. It is going to be much worse according to Treasury’s forecasts in 2017 than it actually is in 2013. There are at least two Government policies that are directly contributing to the worsening of the current account deficit: firstly this Government’s high dollar policy which is effectively killing off our manufacturing sector and reducing the number of good jobs for New Zealanders; and secondly its insane transport policy.  
This Government talks a lot about investing in infrastructure. What is clear is that it is building big motorways that have no business case. We know from the New Zealand Transport Agency’s own numbers that these projects are not going to result in any economic benefit over their cost. Here is this opportunity to apply rational economic theory to transport and actually get better outcomes but do we see this Government pursuing rational economic policy when it comes to transport? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! Can I just remind the member on my right that backbench interjections on each other in close proximity to each other which is across benches actually have an effect on the microphones. The member is out of order—Speaker’s ruling 63/1. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am on your right but it was not me. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I am well aware of that Mr Henare. I did not use any names. One could say that we think he still doth protest too much but I will not.  
JULIE ANNE GENTER 
: This Government’s transport policy is not backed up by rational economic analysis. Unfortunately it is not even going to benefit road users and it is not going to benefit the economy; it is just going to benefit its mates at Fletcher’s. 
So once again we see that this Government is about protecting its mates from having to compete. It is about shifting wealth from all New Zealanders to just a few. And we are certainly not going to see a transition to the “clean green” economy that works for all New Zealanders which the Green Party is working towards. Thank you.