Joyce Steven: Budget Debate 
Joyce Steven: Budget Debate 
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Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 In last month’s Budget the Government laid down its cards. It laid down a clearly laid out plan for New Zealand’s future. We are firmly focused on meeting and beating the challenges laid in front of this country over the last few years and on getting New Zealand on a path to much stronger growth. The Budget is another firm step on that path. 
Firstly the Budget is about balancing the books. It is about getting back into surplus in 2014. It is about keeping interest rates lower than they were under Labour. No surprise there; Labour does not think interest rates are important for economic growth. That is what we learnt this afternoon in question time. The Budget ensures a competitive exchange rate over time which is important for exporters and for New Zealanders. The Budget is about balancing the books first of all. 
Secondly it is about balancing the books by controlling expenditure not by adding taxes. That is very important. New Zealand finally has a tax system that encourages hard work and savings. Three-quarters of New Zealanders now have a top marginal tax rate in this country of 17.5c in the dollar. The top rate of 33c in the dollar is designed to encourage skilled workers—and I do not mean encourage them to leave the country like Labour did over its last 9 years. The 28c in the dollar company tax rate is also designed to encourage New Zealand businesses. It is crucial that we do not sacrifice that tax rate so we have controlled the urge of the Opposition parties to add to the tax base and have tracked a path to surplus while maintaining our competitive tax system. 
Thirdly the Budget is about savings—firstly national savings. KiwiSaver has been put on a much more sound footing. The reality is that when we are borrowing more than a billion dollars a year to place that money into a deposit account it does not add to savings. We have changed that system. Over time greater employer and employee contributions will add to national savings. More important cutting the deficit increases Government savings and national savings. 
In terms of savings the Budget is also about having something to invest in. We need something more than finance companies for New Zealanders to invest in so we have created a mixed-ownership model which will not only provide opportunities for New Zealanders to invest in but also provide opportunities for these great Kiwi companies to grow. Those are three things. 
Fourthly the Budget is about Christchurch which is crucially important. For the rebuild of Christchurch there is $5.5 billion to help Christchurch get back on its feet. That is a major commitment by this Government to the people of Christchurch—and rightly so. 
Fifthly the Budget is about infrastructure—so much infrastructure. We are investing hugely in New Zealand’s future. We are investing $1 billion in this Budget alone for ultra-fast broadband which will be transformative for this country. The ultra-fast broadband and the rural broadband initiative alongside each other will take this country forward like no other Government programme—he said slightly selfishly. 
The $1 billion a year or more for the roads is very important as well. There is a $4.6 billion turn-round plan for KiwiRail. We do not hear Opposition members talking much about that but it is a massive investment that this country is making in its future through this Government. There is also a massive investment in commuter rail in Auckland and Wellington. There are huge amounts of investment for infrastructure and thousands of jobs from that infrastructure. Most important as we come out of the recession and get faster growth we will not have the infrastructure blockages we have had historically when recessions come right. 
It is important to note that this is the first time I think—in living memory anyway—that any Government has been able to maintain an infrastructure programme of this size in tough economic times. It is one of the unsung stories of this Government that we have been able to do that. People will look back and say that the Government invested in New Zealand’s future at a time when it would have been far easier just to snap up the cheque book and put it away. 
Sixthly this Budget is about investing in education and skills. We are doing huge amounts in that area. Anne has talked about what is happening in the preschool sector and also the schools sector. The national standards policy is another unsung story of this Government and will see us in great stead in the future. 
In the tertiary area there are record numbers of places. There are record numbers of graduates. We are meeting the demand and more important we are demanding results. The previous Government used to be very good at tipping money in the front end. It was very good at that. The Labour Government got the bucket out and threw money in the front end. It was like throwing money in the fire and Labour would not worry too much about accountability at the back end. We are into accountability at the back end. We make sure that the accountability is there. We do not have any phantom industry trainees. We are getting rid of phantom industry trainees. Labour members go on about industry training but in 2008-09 44 percent of the people officially receiving industry training did not get any credits whatsoever. They did not actually earn a credit. They were not industry trainees; they were phantom trainees. That is what they were; they were phantom trainees courtesy of Labour. 
Then there were other areas that were not directly addressed in the Budget—areas like innovation and trade where we are putting in a number of things in a steady progress forward. 
Grant Robertson 
: “Steady progress.” That’s ambitious for New Zealand! 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: We have investments in tourism and investments in export education. Regulatory reform continues and we are getting more productivity out of the public sector. That upsets the member for trade unions over there Mr Robertson. That productivity is very important again given how much money Labour poured in the front end over its last 9 years in Government and given that it did not do anything about checking for accountability. 
The future is looking very positive. The future is now looking very positive. We have in this country the best terms of trade in 37 years which is crucially important. It is not Government-generated but it is crucially important that we have that opportunity to grow exports at a time when the Government is focusing on exports. We also have one of the best interest-rate tracks in living memory. As I said going forward we have massive investments in infrastructure in the Christchurch rebuild and we even have the Rugby World Cup between now and the end of the year. So things are looking up. 
There are those to the left of us who think we should spend lots of dough. That is their solution to all the problems. In fact they do not have many solutions. Do members know what Labour’s really big ideas are for the upcoming election? Let me guess: research and development tax credits. That is a hoary old number is it not? [ 
Interruption 
] They are worth a lot more money than they think but that is Labour’s new solution. After 3 years in Opposition Labour members say they will roll out the old game of research and development tax credits. Their other suggestion is skills training—more phantom trainees. They want to get out there and shovel more money in the front end again. It did not work effectively across the first decade of this millennium and it would not work effectively now. It just goes to show how bankrupt Labour members are of ideas if all they can do is come out and rerun their 2008 election policies which we all know were hugely successful that time round! 
They have opposed every single spending change this Government has put forward they have opposed the KiwiSaver changes and they have opposed the mixed-ownership model. If we take all of that out of the Budget then suddenly they are looking at a very massive deficit and they do not want to talk about that. They do not want to talk about that because they have no idea how they will fill that gap. All they are doing is sitting there and criticising the Government. Somehow they are saying that the Government has no plan when it has this absolutely comprehensive plan for New Zealand’s future. 
Dear old Labour members are sat there looking from the sidelines bereft of ideas and looking to basically run things back to 2008. They want to put up personal taxes again. Labour is the party that supposedly goes on about skills training but it wants to put up personal taxes for higher-skilled workers. It wants to restart emigration to Australia. That is Labour’s big plan. It also wants to take away all the changes that Nick Smith has made to ACC to bring it under control. It is fantastic that this Government has improved the outcome for ACC. Labour members do not know what happened. They do not know how ACC got into the big hole financially. They still think it did not happen. Hipkins said before that it never happened. He was not sure what happened. In the meantime we have sorted out ACC and got it out of the hole again and Labour members are still wondering what the hell happened. That is the trouble with that crowd on the other side of the House: they are completely dumbstruck. They have no idea what to do except to rerun their 2008 campaign. 
This Budget balances the books. It does that by controlling expenditure. It keeps the tax system that encourages hard work and savings. It focuses on actual savings rather than on just borrowing money to make ourselves feel good by putting it into another account. It is about the rebuild of Christchurch. It is about huge amounts of infrastructure. And it is about investing in education and skills. It is a strong plan for sustained real growth for this economy. New Zealanders will support it—New Zealanders are supporting it—because they see that this Government has a plan to help them get ahead and have the brighter future they deserve. Thank you.