Goudie Sandra: Budget Debate 
Goudie Sandra: Budget Debate 
[Volume:654;Page:4199] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 Thank goodness for John Key and Bill English! I am sure that the New Zealand public fully appreciate them and fully welcome the fact that they are in charge they are at the helm in these tough economic times. 
Helen Clark and Michael Cullen duped the country by proclaiming themselves to be competent conservative managers of the economy. In reality they benefited from a strong period of economic growth yet they did nothing to get New Zealand on a really good solid footing to take people forward or to buffer them during these poor economic times that we are now experiencing. In fact they took people backwards; they squandered those good economic years. We only have to look at what Roger Kerr said in some of his statements. He said that the New Zealand economy actually entered into a recession in early 2008 and that that was largely as a result of the economic mismanagement of the Clark-Cullen years. We all know it. The New Zealand public knows it. They knew that when this National Government took office we would find the finance books in an absolute mess. Yes we knew that we would find them in a mess but we did not know that they would be in such an appalling state. Why did we not? Because the Labour Government did not tell the full story before the election. It misled the New Zealand public over the real state of the books. New Zealand has a Public Finance Act but what did those members do? They fudged the books; they did not show New Zealanders the reality. I tell the House that I would not put any of those Opposition members in charge of a piggy bank. They have no idea of how to manage money at all. 
I will mention just one or two other points that Roger Kerr made. He said that between 2000 and 2008 economy-wide labour productivity in New Zealand grew by an average of only 1.3 percent per year which was the lowest of any growth cycle going back to the Muldoon years. And that was during the term of a Labour Government. For 9 long years it achieved virtually nothing. It stripped the coffers and left the cupboard bare. So before New Zealand was affected by the worldwide recession it was in its own created by the Clark-Cullen leadership. 
The second point is that central government spending grew by nearly 50 percent in the 5 years ended June 2009 which crowded out the private sector and put sustained pressure on monetary policy. The previous Labour Government members just could not help themselves. They just spent spent and spent taxpayers’ hard-earned money and that was all they could do. Right now that is all they continue to want to do. That is all “Whack-it-on-the-bill-Phil” wants to do. He just wants to increase that indebtedness and put the bill back on to the taxpayers. 
The third point is that the economy’s decline in international competitiveness has contributed to our current account deficit being at near-record high levels. That did not help either. But we can bet our bottom dollar that it all started with the Clark-Cullen mismanagement of taxpayers’ money which moved us into a recession earlier in 2008 than was necessary. With prudent financial management our economy would have been in a much better position than it is now. I say once again thank goodness for John Key and Bill English who are helping to get New Zealand on to the road of recovery after 9 long years of lost opportunity. 
I have just dropped some papers but I want to raise some other points from the bit of lost paper I dropped because— 
Hon David Carter 
: There’s lots of good points there. 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: Yes absolutely. The world economy has changed since the last election. Superannuation entitlements are not affected by the Government’s deferral of payments to the Superannuation Fund as Labour would have people believe. I tell members of the House that the Labour members just love scaremongering. They just adore scaremongering not only in the House but out there in the community. They just spin it like you would not believe and tell stories that are just blatant mistruths about the actual state of play. 
I have to really question whether they have even read the Budget. After listening to the previous speaker George Hawkins we would have to wonder because so little of the actual Budget was referred to. At times Labour has claimed that National should have known that the economic situation was as severe as it had become. Well if those Labour members were not going to front up as to what the actual state of the books was how could anybody have known? So that is one of the falsehoods they continue to put forward. 
National’s election promises were fully costed and fully funded based on the information available from Labour when it was in Government. But what was the problem there? For goodness’ sake! Those Labour members did not think to give us all the information that was available so of course the New Zealand public were misled. The National Government’s tax package was reworked and re-costed precisely because of the new information that came to hand at the time we took office. Dates and numbers show that the economy deteriorated far more rapidly than anyone was able to perceive which greatly affected the Government’s accounts and financial position. 
The previous Labour Minister of Finance Michael Cullen—I am not even sure if Labour has a finance spokesperson right now to be quite honest—said on 12 September 2008 that he thought that the worst of the economic recession was probably over and that Labour’s tax cuts would help to push the economy back into positive growth just as voters headed to the polls. Yet quotes from Phil Goff that said that no Labour would not give tax cuts. So there was a little bit of confusion about what Labour’s own policy was. At that time the Labour Minister of Finance said that New Zealand was over the worst of the economic recession. I mean how dumb could that be? That is totally dumb—totally dumb—and he was the Minister of Finance at the time. I do not think that the perception that the Opposition gives can lead us to any other adjectival phrase other than their continuing to be dumb. 
I absolutely adore roads and I love infrastructure so I am delighted that this Budget gives such a huge boost to our infrastructure. National was elected on a platform to unclog the country’s economic arteries and this Budget is an important step in that direction. We have increased the capital spending allowance from $900 million to $1.45 billion to invest in schools telecommunications roads and hospitals. 
That is the first part of a planned $7.5 billion boost for infrastructure over the next 5 years. Capital spending allowances will be $1.45 billion a year for 4 years and will rise to $1.65 billion in the year 2013-14. These figures show the country that it is on the road to recovery and that National is working towards that recovery. We are doing that in a really solid consistent and thought-out way. We will not fall into the trap of spending willy-nilly which Labour members consistently seem to find themselves in. “Whack-it-on-the-bill-Phil” illustrates the attitude the Opposition has to Budget expenditure. We are looking to boost public services and there is $3 billion for health over 4 years which will focus on front-line services. This money is about front-line services. I do not know whether the Opposition actually understands that concept. 
The Budget will provide 600 more police and 246 more probation workers to improve public safety. We have an excellent Minister of Police and Minister of Corrections in Judith Collins. She is doing an outstanding job and has probably made more of a difference in terms of law and order over the last 6 months than the last Government did over 9 years.