Ross Jami-Lee: Debate on Budget Policy StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoss Jami-Lee: Debate on Budget Policy Statement[Sitting date: 12 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16600. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany):It is a shame that the Hon Clayton Cosgrove is unable or unwilling to take the rest of his call.Iain Lees-Galloway: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is out of order to refer to the absence of a member.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Sit—sit. The member did not refer to the absence of the member.JAMI-LEE ROSS: I said that Mr Cosgrove was unwilling or unable to take the remainder of his call. He would have been welcome to give it a go. Actually I think the Minister of Health should be looking at more hearing checks for people like Iain Lees-Galloway because he needs to listen a bit more.I am disappointed that Clayton Cosgrove is unwilling or unable to take the rest of his call because we would have got a 5-minute diatribe from him about how much Labour wants to tax and spend more and how much damage it was doing to the economy when it was last in office. I say “damage” because we know that after some difficult periods of time that this country has been through we are now one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. What we know about the Labour Party when it was last in office is that it ramped up spending. It had a huge debt track that was going to lead us towards having debt of about 60 percent of GDP. We have turned that round.When the Budget comes out later this year it will reflect pretty much the debt track that the last Budget had which would see debt track down to about 20 percent of GDP by the mid-2020s and we know that that is completely the opposite of the direction that debt was going under Labour. We know it would get worse again under Labour because Labour is the party of taxes. Labour is the party of opposing innovation in the economy. It is the party of opposing growth in the economy. It is the party that would see fewer jobs being created in this economy. We know we would see fewer jobs being created in this economy because Labour would take more money out of the economy. It would ramp up the minimum wage which would see more people unemployed. It would also make changes to the youth wage the starting-out wage. We know that would hurt young people because the last time Labour made changes to the starting-out wage it led to 9000 young people losing their jobs. This side of the House cares about young people.Iain Lees-Galloway: That’s another lie.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!JAMI-LEE ROSS: I do not care what he says Mr Deputy Speaker. He can prattle on. No one else is listening to him. I do not care what he says because he is wrong. He is wrong because 9000 young people lost their jobs. This side cares about young people getting into employment. This side cares about jobs being created in the economy. This side of the House cares about a growing economy. This side of the House cares about New Zealanders investing in our economy. This side of the House is seeing results. The other side of the House would have a recipe to see fewer jobs less investment more debt more spending and more taxation. New Zealanders have rejected that in the past two elections and I am hopeful they will reject that again.I want to give the House a few facts about where we were in 2008 and where Budgets under Bill English and led also by John Key have seen this country move. When we came into office in 2008 this party saw an economy that had a current account deficit of almost 9 percent of GDP. The current account deficit is now 4.3 percent of GDP—a very big turn-round. When we came into office the economy we inherited had net external debt that had blown out to 84 percent of GDP. Net external debt is now down to 71 percent of GDP. Inflation was running at 5.1 percent. Inflation is now at 1.6 percent. New Zealanders do not see an economy and a situation where the wealth in their pockets is decreasing as much as it was under the Labour Party—inflation at 5.1 percent versus inflation now at 1.6 percent.When we came into office in 2008 mortgage interest rates averaged 10.9 percent. Mortgage interest rates now average 5.9 percent. If members on the other side of the House ever get out into the community and talk to people about what impacts on their back pocket the most it is mortgage rates. Mortgage rates under this Government are considerably lower than they ever were under Labour. They are considerably lower. More money is in people’s pockets because they are paying less in interest. More money is in people’s pockets because they are paying less in tax as well. New Zealanders have had across-the-board tax cuts. Also wages have been going up faster than the rate of inflation. These are all success stories that the Labour Party likes to deny but under Bill English and John Key these are success stories that New Zealanders are feeling.I am acutely aware that I have the Minister for Food Safety sitting next to me. Food prices in 2008—in Labour’s last year in office—went up 11 percent. Food prices have gone up 1.5 percent in the last year under this Government. Labour members like to cry about food and how much it is costing. They like to complain about prices going up. But they forget about the fact that in Labour’s last year in office food prices went up 11 percent. They have gone up by 1.5 percent in the last year. Government spending under Labour went up by 50 percent in its last 5 years—50 percent. One of the problems that we saw in European countries where they had big economic problems was that their Governments had borrowed too much money and they spent too much money.Iain Lees-Galloway: How much money is this Government borrowing?JAMI-LEE ROSS: I am happy to mention the borrowing rates because the track that Labour had us on had us on borrowings of 60 percent of GDP in the 2020s. It is going to start going down. It is being turned round under this Government. In the last 5 years under Labour Government spending went up 50 percent. We have now got spending well under control. Despite the fact that we have had a global financial crisis and despite the fact that we have had the Christchurch earthquakes spending is well under control under this National Government. We are doing exceptionally well in this economy.I want to turn a little bit to the Better Public Services programme. We have focused very clearly on ensuring that better public services are provided to New Zealanders. A report on the justice sector was released earlier today. There are some exceptional changes that have been taking place in the justice sector that are seeing more New Zealanders safer and that are seeing more New Zealanders enjoying a justice sector that is working for them. We are enjoying a country that has less reoffending. The costs to the taxpayer long term are also going down.Crime rates in this country are at 33-year lows. Youth crime is going down and violent crime is going down as well. We have changed the bail system to make it tougher for people to get bail. We have also spent more money on ensuring that there are people getting alcohol and drug assistance while they are in prison to reduce reoffending. There are also more measures to assist people to turn their lives round once they get out of prison.If Opposition members want a bit of bedtime reading—if Iain Lees-Galloway wants to do something tonight rather than wasting his time doing whatever he likes to do; another sleepless night wondering about the next leadership change Labour will have later this year—I would encourage them to read this justice sector report. This report highlights very well the good changes we are seeing under this Government in the Better Public Services programme that we have.More kids are coming out of the education system with better results in the National Certificate of Educational Achievement. More people are getting elective surgery under Budgets that we have passed. The crime rate is down. The economy is turning itself round. We are going to reach surplus this year. We are going to start paying debt. We are turning round the debt track that Labour left us on. More jobs are growing in this economy. The economy is one of the fastest-growing economies in the developed world. We have got an excellent Budget. I know Bill English will do very well when he delivers his next Budget in May. New Zealanders will get to decide that later this year.