Faafoi Kris: Budget Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Faafoi Kris: Budget Debate 
[Sitting date: 29 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2614. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Speaker very much for this chance to speak in the Budget debate. It is a pleasure actually to follow the previous speaker Nikki Kaye. And talofa lava. I should acknowledge Samoan Language Week along with other members of this House. The previous speaker talked about courage and making the hard decisions in this Budget. I would like to congratulate the Government on making the hard decisions and having the courage to do so in the 2012 Budget. I would like to thank them and commend them for their courage in taking money off paper boys and paper girls to raise a miserly $14 million. This will affect 68000 young people around the country. Congratulations to the National Party on its courage in doing that. 
Tim Macindoe 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. By implication the member is impugning the courage of the members on this side of the House. He cannot do that. That is outside the Standing Orders. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: The member needs to be careful. When one talks about the party as the member did that does imply members. So we will not do that again. 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I do note your ruling and I thank Mr Macindoe for making that point. I would also like to thank the Budget I guess for the courage that it took to crack down on some of our most vulnerable citizens by changing the way the asset threshold for residential care is calculated. I commend the Budget for that courageous move.  
I also commend the Budget for its courageous move—and I hope the Government sticks to it—in its announcement to change the funding formula for teachers which in essence means that hundreds of intermediate school teachers right around the country now face losing their jobs and that tens or hundreds of thousands of children around our country will probably now find themselves in classrooms with lots more children. I commend the courage in the Budget for making these hard decisions because these decisions are our ticket to prosperity. These Budget measures will mean that we are going to be on the road to prosperity.  
I am reliably informed that at about 1 o’clock last Thursday a search and rescue team was convened. It had to be the best because of the type of mission. The mission was going to be difficult. It was going to be a hard slog. It could have been a long mission and it could have been a mission that may have finished with an unhappy ending. That search and rescue team was tasked with finding positive ideas within this Budget to address the fact that New Zealand has had the worst growth in 50 years. That search and rescue team was tasked with needing to turn round the fact that every year 52000 Kiwis head to Australia because they think they are better off there. Every week 1000 Kiwis think it is better for them to head to the Gold Coast than it is to stay here in New Zealand.  
 That search and rescue team was also tasked with finding a solution to the fact that 33500 more children are living in benefit-dependent homes since the National Government took office. That search and rescue team was tasked with finding out why and with finding a solution to the fact that unemployment has gone up by 52 percent since John Key became Prime Minister. Through a crackly transmission through a radio we heard: “I’m sorry guys. We’ve come up with zero.” We were given a Budget with zero hope and zero ideas to face and tackle the serious problems that this country faces.  
It is ironic that the previous speaker talked about courage in this Budget because the measures in it do not contain any courage whatsoever. In this Budget there are none of the hard decisions that need to be made—none whatsoever. We asked that search and rescue team whether there was any sign of job creation and helping our exporters increase their exports and earn more. We were told: “No sorry; there is zero sign of that.” We asked that search and rescue team whether there was any sign of helping Kiwis get the education they need and the opportunities they need to succeed in the 21st century. The message back was: “No sorry; there is zero sign of that.” We asked that search and rescue team whether there were any policies in this Budget to grow incomes by investing in science research and development. The response was that there was some science but that it is much smaller than anticipated. So there is some sign of research and development hope in this Budget. We asked whether there was any sign of it becoming easier for Kiwis to save for their first home or save for their retirement. “No.” was the response back “This is a zero Budget.” There is zero in that department in this Budget. 
 This weary and tired search and rescue team was then asked another question: “What did you see in this Budget? Tell us.” Well like all search and rescue teams that go away on a long mission and find nothing they suffer from a little bit of trauma and a little bit of stress. They might need counselling because what they saw was horrific harrowing and essentially not very pretty. They saw 52000 Kiwis heading to Australia every year—52000 Kiwis heading to Australia every year. That is not good enough. There is no hope in this Budget for that to change—no hope. This is a Government that was worried when 35000 were heading to Australia. This is a Government that was worried when 35000 Kiwis were heading to Australia every year and there is nothing in this Budget to turn that round—nothing in this Budget to turn that round.  
What else did the search and rescue team see? They saw a Minister of Finance reaching into the pay packets of young children who deliver papers and pamphlets around our country to get $14 million out of them—$14 million. That is one of the big ideas in this Budget. What else did the search and rescue team see? I mention again that the Budget is attacking the elderly in our community—170 people in the first year. The Government said this would save $14 million in the first year or $16 million; I might stand corrected on that. This Government wants to change the calculation of the asset threshold for residential care. That is one of the big ideas in this Budget.  
What else did the search and rescue team see? That tired old idea of asset sales—that is still there. As others have mentioned in this debate the Government is still spouting off that line that mum and dad Kiwis will be at the front of the line. We have seen the legislation.  
Andrew Little 
: It’s not in there. 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: It is not in there. So any guarantee that this Government may give that the assets that Kiwis have paid for and built up over many generations like our power companies and our airline will stay in Kiwi hands is not worth the paper it is written on or members’ breath when they speak about it. That promise is not mentioned anywhere in the Budget. The promise that these assets will stay here in New Zealand hands is one that the Government will not be able to keep.  
Then we move on to our schools because not even our children are safe. I challenge the Government to stick to its word because today we have had a bit of a back-pedal in this area. If this move is so courageous and is such a hard decision then the Government should undo its back-pedalling. Let us see how the parents react when their kids go to school and there are three four or maybe five more children in their classrooms. Let us see how the parents respond to that. Let us see how the teachers respond to that as well. One principal in my area of Mana is not very happy that he is potentially going to lose six staff from his school.  
Tracey Martin 
: How many? 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: Six staff from his school. I believe I heard the Prime Minister say that some schools might lose one or two teachers. So the homework was not done on this one. It does not look like the Prime Minister even read the papers. He said he had not seen that and that he might do something about it. It is Tuesday today—4 or 5 days since the Budget was delivered—and there is some serious back-pedalling going on on the ninth floor of the Beehive. I can imagine that the pollsters and the focus groups were going mad from 2 o’clock on Thursday and they came back with bad news for the Government: this is going down like a cup of cold sick. So here we go; the back-pedalling has started.  
This is a Budget with zero hope for growth and zero hope to turn round the dismal record that this Government has on unemployment which has gone up 52 percent. This Budget has zero hope for the Kiwis who see the Gold Coast as a better option than New Zealand—52000 Kiwis. This country is not a viable option for them any more. This is a zero Budget with zero hope.