Appropriation (2014/15 Estimates) Bill

What a fantastic Budget we have had. What a fantastic Budget.

💬 Grant Robertson: How would you know? You weren’t here. You were on leave.

I loved being here last Thursday to be here for the Budget, but Mr Robertson missed me so much he was dreaming about me. But it is all right, I was here.

💬 Grant Robertson: It was a nightmare.

He says it was a nightmare because he is worried that I will come for him one day. Having said that, it might just happen.

When this Government was elected in 2008, we picked up a mess that Labour left us—Labour and its leftist friends. They left us a 50 percent increase in Government spending in their last 5 years, high interest rates nearing 11 percent—

💬 Jami-Lee Ross: How much?

It was 11 percent, Mr Ross—11 percent. The cost of living increase was over 5 percent, inflation of 5 percent, an export sector going backwards, and a country in recession for the last 4 years. I should also note that it was a country where crime was getting out of control. We had about 70 murders in 1 year as opposed to the usual 45. It was a country where people did not respect the Government and they were desperate to get rid of it, and they did, and they gave us the honour of being able to be their Government.

This Budget is the Budget that brought us back into surplus. We inherited a recession that had been in place for a whole year before we came into Government. It was a recession that had been in place for a year before the rest of the developed world went into recession. It was a recession where New Zealand led the world into recession under a Labour Government—a Labour Government. The only thing I would say is thank goodness it was not the Greens-Labor Government of Tasmania, because there would have been a recession 5 years before everyone else. We inherited a decade of deficits—a decade of deficits. We were told—all the forecasts said—that this country would have deficits for 10 years. Actually, this year we are out of recession. We are out of deficit.

💬 Hon Annette King: And you increased GST, put taxes up—put taxes down for the wealthy and up for the poor.

We have also been able to produce a lot more than that, because balancing a Budget is not just about saving money or spending money, Mrs King. A balanced Budget means actually producing better for our New Zealanders.

In my own justice portfolio I have to say that working with the justice sector, Ministers Chester Borrows and Anne Tolley, and the Attorney-General, we have had the most wonderful time working together to make sure we bring the crime rate down. The crime rate in New Zealand per 100,000 New Zealanders is now the lowest it has been in 35 years—that is, since 1978. Some of us can just remember 1978, unlike Ms Ardern, who was still a twinkle in her daddy’s eye. In that time, what we have been able to do with the work of the marvellous New Zealand Police, the Department of Corrections, the Ministry of Justice, and the courts is bring that crime rate down and retain that. The last 4 years of the National-led Government have led to a 20 percent cut in crime, a massive decrease—a massive decrease.

💬 Andrew Little: No, it hasn’t.

Mr Little does not like that, but I am sorry, that is true.

In addition, let us look at ACC. My colleague the Hon Nick Smith inherited an utter mess from Maryan Street. What a useless Minister for ACC she was. She was only slightly better than the other useless Minister, the Hon Ruth Dyson. Having said that, we had to deal with the levies and, in fact, this year and for the last few years we have been able to drop the levy rates. We are now in the position of being able to tell Kiwis that after a decade of Labour running down ACC and removing any confidence in the system, we have been able to retain it. We are able to say that, actually, ACC is now one of the most competitive services in the world, compared with anything even remotely comparable with that. What we have been able to do is say that we can deliver sustained levy cuts. There is no point delivering a cut one year and then putting the levy up the next year—absolutely hopeless.

In this Budget we have also been able to say something for transport. I want to deal with transport for this reason. This Government is delivering $200 million for the southern corridor. For those of you who are not intently interested in the southern corridor like I am, that is the southern motorway. So that is really from Hill Road in my electorate down through to Drury in my electorate. I have to say, it is a marvellous thing that we will be widening that southern motorway. That will save people so much in terms of money and time. It will save the environment. It will save so much in terms of productivity. That will be one of the biggest differences for people in the southern region of Auckland and also for those travelling from Hamilton—those who have to use that area. That is one of the biggest things that I am most proud of in this Budget.

I am not quite as proud of that as I am of what the Hon Tony Ryall has been able to produce in health, I have to say, particularly the free general practitioner visits and free prescriptions for all children under 13. In my opinion that is the standout result of this Budget. It is a fantastic result for New Zealand families all over the country. I know that in my electorate of Papakura, people are so excited by that, so thank you, Tony Ryall.

What we have been able to do is to do much better than just spending money. Where we have been able to, we have used the money more efficiently. We have also been able to ask professionals who are involved in these areas how they would spend the money. They have come up with all sorts of ideas. If you look at the rheumatic fever work that Tony Ryall has done, that is the sort of thing where—in many parts of my electorate there are decile 1, 2, and 3 schools; not all of them, but many of them. One of the things that teachers say to me is making a huge difference for children is the fact that this Government has put social workers in all of those low-decile schools. That is the sort of thing that I think this Government can be immensely proud of. We have not been able to do it just by ourselves. We work with our support parties: the Māori Party, United Future, and the ACT Party. I would like to acknowledge the help they have given us to be able to bring this about.

Unfortunately, when I look at some of what has happened over the last few years, I would ask what it is that the Opposition has, in fact, supported. Well, actually, not a lot. Did it, in fact, support any savings that this Government could make to get the country back into surplus in any of the previous five Budgets? The answer is no, not one. Did Labour, for instance, support the welfare reform that has seen so many New Zealanders get themselves back into work and get a sense of actual independence? No is the answer. Did Labour ever support tax changes to reduce tax rates paid by every single New Zealander across this country? The answer is no. Did Labour support 90-day probationary periods, which were so good for small businesses, to get people some confidence to get back into work, and for small-business owners to have the confidence to give people a chance, to give people an opportunity? The answer is no, it did not care.

Did Labour support Resource Management Act reforms so that people can build their houses faster and support the growth of businesses? Well, the answer is no. Did Labour support housing accords so that we could have special housing areas? They are in my electorate, by the way, as well—three of them now in my electorate of Papakura. Well, the answer is no. Did Labour support the making of the Hobbit movies in New Zealand so that 5,000 jobs could be created here? No. That party’s members are the Hobbit-haters. The only party members even worse than them in their record of not supporting the Government’s moves are the wilted and bitter Greens.

What a great Budget for New Zealand families. Up and down the country, people know that the John Key Government is making children and families a priority in this Budget and is absolutely determined to back those families. New Zealanders have got every reason to be optimistic about the future on the basis of this Budget. Through very sound financial management by the Minister of Finance, the Prime Minister, and the rest of the Cabinet, this country is now in the black and is on a roll. This country is moving forward, and we have options for how we can invest our finances now that our country is back in the black. This Budget stands in marked contrast to what you are seeing all around the world. Just look across to Australia, where the health budget has been cut by $10 billion.

💬 Hon Member: How much?

$10 billion. Australia’s growth projection is not as rosy as here. Things are much tougher over there, and the Government is having to make decisions that could not be made under the Labor-Greens outfit that ran Australia up until a year ago. Look at France, where the socialist President Hollande is cutting $17 billion out of health expenditure. A socialist President has cut $17 billion out of health expenditure. That is part of $90 billion worth of cuts that have been announced in France by a socialist President. So all around the world, Governments are still taking significant expenditure actions, but here in New Zealand, because of the sound financial management of our Government, we are able to produce a Budget that is in the black. And it is a Budget for families—a Budget for families and a Budget for investing in the future of New Zealand. It is marvellous to be serving as the Minister of Health in the John Key Government, which is putting $1.8 billion into health over 4 years.

💬 Chris Auchinvole: How much?

$1.8 billion. That is made up of new money and savings in order to make sure that we can expand health services for New Zealanders and meet the cost pressures that we face. And let me just talk about what sound financial management in the health service can deliver. When I became Minister of Health, deficits in district health boards were expected to be $200 million. We are now on track to get that down to $10 million or $20 million, because of sound financial management of our system. We are able to have $90 million going into making general practitioner visits and prescriptions free for children under the age of 13, from 1 July 2015. That is 400,000 children and their families who are going to expect a benefit from this investment. It is an important preventive health measure, as parents will not have to think twice about taking their kids to their doctors, and it will relieve pressure on our busy hospital emergency departments. We are putting an extra $110 million into hip, knee, and other elective surgeries to build on the record increase in elective surgery that we have had under this Government.

We should remember that the previous Labour Government doubled the health budget but the number of people who got operations actually dropped. How does that work? How do you double the health budget and fewer people get operations? It just does not make sense. We want more New Zealanders to get hip, knee, and other elective procedures, and that is what this funding will be focused on.

One of the things that has been overlooked in this Budget so far is the Government’s very smart anti-obesity investment in Healthy Families New Zealand—$40 million over the next 4 years. It is a complete reform of the way that we address the underlying causes of poor health in New Zealand. Far too often, resources are spread too thinly in this public health area. This Healthy Families New Zealand project, working across 900,000 of our population, will be building a dedicated health promotion workforce that will be engaging with early childhood centres, schools, sports clubs, eateries, and caterers, and helping them help their communities at a grassroots level to take responsibility and take action to improve the health and well-being of their communities. And we know it works. It is based on a programme that has worked very successfully in Victoria. It is going to make a big difference to many New Zealand families and many communities, such as South Auckland, west Auckland, and parts of the South Island as well.

We are also putting in $33 million for faster cancer treatment. What we are going to be doing here is addressing one of the major concerns we have picked up from cancer sufferers and their families around New Zealand. Being diagnosed with cancer is a time of extreme anxiety for anybody. There are a lot of concerns about what the future may hold. This investment is going to allow us to put dedicated specialist psychologists into each of the six cancer centres around New Zealand to help support cancer sufferers and their families. It will also allow us to have dedicated counselling and social support staff—up to 20 of these support workers—throughout the country to ensure that patients who are diagnosed with cancer and their families receive more support and counselling. We have more than 20,000 New Zealanders diagnosed with cancer every year, and this is a very important part of how we support those families in their cancer journey. I think that is a top spend by our Government, including extra investment for breast and cervical cancer screening programmes to ensure that more New Zealand women receive high-quality screening services. In fact, we now have digital mammography services throughout New Zealand. That is providing a much better quality of services for New Zealand women.

We are making a huge investment also in the training of our medical workforce. An extra 38 medical students will be able to go into our medical schools this year, and we are funding $18 million to provide more postgraduate training opportunities for the extra graduates who are coming out of medical schools. We are growing more of our own doctors here in New Zealand, and it is a great investment that our Government has made.

We have got one major cut in health that Labour never criticises, and that is the cut of 1,000 managers and administrators. We have taken out 1,000 managers and administrators from the health service and we have used that money to back the investment that we have made in well over 1,000 extra doctors and over 3,000 extra nurses at the bedsides of New Zealand patients in our hospitals. There are over 1,000 extra doctors and over 3,000 extra nurses at the bedsides of our public hospitals. It is a huge investment that is allowing us to provide more elective surgery faster, better cancer treatment, and more elective surgery—40,000 more operations, like hip, knee, and other elective operations.

💬 Chris Auchinvole: How many?

There were 40,000 in the last year, compared with what we inherited under the previous Government.

I have got to say that one thing we have found about this Budget is that Annette King and Russel Norman do not know how to read a Budget. We have got the Greens going around the country saying that we are cutting the health budget over the next 3 years. That is completely wrong. What Russel Norman has not taken into account is the fact that the numbers he is looking at do not take into account the extra money that will come in next year’s Budget and the next year’s Budget and the next year’s Budget. So he is going around the country trying to tell people that we are reducing the health budget. We are increasing it year on year on year. When we started this job, it was much lower than where we are now. We are building on Budget 2013 with $1.56 billion worth of health investment this year. But it is not just about the money; it has got to be about the results for patients. I make no apology for the fact that this Government has put a lot of pressure on the public health service to deliver more, and we have delivered more care for patients. We do not send women to Australia for their breast cancer radiation treatment, which that party did and made excuses for. We are treating them all here in New Zealand faster than that crowd ever did. We are providing more hip, knee, and other elective procedures than that party opposite ever did. We are delivering the results that make a difference, to make this the best country to be young and to grow old in.

Tēnā koe, Mr Assistant Speaker. This is a split call between me and my colleague Holly Walker. I was disappointed last week to be in the House on Thursday and Friday to speak on the first bill that the Government passed under urgency. I was disappointed because, although we voted for the bill to extend the parental tax credit to the parents of newborns to 10 weeks and raise it from $150 to $220, and to extend paid parental leave a bit, it was a bill that did not go any way towards addressing the poverty of the babies born to our poorest families. It is estimated that about 15,000 families and their babies will be discriminated against in the coming year with this tax credit. Although the extension to paid parental leave is a step—a little step—in the right direction, the Child Poverty Action Group’s Susan St John says that the $64 million per year that it will cost would have been better spent on giving those families whom this Government has ignored—the sole parents, the students, those on ACC, those people on the very lowest incomes—the parental tax credit.

The latest census information highlights that the gap between the very wealthy and the very poor continues to grow in this country. The deprivation index shows the differences in incomes in all the meshblocks in New Zealand. In Ōtara north the median income decreased between 2006 and 2013 by 17.8 percent. Meanwhile, in the nearby suburb of St Heliers the median income grew by 25 percent over the same period. We all pay the price for inequality. The research shows that adults suffering serious financial hardship are nine times more likely to experience psychological distress and six times more likely to have experienced an unmet need for a general practitioner in the past 12 months. They are more likely to smoke and suffer from a range of diseases, including obesity and obesity-related diseases like type 2 diabetes, and rates of childhood obesity in deprived areas are 19 percent compared with 3 percent for those in the least deprived areas. Although the introduction of the free general practitioners visits for children under the age of 13 is great, some families cannot even afford the bus fare to get to the doctor. That is why the Greens have a policy and a suite of initiatives that we would like to introduce that would bring health care to the primary schools to where those kids are and save those families from more expense.

We see this Budget as a missed opportunity. We could take an investment approach to our people. One of the best ways to do that is to ensure that there are decent jobs for people and decent wages so that people can live on what they earn. But what we see are no measures to do that. In fact, the Government’s own forecast suggests a real wage growth of only 0.8 percent, and its forecast for GDP is 2.8 percent, which means that wages will continue to fall behind, and there is no plan for a fairer sharing of that wealth. Meanwhile, the cost of living continues to increase, and last year 46 percent of wage earners did not get a pay increase to keep up.

When we look at the appropriations it is clear that with a bit of political will we could make real, meaningful changes that would benefit our lowest paid. Take the parliamentary cleaners, for example. They earn less than $15 an hour, and it would take a measly $210,000 per year for all 30 of them to earn a living wage of $18.80 per hour. If you compare that with the budget for MPs’ IT and the $7 million for maintenance, you can see that we are looking at buildings and not at people. We believe that we can do better. We believe in a fair future where people can have good lives, and with that we need a smart Green economy that works for everyone. Thank you.

Debate interrupted.