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This year's Budget reinforces the Labour-Progressive Coalition's strategy to build the economy and puts more money into education and health while also cementing the government's reputation as a sound manager of the country's finances, Wairarapa MP Georgina Beyer said.
"I am proud to be identified with the Budget because it reflects the values I went into politics to promote.
"It is a good budget for education at every level, and in the workplace as well as in the school.
"Early childhood education gets an 8 percent increase in funds; the budget puts in $167 million over four years to employ another 774 primary and secondary teachers. It lowers the barriers to tertiary education by introducing a regime to contain fee rises and by increasing per student subsidies by 3 percent when inflation is expected to rise only 1.8 percent.
"It allocates $84.34 million over four years to the Industry Training Fund to increase the number of trainees from 100,000 to 150,000 within the next two years. It puts $56 million behind a commitment to ensure all 15 to 19 year olds are in some form of training or work by 2006. These years are too valuable to be wasted.
"What it all adds up to is opportunity. New Zealand is too small to waste any of its talent. We need all our people to achieve their full potential," Ms Beyer said.
"Health also is put on a firm financial footing with the allocation of a further $535 million to carry the three year health funding package into 2005-06. The increases for the first three years, beginning with the current 2002-03 year are: $400 million, $800 million and $1.2 billion.
"But if we are to deliver the quality of services New Zealanders have a right to expect, we have to raise the sustainable growth rate. The Government has set itself the task of restoring New Zealand to the top half of the OECD in terms of per capita income, and the Budget promotes this objective through a series of measures to support the Growth and Innovation Framework.
"These include $140 million over four years for research, science and technology, $110 million to respond to the recommendations of the taskforces into biotechnology, design, screen production and ICT and $73 million to promote overseas trade.
"The Government is also working on a tax package and a series of other initiatives to address the problems faced by small and medium sized businesses as they represent a very large chunk of the New Zealand economy.
"However, while the Budget makes progress across all these fronts, it is also a careful document. We face a clutch of malign influences including weak world demand, the potential impact of the SARS crisis, drought in some regions, possible disruptions to the electricity supply and weaker commodity prices.
"These factors are already weighing on business confidence and activity and are projected to cause growth to halve from the high 4.4 percent level achieved this year to 2.2 percent next year before rebounding to 3.2 percent in 2004-05.
"Even through the anticipated slowdown, the government's finances are expected to remain fairly strong with a surplus forecast for this year of more than $4 billion and surpluses in subsequent years of $3.8 billion, $4.5 billion, $5.3 billion and $6.2 billion respectively," Ms Beyer said.
"Finance Minister Michael Cullen has said that if these figures hold good, the Government will move in next year's budget to assist low and middle income families. I will be delighted if we are in a position to do something significant in this area.
"But this is not the time to splash out. In such an uncertain global environment, it is appropriate that the budget is cautious and focused upon security and certainty. That is what governing for the long-term is all about."
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