GEORGINA BEYER (Labour): It is always a pleasure to rise and speak in the annual Budget debate, and 2006 is no exception. I reckon the National Party has taken the pip. After 6 years of a Labour-led Government, the National members have not been able to come up with one decent idea regarding the Budget, except for tax cuts. That is right. The Leader of the Opposition has sold this country out, and I am in disbelief that the new members across the way are falling in with that tired and lacklustre line.

I dare to suggest we will never find members from that side of the House sitting on the Government benches while the kind of rhetoric that they go on with prevails. The attitude those members have is that people should pack up and go off to Australia. All they think about is being more self-centred and greedy, whereas members on the Government side of the House want to raise the standard of living for all New Zealanders. And we are doing that. This Government, over the last 6 years, has delivered consistent fiscal responsibility under the leadership of Dr Michael Cullen. That is why there is certainty in this country and in this Budget. What has this Government proved in its time in office? It has proved that it delivers. At the end of the day, that is what matters in this country.

I will remind the Opposition members of some of the history of the National Party when it was in Government and of why this Government is successful now. This Government has, I say to Mr Peachey and to the many other members over there who have mentioned this, made the greatest use of whatever one could say was the legacy of the last National Government. But we have carried on from there. I ask the National members which of the measures, reflecting the fiscally responsible attitude this Government has taken, they would wind back. Would they wind back our student loan policy, or close the hospitals—as National used to do in the past—that we have opened since we have been in Government? I know darned well that I would prefer the benefit of hospitals staying open rather than the fear endured for 9 long years in the Wairarapa, as we stood with hands around our hospital. That happened elsewhere in the country at the time, too. I can honestly say this Government has not only satisfied the people of the Wairarapa that it does care about them and their health care, by providing the means by which they could maintain their hospital, but it has given them a new one—

Mark Blumsky: And they love John Hayes.

GEORGINA BEYER: I would like to know what Mr Hayes is achieving at the moment. Under my tenure, we have managed to save our polytechnics, save our hospital, and complete roading projects.

This is where I will give one former National member, the Hon Wyatt Creech, some credit. He was a decent National member of Parliament—a man with talent—and how that party dismissed that important knowledge, just like that. My goodness me, how I do recall the nuclear policy that National was going to establish. National sent Mr Creech off to do the bidding for it, and to do all the research, and what did he get in return? He got a slap in the face, a flick back from the National members, as that policy fizzled. My colleagues will remember it fizzled at the time, did it not?

I would like New Zealanders to consider this. If the National Party was on the Treasury benches right now, could they trust it to deliver what it says it would deliver? Do people trust National not only to deliver the tax cuts it promised but also to compensate for what would not be going into the health budget, the education budget, and the transport budget—and into the infrastructure of this country, which will move us forward and take us into the top half of the OECD, which we all so proudly want to achieve? Well, at least members on the Government side of the House want to achieve that, but the Opposition members, who are devoid of ideas and vision, can only sit there and get the pip with the Government. Like headless chooks going around and looking for their food out there, those members can only chip away in negativity. I tell those members that New Zealanders are over it—they are over it. They are looking forward, as this Government is, to transforming our economy, retaining and understanding what it is to be Kiwi, and investing in our national identity, culturally, and in our infrastructure. Yes indeed, we wish to deliver on that vision, and this Budget of Dr Michael Cullen and the Labour-led Government is certainly achieving that.

I may as well enlighten some members on some of the key features of this Budget. We were elected on a platform of social spending, because Working for Families, interest-free student loans, and other priorities—not tax cuts—are what New Zealanders re-elected this Labour-led Government for. Members of the Opposition are picking away at Working for Families, to no avail—not when somewhere in the region of 350,000 families will gain by $1.6 billion in total every year. That is tax relief of $88 a week, on average, which is not bad going by my reckoning, and we can maintain all the investment that we have boosted up. The baselines have been lifted, and billions of dollars are going into roading—$13.3 billion is going into transport infrastructure. I remind the Opposition members, and Mr Blumsky in particular, of something with regard to better transport and better roads. They should remember which Government has delivered the Wellington inner-city bypass and delivered on Transmission Gully, which is finally to happen. This Government, I tell Mr Blumsky, has taken responsibility for those projects. For 9 long years—and that member should remember this as Mayor of Wellington at the time—how often we tried, as a region, to fight for the meagre pickings we received from the last National Government. Goodness me, it was a great shame that we had to wait so long before we had a responsible Government on the Treasury benches.

I pause for a drink, Mr Deputy Speaker, because the disappointment is too much—I say it is clear water we drink here, just to inform the public about that. [Interruption] Well, we will not go there. The National members rave on about Australia, so much so that I am almost prepared to table some of my own air points in order to help their leader to go—and by the way, could he drag the Exclusive Brethren off with him? In fact, why do the Exclusive Brethren not pay for the airfares of all the Opposition? It seemed to pay for an awful lot more—

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

GEORGINA BEYER: Is my time up?

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: No.

GEORGINA BEYER: Anyway, I have been cautioned by Mr Deputy Speaker, so I shall obey and get on to the real business of this Budget debate, which is to inform the country of what we have delivered in the Budget.

I make the comparison between Labour and National with regard to the Working for Families package. Our Working for Families package is far more effective in giving targeted tax relief to those who need it than Australia’s tax cuts, which give $52 a week to someone who earns $100,000 a year. The Working for Families package gives a family on $51,000 a year with one child an extra $70 a week in tax relief. To do that through a tax cut would cost $5.2 billion a year. Well, that would be a big chunk out of the transport package we are just boosting, would it not, I ask my colleagues? Would it not also be a big chunk out of the health budget, if it was to come from there? And how does the member who has just resumed her seat think that care could be provided for anybody if there was a tax cut—as well as providing everything else that those members seem to want to go shopping for and keep asking this Government for?

No, the members on the other side of the House deserve to be on the Opposition benches, because they lack vision, they are leaderless, and they all seem to want to pack their bags and go to Australia. The members of this Government believe in New Zealand. We will always believe in New Zealand and New Zealanders, and in becoming the greatest country in the world—and we know we can be.