Extreme Caring – Hon Heather Roy Speech To Budget Debate
act-new-zealand
Wed Jun 08 2011 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Extreme Caring – Hon Heather Roy Speech To Budget Debate
Wednesday, 8 June 2011, 9:43 am
Speech: ACT New Zealand
Extreme Caring – Hon Heather Roy Speech To Budget Debate, Parliament, Tuesday June 7 2011
This Budget was a dire disappointment - an abject failure of nerve. Confronted with the necessity and opportunity to begin a historic sea change away from the knee-jerk borrow-and-spend mentality that has held New Zealand back for so long, the Government instead opted for cosmetics and cowardice.
Yes, the Government acknowledged that borrowing $380 million per week is unsustainable, but failed to make any significant assault on the mind-set that says spending beyond our means and having to borrow heavily is the solution to our problems.
Economic commentator Gareth Morgan captured the essence of our economic malaise very well in his column in this morning's New Zealand Herald, "Bubbles on beer budget poor life choice". He points out: "this is one of the most indebted countries in the world with a net external debt-to-GDP ratio of 90 per cent. We are still behind Ireland (130 per cent) if that's comforting, and a smidgen short of Greece (91 per cent), but Australia isn't as bad (77 per cent) while the US (19 per cent), UK (14 per cent) and Canada (20 per cent), make us look delinquent".
In our present crisis the urgent imperative on government is to make itself much less of a burden on the productive sector. The way to do this is to discipline itself and bring its own runaway spending under control. National's principles commit the party to small government. Yet, we have seen spending under this National-led Government explode.
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And, no, this is not because of the earthquakes. Of our $17 billion dollar deficit this year, only $6 billion is because of the earthquakes.
What we needed, Mr Speaker, was a major application of the brakes. Instead the Government has merely eased back slightly on the accelerator.
One of the reasons the Government has been so timid is no doubt its fear of a chorus of accusations that to act more boldly would have been "uncaring". This Budget, Mr Speaker, has left unchanged and unchallenged a number of situations that can scarcely be described as caring.
Is it caring, Mr Speaker, to condemn our young folk to soul destroying idleness by outlawing youth rates? ACT says no.
It is sheer folly, Mr Speaker, to prohibit employers from hiring young workers at rates that they can afford just to appease the perverse sensibilities of socialists and unionists. If a young person is prepared to work for a given rate of remuneration, that should be the end of it. But, then of course, members of the Labour side are not known for their familiarity with the concept of choice.
Is it caring, Mr Speaker, to continue scams like Working for Families which snare thousands of people into the welfare dependency trap, when their own money could simply have been left in their own pockets in the first place?
ACT says no.
ACT simply WOULD leave people's own money in their own pockets, while targeting welfare at those who genuinely need it. The notion that even people on MPs' salaries can qualify for Working for Families, as I could have done in 2004, is farcical; it shows that government has moved from focusing its attention on those in genuine need to trying to nanny everyone.
Is it caring, Mr Speaker, to send children out of our school system illiterate?
ACT says no.
Our schools have been failing for decades. When the Principals' Association criticises teachers' own literacy, something is very wrong. Our schools have been in thrall to the philosophy that says literacy doesn't matter. The damage this mind set has caused is incalculable. Once again simply increasing spending on Vote Education is not the answer. State schools at minimum must repair to basics and to the pursuit of excellence. Again, if the field is opened up to genuine competition the natural demand of parents for the best for their children will give both state and private schools no option but to try to meet that demand.
Is it caring, Mr Speaker, simply to throw more taxpayers' money at our die-while-you-wait public health system when in Singapore, where the Government spends just 3 percent of GDP on health as opposed to our 9 percent, every measure of health success across the board is radically superior to ours, including:
* Infant mortality, * Child mortality, * Life expectancy, * Emergency room waiting times, * Non-urgent surgery waiting times?
ACT says no.
We need to learn from places like Singapore and introduce a much greater degree of choice for patients by means of private enterprise involvement. Wherever possible, rather than Government simply throwing more and more money, year after year at a system that remains stubbornly inefficient, consumers should have their own money returned to them to spend on the healthcare of their choice as they see fit.
Mr Speaker, to those who would have you believe that ACT is uncaring my response is we are the only party that truly DOES care and has the policies to back our caring up. These same people, Mr Speaker, would also have you believe that ACT is extreme. If by extreme they mean "unhinged", nothing could be further from the truth. But, if by extreme they mean "passionately and sincerely committed", then I proudly acknowledge we are extreme.
We are extreme in our desire for a vibrant, full-employment economy that will afford everybody the dignity of work.
We are extreme in our desire to revitalise the health system and end waiting lists.
We are extreme in our desire to transform the education system and end a situation where one in four is functionally illiterate.
Mr Speaker, I would remind the House that the Prime Minister himself once said that he was ambitious for New Zealand. This Budget shows Mr Key's ambition to be extremely tepid. ACT, by contrast, has no qualms in proclaiming itself to be EXTREMELY ambitious for New Zealand … and to mean it.
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