Speeches

Budget 2002 Speech

15.03.2004

:I am very proud to speak to this Budget today, and to say that this Budget cements our Government's reputation as a careful manager of the nation's finances. It is absolutely wonderful what this Government has done in terms of the pledge card. I remember Rodney Hide thinking early in this term that we were going to take all the pledge cards up. His words in Parliament were ''hide them in a vault'', but I tell Mr Hide and others that we are not hiding them away. We are talking about them because 3 years later we are proud to say this is what we have done and this is what we pledged. This Budget is part of that pledge. It is about rebuilding trust and credibility into the political system in New Zealand, and I am proud that we have delivered on our policy commitments. We have made a material improvement to the lives of hundreds and thousands of New Zealanders and pushed millions of dollars back into building the economy, and I certainly want to compliment my colleague--hopefully the incoming member for Tainui--Nanaia Mahuta, who talked about some of the very positive initiatives in the Waikato and the Hamilton area. I certainly want to take the opportunity to acknowledge the good work my colleague Dianne Yates has done in terms of innovation in this Budget, and that is the Government contribution towards the proposed innovation park for the Waikato, which will make a very significant contribution in underscoring Hamilton as a centre for biotechnology industries. It is said that roughly 20 to 25 percent of the scientists in this country live in the Hamilton?Waikato area, and that is why we are so keen on research and development. We are very much a science city. Let me pay tribute also to the wonderful work that the tertiary institutions do in that context. *The University of Waikato, the Waikato Institute of Technology**, and also, in a teaching sense--and some of the good work has been done in the health area--to our major tertiary teaching hospital, Waikato Hospital, a branch of the *University of Auckland School of Medicine. Obviously, I want to say that I am really proud of the work we have done, particularly in terms of health and education, and also to note some of the very good programmes the previous speaker, Dr Mapp, to his credit, gave us praise for--that is, the trade training and apprenticeship schemes. Apprenticeship is not a dirty word any more under this Government. As I asked Michelle Boag, what did the National Party do about apprenticeships and trade training during its term in Government? I want to note the phrase used to describe one scheme, ''a high school gateway scheme'', under the very good and capable leadership of David Jennings, working with a great team. That scheme is not just taking people who may not necessarily have academic skills. It is going right across the board and looking at an integration involving all the students and matching them up with employers. To that I give big, big praise, and a thankyou to the many Waikato employers who are taking these young people on and giving them a real start and a real opportunity in life. They are giving them some skills in working for business. A number of those students will not necessarily go into those businesses. They will go on to university or trade training in other areas, but this is giving them a great grounding. It is building, right now, a curriculum vitae for those individual students. I have to say a big thankyou to industry in the Waikato for being part of this partnership, and to Fraser High School and the other secondary schools who are participating in the *Gateway programme and other similar programmes to give our students a good start in life. I also say a big thankyou, by the way, to the Hon. Steve Maharey and the Labour?Alliance Government for initiating those programmes and giving our young people a great start in life. I want to focus on one particular area that is very close to my heart--the extra money going into the Department of Conservation and the very significant extra money going into rebuilding the infrastructure of our conservation estate. Let me take this opportunity to place on record my appreciation of Greg Martin and his team based in the Hamilton office of the Department of Conservation, for the *Waikato Conservancy. They are doing a wonderful job, and I know my colleague Nanaia Mahuta is nodding in absolutely passionate agreement. If ever there was a pleasure in this job, it is to go with the Department of Conservation staff out there, working with communities, and to know their passion and dedication. If ever there was a definition of true patriotism, those Department of Conservation staff know true patriotism, because they love their country. I thank them for the work they are doing for our nation's grandchildren and *great?grandchildren. I say thank you to Sandra Lee, a great Minister of Conservation, for her wonderful, inspired leadership. Did she not do well with this Minister of Finance, in terms of the money going into the conservation estate? I thank the Assistant Minister of Finance also. He was a very generous man when it came to conservation, and I will give the former member for Hamilton West, Trevor Mallard, great praise for this. Although the money for back country huts and front?country** facilities is excellent, one of the issues I believe this Parliament will have to face is the threat being posed to New Zealanders' traditional right to roam. I join many out there who are expressing a very grave concern about the bit by bit, incremental threat we are seeing, particularly in terms of some of the high country, the leasehold land issue, and the issue of foreign ownership. We need to be careful. We must not just rest on our laurels and talk about the *Queen's Chain, good as that is. We, as a Parliament, really have to focus on New Zealand's treasured right to enjoy our resources; the right, within reason, to roam across our countryside, on the basis of due agreement with private landowners; and the right to enjoy reasonable access. I am getting very worried that we are beginning to see, on an incremental basis, whole chunks of our high country--our national estate--being denied to New Zealanders. We have a problem there, and I give praise to the Listener and other publications that have highlighted that problem. If we are not very careful we will wake up one morning and realise that we have lost that cherished right. In terms of rebuilding our conservation estate and infrastructure, however, I give full praise to this Government, because that is a huge contribution to New Zealanders being able to use their right to roam.

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