Hon Christopher Finlayson

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Attorney-General) What a second-grade contribution that was from a second-grade member! That member was so useless he was booted out of conservation and then booted out of education. It will not be long before the new whiz-kid from Mt Albert takes over from him in foreign affairs.

I have listened very carefully to the various contributions to this debate in the last 2 sitting weeks, and what a contrast there has been between the Labour members and the National members! The Minister of Finance has delivered a forward-looking Budget. It is a Budget that is well suited to the current economic climate; it is a Budget for all New Zealanders. Labour members cannot handle it. They are so blinkered by bitterness and partisanship that all they can do is criticise and moan. They are as inherently negative in Opposition as they were in Government. I have a message for members opposite. I say they should rejoice that National has picked up the ball after 9 years of failure. They should rejoice that we no longer have a Minister of Finance who is a charlatan. They should rejoice that the country is back on track.

As my most excellent colleague from Coromandel, Sandra Goudie, said in this House recently, Helen Clark and Michael Cullen duped the country by proclaiming themselves to be competent, conservative managers of the economy, but in reality they oversaw a litany of failures. They spent while the going was good, and failed to prepare for tough economic times. However, Labour has no solutions now. Its only proposal is to spend, spend, and spend. Labour’s only solution to rising debt is to put more on the credit card. Kiwis are worrying about making ends meet, and all Phil Goff can do is promise billions of dollars of additional spending. This is not the time for extravagance; it is a time for fiscal prudence, common sense, and maturity.

Labour members cannot work out why they lost the election. Well, I will tell them why.

Hon David Carter: I’ll tell them.

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: I say to David Carter to leave it to me; I will tell them. Labour members are elitist and they are out of touch with the worries of ordinary New Zealanders. Not even a trip to Blackball with Phil Goff and a half-pint of Mac’s Sassy Red could reconnect current Labour members with the once-proud tradition of that party. It is a shadow of its former self. It is bereft of ideas, bereft of leadership, and bereft of purpose. [Interruption]

Hon Darren Hughes: I don’t say stupid things like that.

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: All I can say about Mr Hughes is that I can understand why he is so bitter today. It is because in two elections he has gone from rising star to has-been. Today he has seen Nathan Guy sworn in as a Minister of the Crown. Mr Hughes will rot in Opposition while Mr Guy enjoys a distinguished ministerial career. My best advice to Mr Hughes is to retire now and go back to primary school.

I say to Mr Hughes that there is so much good news in this Budget that one does not know where to begin, but I will start with the arts portfolio. I am really pleased to be the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage in a Government that actually cares about the arts; all that Helen Clark ever did was leech off the arts sector. Key artistic and cultural organisations get a boost of $10.5 million over the next 4 years. Creative New Zealand will receive an additional $1.7 million a year. That extra money will support music, dance, and theatre companies so that they can continue to provide New Zealanders with cultural experiences. The Royal New Zealand Ballet will receive an extra $3.4 million over the next 4 years. This funding will help to protect one of New Zealand’s most valuable cultural assets during the economic downturn.

Hon Darren Hughes: Will the Minister be performing?

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: For the benefit of Mr Hughes, let me tell the House that one of the things I have noticed is that Labour members do not turn up to arts functions any more. I think that the free tickets have probably dried up and it would be beyond their wit to actually pay for a ticket. Labour members spent the first half of the year scaremongering about National cutting funding for the arts. What a nasty shock it must have been when the Minister of Finance actually gave the arts an eight-figure boost!

Stuart Nash: What about regional museums?

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: What was Labour’s response to this? Steve Chadwick accused the Government of slashing the regional museums budget by $20 million, and I heard Mr Nash say something similar in an interjection just a few seconds ago. It would be a good headline, except that Steve Chadwick was wrong. If she had read the Budget carefully she would have seen in black and white that a largely unused one-off appropriation that she and her colleagues signed off on had returned to baseline. But I do not want to dwell too much on that mistake, as one should never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence; there is a lot of incompetence when it comes to the new arts spokesperson for the Labour Party. I received a copy of a letter that she has written to various interest groups. This is the way that she signed off a letter on 21 May. Members should listen to this: “I look forward to hearing from you on behalf of your sector, organisation or personal commitment to the Arts, Culture and Heritage.” That is a letter from the new spokesperson for the Labour Party on arts, culture, and heritage. She cannot even write in English. We are doing great things in the arts, and we can be very proud of what, under the guidance of our inspired Minister of Finance, we are continuing to do.

This Government is also delivering in the area of Treaty negotiations. The Budget includes an extra $22.4 million over the next 4 years.

Paul Quinn: How much?

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: I say that it is $22.4 million, for Mr Quinn’s benefit. It will help us achieve our goal of settling all historical Treaty of Waitangi claims by 2014. Labour members have gone quiet now because they are ashamed of their record in Government, and so they should be. The extra money will allow the Office of Treaty Settlements to conduct more negotiations faster. It will provide additional resources for extra facilitation, and mediation assistance to claimant groups. Meeting that settlement goal is positive for New Zealand, and it will do great things for the local economy.

I am working very hard to fix the shameful record of the previous Government. Michael Cullen’s frantic year in the role of Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations did not make up for the lack of action on the part of his predecessors. Mark Burton and Margaret Wilson should be disgusted with themselves. Their legacy is a blot on the entire Treaty settlements process in our country. In Helen Clark’s 9 years at the helm, she was never as engaged in Treaty settlements as John Key is. When we signed three agreements in principle with Te Tau Ihu iwi earlier this year, someone commented to me that it was the first time a Prime Minister had come to a signing of an agreement in principle since the 1990s. I met with a group in Palmerston North recently. The last time it had a meeting with a Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, it was with Doug Graham in late 1999. Thereafter, there was nothing. Those former Ministers’ record is atrocious and they stand condemned for their shameful behaviour in this portfolio. We will remedy the wrong.

Never before has there been such a comparison between members of National and Labour. We are positive; they are negative. We are forward-looking; they are visionless. We stand for aspiration; they stand for envy. We stand for ambition; they stand for mediocrity. What a hopeless bunch! This Budget has been a resounding success. It is a prudent, responsible Budget for difficult times, and all one can say to Bill English is: “Well done.”