Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): This is a Government that may not deliver on infrastructure it may not have delivered on the slow tram down Dominion Road it may not have delivered on houses but it has delivered for the unions—there's no question about that. So those union members can be very happy that this is a Government very much focused on their concerns and their desires.I suppose the point I'd make first is that we're here one day before the Budget and we'll be interested to see what the figures are tomorrow. We look around the world where the US economy is at boom-time growth levels likened to the roaring 1920s we see the Chinese economy expand a record 18 percent in the first quarter in an annual rate the UK is growing faster and a number of countries around the world have economies that are booming. We'll wait and see what New Zealand is doing but my fear is that we are only coming out of COVID quite slowly and there's enormous pressure on the New Zealand economy notwithstanding the fact that this Government is borrowing at a faster rate than any Government in our history. They're borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars every week in order to pump up the economy—DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is not a Budget speech. Come to the bill.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: You're quite right Mr Speaker. I'm just giving the context to this bill which is to say that we're in a time when we're facing real economic challenges and what do we get from this Government? Do we ever get any legislation through this Government focused on enabling the economy to grow faster?Stuart Smith: No.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: No—no. Is there anything any legislation that is focused on growth and expanding the productivity of this country? No. What we see week in week out is more legislation focused on redistribution and on extra regulation forcing businesses to pay workers more. Now in perfect world of course the whole purpose of Government policy is to have higher wages—that's what we're all about. Everybody on both sides of the House all sides of the House wants New Zealanders to earn better wages and higher incomes.Hon Phil Twyford: No you don't. You never do.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: Of course we do.Hon Phil Twyford: No you always argue to reduce labour costs.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: I'm not going to take lessons from the deliverer of the slow tram down Dominion Road for three years. You might not have delivered your slow tram but you've delivered for the unions.Hon Phil Twyford: Reducing labour costs—that's what you stand for.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Both of you—when you say the wrong pronoun you mean me. Cut it out.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: You're quite right Mr Speaker. The point I was trying to make before I was rudely interrupted by Mr KiwiBuild" was that we are all focused on increasing incomes. But if you want to increase sustainable incomes in this country you have to have a stronger economy and if you want to have higher incomes for New Zealanders we need to be more productive and generating stronger things. So you can force employers to pay people more as this Government has done with very very rapid increases to the minimum wages and changes to entitlements—you can force employers to do that but you can't force an employer to stay in business if their business is no longer profitable. You can't force an individual to say "I'm going to put my money at risk in a business and keep employing people." if they're not able to make it happen.So when we think about this bill I think of a woman in the Epsom electorate who I know well who has a small business in Mount Eden and employs a number of young people—primarily part-time students—and they'll typically work one day a week so they might work 50 days a year. One of the interesting kinks of the sick leave entitlements is that they're not prorated in any way. So that means that even if you work only 50 days a year you're still entitled to the full five days' sick leave a year. This bill introduced by this Government doubles that to 10 days' sick leave a year and it's still not prorated in any way shape or form so even if you've actually only worked one day a fortnight—so you've only worked 26 days a year—Hon Michael Wood: Like the National caucus.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: —then like the Labour Party caucus you only work one day every fortnight or 26 days a year. Or perhaps the Labour Cabinet only work one day a fortnight. So you only work 26 days a year but you're still entitled to 10 days' sick leave.The reality is that we all of course—of course—work on the assumption that everyone is focused on the best interests of whatever enterprise they're working for but the reality in life is that some people don't. The experience of this lady who employs people in Mount Eden is that her young employees know the rules know what's entitled and they see sickness leave as an entitlement and they take the full five days. Her worry is that if they take the full 10 days and she's only employing them for 50 days a year that becomes quite an impost on her as a business. She is struggling to survive and she wonders in combination with the higher minimum wage and various other entitlements that have been passed through how she's expected to stay in business.The members on the other side just mock and are full of scorn and don't care about this. They think this is just ridiculous concerns of centre-right parties. It's not. It's concern for the reality of life for these small-business people who are struggling to stay afloat and look after themselves and their families. Any responsible Government would take this seriously and recognise that at a time when small businesses are struggling to go through a difficult period in our economy and when we have great uncertainty as to what's going to happen. The rest of the world as I have said—the UK the US China—may be growing rapidly this year and we may or we may not because we don't know when the vaccine will roll out—and I'm not going to stray too far from the topic at hand—Hon Phil Twyford: Triple A from Standard & Poor's.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: Well that's right—triple A. Well the complacency that we see on the other side of this House about the New Zealand economy is something to behold. I just hope that their complacency is justified. But when I look across the world at the challenges that we face the immense borrowing that's been brought on the immense amount of money that's been printed by the Reserve Bank the incredibly low interest rates and the massive inflation in asset prices that we see I see that there are real risks on the horizon.So where do we get our growth and where do we get our increasing productivity from? We get it ultimately from people being prepared to risk their money to invest in new businesses and investing in better plant and machinery—investing in their businesses to become more productive. But who would make those investments right now when there is so much global uncertainty and then so much domestic uncertainty from a Government that keeps changing the rules all the time? That is the risk.So it's not compulsory for people to risk their money in new investments and to start new businesses and to employ people and this is the mistake that this Government makes time and time again in so many areas. It's the same in housing where we've got a real crisis around rental property. They seem to miss the basic point that it's not compulsory for people to rent out houses and if you make it too difficult too expensive and too risky people won't and then the supply will shrink. The same thing with employment: if you make it too risky too difficult too challenging and too expensive then fewer people will take the risk and that means that fewer young people in particular in New Zealand will have the opportunity to have a job.The proposition on the other side right now from Michael Wood the Minister—he's got it all under control—is that "I can double costs in this particular area and many other areas increase costs significantly and it will have no implications or no consequences for businesses. Everything will be fine." Well that is your proposition. I'd be very interested to see how it works out. But my concern for employers and employees across this country is that what we're doing right now is making it more difficult for those people who are trying to stay in business and provide opportunities both for their customers and for their employees.While everybody would like to have as much sick leave as they possibly can and in a perfect world there would be no questions asked at any point about sick leave and people could have all the entitlements that they want we also recognise that we live in a world where New Zealand businesses are struggling to compete globally and we should take that seriously. The impression I get from that Government in this bill is that they are not taking those concerns seriously and that—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired. E noho."