Shearer David: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Shearer David: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:674;Page:20418] 
DAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert) 
: 
 In following the previous speaker the Hon David Carter I say that there was so much inaccuracy there. I will make a couple of points to start with. First of all in relation to the 10 years of deficits I do not remember 10 years of deficits. I do remember that this Government inherited a surplus and now less than 3 years later we are $16.7 billion in deficit—$16.7 billion in deficit. I also point out to the Minister in the chair the Acting Minister for Economic Development the Hon David Carter—because he really does need to go back and consult his officials—that his research and development policy is worth less than half of what was already in place when National came into office. The tax credits that the Labour Government had put in in 2008 were worth double the amount of the vouchers and various grants this Government has decided to hand out. Fast Forward was worth $700 million which is exactly double what the Minister just crowed on about that his Government has put into place. So when it comes to economic development this Minister really does not know what he is talking about. 
The Minister of Science and Innovation Dr Wayne Mapp often stands up and talks about Denmark and Israel as being the shining examples of what New Zealand could become. It is great that Dr Mapp is walking into the Chamber right now almost on cue. Denmark has been held up as the shining light of what New Zealand could aspire to. We have an agricultural economy that is about the same as that of Denmark but our manufacturing and high-tech sectors are minute when compared with Denmark’s. That is the reason why Denmark is in the top group of the OECD countries and we are down the bottom—and dropping. Mr John Key talks about the Industrial Technology Research Institute the technology and research park in Taiwan which is obviously a place he has visited. Again he holds up this place as being something we should aspire to. Yet when we actually look at what this Government has put in place to enable us to get there we see that what he says the Government aspires to bears absolutely no resemblance. 
The last Budget in 2010 came out with that wonderful step change the big policy talk about what the Government would be doing in science research and innovation. We had actually been waiting for that for more than 2 years. Finally the funding came out and as I said before it was worth exactly half of what the National Government had taken away—exactly half of what it had taken away. This year what has happened? There is $12 million less than what we had in 2010. Despite all the big talk and all the big noting about how this vote would drive the economy and despite the speeches from Dr Wayne Mapp and the Prime Minister about Taiwan and the Industrial Technology Research Institute and all those things we should aspire to we have actually ended up with a whole lot less than what we started with when this Government came into being. It is a whole lot less than what this Government started with—had in its hands—when it came into power. We have simply gone backwards. We have gone backwards. 
We need a tax credit policy that rewards all companies not just the favoured few that happen to apply for the grant and have some bureaucrat smile benignly on them congratulate them on putting in such a good application and give them the money. I was at a company last week a high-tech company with fantastic growth potential which had put in an application but had had it turned down. Under Labour’s tax credit that company would have been rewarded for its effort. 
This Government talks about trying to grow the innovation sector and it talks about research and development. But as I said what it has put in is worth only half of what we put in in the form of a tax credit and the Fast Forward fund of $700 million. That was transferred and taken away by Bill English and it was replaced by this rather paltry anaemic Primary Growth Partnership. This Government has not delivered on its promise to deliver high-quality research science and innovation.