Joyce Steven: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Joyce Steven: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 26 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5666. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. Meanwhile back in the real world the economy is growing 2.5 percent larger than it was this time last year and there are 57000 more jobs in the New Zealand economy than 2 years ago. Household saving is positive for the first time in more than a decade and total goods and services exports have increased dramatically over the last couple of years and all without getting the printing presses out and trying to print money like the desperate approach suggested by Mr Peters who incidentally never came up with it in all the time he has been in various Governments over the 20000-odd years he has been in Parliament. Nobody has come up with a proposal today that is a solution. The New Zealand economy is actually doing pretty well compared with most parts of the developed world—not as well as we would like. There are upsides and there are downsides. There are some people who are doing well and there are some people who are struggling—we understand that—because of the global financial crisis and what has been happening around the world and what has been happening in our own country in terms of the Christchurch earthquakes. 
 This week was a tough week down the West Coast with the news that the Spring Creek Mine is losing money and is uneconomic to keep open at current coal prices. That is very difficult. But there could be an upside. Just up the coast there is another mining project that is ready to go which is economic at current coal prices. There are private investors who want to invest in a new mine up the coast on the Denniston Plateau. They have consents but they also have appeals against those consents. Roughly the same number of jobs could be created at this new project as are being lost in the uneconomic underground mine in Spring Creek. That is the opportunity. 
So yesterday I called on the objectors to just once—just once in a special case—withdraw their objections to allow this mine to go ahead; to withdraw their objections and to assist. I suggested that the Labour Party supposedly in favour of jobs the Green Party supposedly in favour of jobs—and it wants to have a select committee hearing on manufacturing which is of course including coal—and the Amalgamated Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union join me in that call. There has been a deafening silence. The union popped its head up and said: “Oh actually we support the Bathurst Resources mining application.” It popped its head up. I went back to it and said does that mean it supports my call for the objections to be withdrawn and there was a deafening silence from the union. It was not on the side of making the call to have those objections withdrawn. 
Where was the local MP? Where was one Damien O’Connor? Damien O’Connor was nowhere. I asked and there was no sign of any comment from Damien O’Connor about the importance of withdrawing the appeals and getting these jobs going on the Coast. And what about the leadership of the Labour Party the members who were on the steps of Parliament yesterday—on the steps of Parliament talking to the miners—but who have been deafening in their silence on calling for the appeals to be withdrawn? They have not done it. And then there is the Green Party which has cried crocodile tears about manufacturing jobs in the country. Where were Mr Hague and his colleagues when I suggested they talk to their mates in the environmental movement and suggest the appeals be withdrawn? They were absolutely nowhere. Their silence is deafening. It is absolutely appalling that on the one hand they say that they have got an interest in jobs but on the other hand they will keep really quiet—really quiet—when it comes to actually supporting this. Then there is Annette King who has absolutely no interest in it. So it is a very straightforward exercise. I would welcome the support of the Green Party and the Labour Party. The local MP alongside the National Party— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! I apologise to the Minister. I will make sure he gets his time. This level of interjection is totally unacceptable. A robust debate is good but this is over the top. Some of the most recent interjections from both sides of the House have been totally irrelevant as far as I can make out. I just ask the House to settle down a little bit so that the public can hear the Minister. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I know you are upset Mr Speaker but I think you would hardly rule that way when the Minister is complaining about silence from the Labour Party. He invited a response. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I accept that a level of robustness is in order but the member’s own level of interjection was quite unreasonable. The member has quite an effective voice when it comes to volume on interjections and the level is just too much. I ask the House to just come back to a little bit of order and I will make sure that the Minister still has his remaining 35 seconds or thereabouts.  
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: I would welcome the member taking a call and saying that he too calls on the appellants to withdraw their objections to the Bathurst Resources mine and if he is prepared to do that I would welcome that. That would be fantastic. But basically at the moment the Labour Party the Greens the Amalgamated Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union and of course the environmentalists are all very very quiet about viable jobs on the West Coast. This Government is focused on building competitive opportunities for companies to grow and once again we learnt this week that the Opposition is not.