Goff Phil: International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Goff Phil: International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 08 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2015. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Labour—Mt Roskill) 
: 
 Labour is supporting this legislation the International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill. It is supporting it because we are a member of the International Monetary Fund and we are therefore obliged to meet the obligations that we have in that regard. The importance of this fund is such that this bill slightly increases our commitment to underwrite an amount effectively to around about $3 billion. It is a significant underwriting for a country of our size.  
We are not so happy about the changes that allow future updates to the articles to be made by regulation. We do not think that is appropriate because it means decisions will then be made by the Minister without reference to a debate in this Chamber.  
I want to go back to a couple of points that are absolutely incorrect that were made by the Hon Nick Smith. To the accusation that the Opposition parties including Labour are anti-global I want to say to the Hon Nick Smith that it was this Labour Government that negotiated a free-trade agreement with China. I want to say quite proudly that after I signed that agreement in the Great Hall of the People in April 2008 in 4 years our trade with China has doubled and that trade has moved more into balance with our exports to China going up faster than our imports from that country. This National Government would be in real trouble if we did not have a free-trade agreement with China that enabled us to have as our second-biggest trading partner today a country that is enjoying 10 percent growth a year.  
I want to say additionally that it was that Labour Government that negotiated the free-trade agreement with Australia and ASEAN which is one of the fastest-growing economic regions of the world. It was that Labour Government that started the free-trade negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. So Nick Smith needs to look at his conscience when he makes rubbish statements like “The Labour Party Opposition is anti-global.” This is a party that in Government expanded our horizons and opened up our markets.  
I want to say this as well. He talks about reckless policies; I want to tell you what was reckless. Reckless was John Key and Bill English in Opposition who kept telling us in Government to spend the surplus. During the good years they would have had us spend the surplus on tax cuts for the best-off people. But no the Labour Government was smart. The Labour Government actually used those surpluses to pay down the debt to the extent that when the National Government took office the Government accounts were not in the red; they were in the black. We had a net surplus in the Government accounts. It was Bill English who stood up on 12 December and said that we were in a good position to take on the global financial crisis because the Government had prepared for the rainy day. He was not talking about the National Government—it had been in office 4 days. It was the Labour Government that used the money responsibly and if there is any reason why New Zealand is in a better shape than the Europeans and so many other countries in the world it is that the Labour Government had said we needed to prepare for the rainy day and that we needed to get our books into shape. The fact that this National Government has been able to borrow up to $300 million a week is because of the sound fiscal position that the Labour Government left National in when it assumed office.  
Finally in the last minute that is left I want to comment on John Hayes’ remark: “no asset can be viewed as truly safe.” We know that. We know that the answer to getting out of the economic position that New Zealand is in is not to sell off our best-performing assets—the power companies that returned in 2010 $700 million to the New Zealand taxpayer. We will keep those assets and we will use growth to get this country back to the living standards and back to the sound economic position that the Labour Government left it in when National came into office.  
We support this bill but I have got to say that from the last two National speakers I have heard absolutely unadulterated nonsense about the shape of the economy they found and the commitment of this Labour Party which in Government has been a truly internationalist party that has played its role in the world and has met its obligations.