Carter David: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Carter David: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 01 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:1789. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (Minister for Primary Industries) 
: 
 If that was a leadership bid by Mr Cunliffe it was certainly a third-rate effort. I am quite happy to talk to that member about the economic plan of this Government because this Government is absolutely focused on getting the economy performing. We need to do that for the benefit of our children and I need to remind the member that as a former Associate Minister of Finance he is responsible for the mess that this National Government inherited at the end of 2008 when for over 9 years his Government had lived through the most benign economic conditions that I have probably seen in a lifetime and it had squandered every opportunity. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I just ask you to ask the speaker to come back to the debate which is a financial review of a particular year and going forward. It does not go back that far.  
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: I am very mindful of comments and I am listening very carefully. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: I am happy to outline for that member the economic plan of this Government. He should know it; it is mentioned time and time again in the House. But I am only too happy to outline the plan for him.  
We are absolutely committed to get this economy going so that we do create more jobs. But every time we come up with a proposal that member and his caucus object to it. We are absolutely focused on balancing the books. That Opposition has one solution and that is to borrow more money and pass more debt on to the next generation. Well that is unacceptable to me as a Minister of this John Key - led Government. This Government has an absolute commitment to the rebuild of Christchurch something we incessantly see the Labour Party members objecting to. But there is a great opportunity for economic development in Christchurch and I am proud of this Government’s commitment to Christchurch and that rebuild.  
That member talks about the ability to get the economy going and to get jobs in this country. Well I want to speak to one particular initiative that will deliver a lot of jobs to New Zealand. That is around the Skycity deal which has been the subject of a lot of press in the last few days. That member in his contribution a minute ago referred to it as questionable and lacking in transparency. Well when I was Acting Minister for Economic Development last year I had the ability to well and truly be involved in the process. What the Government did was call for particular proposals. From memory there were five. One stood out that was totally different to all the others. Skycity was prepared to deliver the convention centre to Auckland something that the Auckland City mayor is calling for but the difference between the Skycity bid and all the others was that it did not expect the Government to pay for it. It did not expect the Government to pay for it.  
This convention centre has the potential to deliver not hundreds of jobs but over time thousands of jobs to the Auckland economy and thousands of jobs to New Zealand. Mr Cunliffe shakes his head. Mr Cunliffe shakes his head. That is how bereft of economic ideas that man is when he says that a national convention centre able to take that number of delegates and able to bring that number of people into New Zealand would not create jobs. That is economically naive Mr Cunliffe.  
It will require us to address some issues around gaming machines but if we see the overall number of gaming machines decline from 25000 in the Auckland region when that member was a Minister in the Labour Government to around 18000 we are achieving a significant reduction. So I fully support what John Key as the Prime Minister is doing to develop this. It is a $350 million investment into the Auckland economy. That is just the construction cost and it will deliver jobs. And I say to Mr Cunliffe that if he thinks we can rebuild the economy from the mess that that Labour Government left at the end of 2008—if he thinks we can rebuild the economy and deliver sustained growth to New Zealand and sustained jobs to New Zealanders—and expect the Opposition to vote against every initiative we come up with then it is no wonder Mr Shearer languishes in the polls and it is no wonder the Labour Opposition languishes in the polls. Mr Cunliffe might have come out with a major speech over the last couple of days acknowledging that his Government got it wrong but what he should do is not object to every proposal that this Government has to really get the economy going.