Joyce Steven: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Joyce Steven: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 18 August 2010. Volume:665;Page:13235. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 Let us be clear about what this Government inherited. It inherited a recession before the rest of the world. This country was in recession before the global financial crisis. It also had a pathetically poor level of increase in after-tax wages. That was caused by the previous Government not handing back the hard-earned income of New Zealanders. We also inherited a projected decade of deficits because when the recession arrived and the tide went out the high levels of Government expenditure were projecting a decade of deficits. That is what we inherited. We also inherited—just so that we are clear—a record number of New Zealand graduates living overseas. There were massive numbers. So if we are talking about the flight of New Zealanders it was done under the Labour Government over the 9 years it was in office. 
There are others things. Labour members criticise us about corrections. The record pipeline of incoming prisoners into the corrections service was created by Labour in its 9 years in Government. Further it tipped a whole lot of money into a whole range of areas—even one I happen to know a little bit about called tertiary education. It slipped a massive amount of money in there but over that period it did not increase the number of graduates per year coming out of our universities at all. Over the whole 9-year period that was flat and it was the most ludicrous waste of public money that that administration oversaw. 
We have a plan which is a serious considered range of things that will lift the growth path of this country. I thought given that Mr Cunliffe does not understand it I would take him through it briefly. First is personal tax reform which is hugely important. The biggest personal tax reform that this country has seen in 20 years will put more money in people’s pockets and encourage them to work hard and get ahead. The second thing we are doing is cutting a lot of red tape right across the public sector including of course in the much-talked-about Resource Management Act reforms but also in a whole range of areas. We are putting investment into science. We are putting the country’s money where its mouth is in science and that is very important. 
We are reforming employment law which this Opposition does not want us to do. It does not want us to encourage people into jobs. We are putting more money into industries like tourism. We are lowering company taxes down to a rate of 28 cents in the dollar which will give us a lift over the Australians. We are sorting out Canterbury irrigation something that members on the other side of the House admitted that they should have done over their period in office—only 9 years one should understand; it is hard to get around to doing things when one has only 9 years. It did not sort it out. We have sorted it out; we have grasped the nettle. 
Speaking of which Auckland governance reforms took the previous Government ages. It had a royal commission which we inherited because it did not have time to do it over the 9 years that it was in office. We inherited the Auckland governance reforms. We took the issue and we ran with it. Now Labour members are turning around to say that it should not happen and that if it is going to happen it should not happen until 2014. That was classic of Labour in office—to kick everything off. We have also taken off Labour’s moratorium on aquaculture—the handbrake it had on the aquaculture sector over 9 years. 
We are putting a huge effort into trade negotiations by sending our friends Mr Groser and Mr McCully offshore as often as possible. We have the Primary Growth Partnership. We are encouraging responsible mining. Export education—how is that going? That has grown under the 2 years of this National Government very very significantly; it was flat and declining under the previous Labour administration. 
I come now to infrastructure. In infrastructure a massive investment is being made by this Government in such areas as roading first of all. That is a big investment $10.7 billion over 10 years by reprioritising expenditure. That is a big lift to the construction and contracting industry and to the productivity of the New Zealand economy. We are also investing in KiwiRail. We inherited an incredibly expensive option—nearly a billion dollars was paid for something worth around $350 million—but we have said that we will invest in it and turn it round. We have a turn-round plan that can work. It is a challenging plan it is a big plan and it will cost around $4.5 billion over 10 years. We are putting three-quarters of a billion dollars into it and that is a big investment. Ultra-fast broadband is about to have partners chosen for it— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: That’s an oxymoron. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: I say to Mr Cunliffe that he has no record on that; 9 years in office and in the last 2 years he managed something. That is the history of Labour.