Anderton Jim: Budget Debate 
Anderton Jim: Budget Debate 
[Volume:617;Page:13421] 
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Minister for Economic Development) 
: 
 Firstly I congratulate Dr Michael Cullen on this his fifth Budget. The financial management of the two Governments in which I have had the privilege to serve with Dr Cullen has worked towards and resulted in unemployment falling to the lowest level in New Zealand in 16 years—4.3 percent. I am very proud of that figure. In the 1990s the level of unemployment never dropped below 6 percent. When Don Brash was the Reserve Bank governor he used to predict in his forecasts that the unemployment rate of around 7 percent would stretch out forever. He seemed to accept that level of human trauma with equanimity. The number of people receiving the unemployment benefit has more than halved since this Government came to office and 193000 more New Zealanders now have paid jobs than in 1999. When I came into Government I said that my top priority was jobs and that remains my top priority today. I also have to congratulate Michael Cullen on producing Budgets that have enabled that outcome to take place. 
This year’s Budget ensures that a better income for families in need is the top priority for assistance. People have said: “Why wasn’t it done earlier?” and I want to deal with that matter. The truth is that when one is increasing the income of the most needy families in New Zealand by up to $1.2 billion or $1.3 billion that money has to go into the baselines of income support; otherwise one is giving with one hand one year and taking away the next. So one had better make sure it is sustainable. It is only the performance of the New Zealand economy and what this Government’s policies have done for it that enables the kind of certainty that this income support package indicates. 
The only uncertainty is whether the National Party if ever elected would remove it. I think it is important for National members to say something about that. Mr Brash indicated when he started that he supported some of these policies but he ended up looking as though he did not support them at all. The question is whether the National Party is going to go on the road between now and the next election and say it will abandon these policies. If National members do not say that then what on earth have they been saying up until now? I cannot understand and I would like to be made aware by subsequent National Party speakers what its position is. 
This year’s Budget ensures that a better income for families in need is the top priority for this Government. The Progressive Party is committed to ensuring that no one lives in poverty. We are proud to support these initiatives which are of course designed to reduce hardship for the least affluent families and particularly for New Zealand children far too many of whom have been living in an environment of poverty for too long. 
I emphasise that the value of this Budget in transforming the industrial base of the New Zealand economy is part and parcel of the ability of this Government to now make these commitments because this Budget takes as its predecessors have a comprehensive approach to economic development. It is focused on strengthening and deepening New Zealand’s connections to the world economy. In other words it helps us do a better job in selling New Zealand and its production to the rest of the world. It moves us into high-value high-skilled production that customers overseas want to buy. That is the only way we are going to ensure prosperity for all New Zealanders into the future. There is $500 million over 4 years in this Budget to help unleash New Zealanders’ creativity and talent. 
I do not think the House fully understands the importance of the economic development work that this Government is doing and has done. Our broad approach is not limited to the economic development portfolio; it goes across the board including commerce small business finance education science and technology immigration education and so on. The National Party spokesperson on finance calls it corporate welfare so presumably he will advocate to get rid of all of that. I look forward to the National Party telling exporters that it will axe the $35 million provided in this Budget to help find New Zealand markets and strategic partners for New Zealand businesses. Is National going to say that? 
Simon Power 
: Put your back into it! 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: I look forward to the National Party members putting their backs into telling New Zealand businesses that they will abandon policies for the improvement of business in New Zealand and for our export community in particular. 
An example of course of the difference between what was done before and what is done now can be seen in the forestry and wood-processing industry and what happened when New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and myself as the Minister for Economic Development went to Europe. We identified Denmark’s furniture-manufacturing industry as a partner in wood processing in New Zealand and that led to significant investment by Zenia House in wood processing and furniture manufacturing of a high quality in New Zealand. The result of that commitment is going to be a very significant investment in jobs and high-value furniture manufacturing in regions in New Zealand. 
I look forward to the National Party telling industry it would cut those programmes that are aimed at improving the capabilities of our managers for example. When the Information and Communications Technology Sector Task Force which the Government initiated last year looked at the future of that industry it determined that it wanted a hundred companies to grow into a hundred million-dollar-a-year companies. The task force identified that one of the biggest obstacles to doing that was the shortage of managers capable of taking a company to that level. So the Government in this Budget is playing its part by providing a significant increase in investment to boost management capability. If the former bond and currency trader who is now the National Party’s deputy spokesperson on finance thinks that is corporate welfare then I invite him to tell industry that National will cut it. I would like to read the speech he gives when he does that—because we cannot cut the tax rate and increase the assistance we are giving to businesses in this country to grow. 
The Government is investing in science and technology and in the education sector. We are supporting the hothouses of innovation and improving their links with the world to help connectedness and New Zealand innovation. 
The performance of this Government in accelerating the economy proves that every economic idea that National and ACT stand for is wrong. The economy has withstood the tech-wreck the United States recession severe acute respiratory syndrome a drought a flood commodity reversals and countless more. Those events used to be the kind of excuse the National Party Government used for not being able to do anything about the future of the New Zealand economy. Members will remember the Asian financial crisis the drought the BNZ issue and all the other excuses it came up with to explain what was wrong with the New Zealand economy and why it could not possibly do anything to fix it. National members claim that it is just coincidence or luck that we have actually been able to fix the economy now. How was it that in 9 years they never got any coincidences or any luck? I cannot believe that we got so lucky and they were so unlucky for so long. 
Maybe there is another explanation for the poor economic performance then and the sound economic performance now—that is that they are over there and we are over here. I think that is a much more simple and plausible explanation than anything I heard from the National Party Government during its term of office. The economy is doing better because Michael Cullen did not blow his budget in the earlier years of this Government on tax cuts that we could not afford. We have improved New Zealand’s economic performance so that we can now afford the social dividend to the families of New Zealand that they so richly deserve. 
Today even after all those floods and pestilences the regional economy of New Zealand is defined as being sharp focused and growing—in every single region. Even the Manawatu with its flood problem has dropped only marginally and even then it has still grown by 3.9 percent. How is that for: “Oh we had a flood. We can’t do anything.”? I mean—really! We have to ask ourselves. At the Smart Business business development celebration in the Manawatu this week every speaker commented on how welcome it was that this Government partners industry and partners the region and people said that without that assistance they would not be where they are today. 
I think fundamentally it is about time we got some acknowledgment that the old ideas—the ideas of Governments staying out of everything not partnering businesses regions and families and not being prepared to get involved in the community of New Zealand and be on its side—have ended and I congratulate Michael Cullen on that. I know that my colleagues are very proud as I am of this future-looking Budget and how well it will serve the interests of New Zealand and its people.