Bennett David: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 02 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2873. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]3.DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East)to the Minister of Finance: What reports has he received on the New Zealand economy and business sentiment?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Associate Minister of Finance)on behalf of theMinister of Finance: Treasury recently released its Monthly Economic Indicators for March. The report presents a positive economic picture with the New Zealand economy growing 3.5 percent last year. Treasury states that the elevated net migration and a higher level of consumer and business confidence point to solid growth in consumption and investment. I also received the ANZ Business Outlook report yesterday which showed increases in business confidence firms’ own activity expectations and profit expectations. A net 21 percent of businesses expect to be hiring more staff over the year ahead and a net 25 percent expect to be investing more. The New Zealand economy is not without its risks as the recent fall in dairy prices shows. However these are healthy signs. Reducing unemployment and increasing wages for New Zealand households happen when businesses invest.Mr SPEAKER: Order! Can I just ask for a little less interjection from my left.David Bennett: How is elevated business activity supporting more employment and higher wages for New Zealand workers?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Treasury’s Monthly Economic Indicators reports summarise the views of businesses interviewed around the country. Business activity has remained strong across the country with increased sales supported by higher consumer confidence and the fall in fuel prices. Businesses expect—Dr David Clark: Why are median wages down so much in the regions?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Just get yourself a question. Businesses expect higher activity to continue for the foreseeable future. All businesses interviewed are expecting to maintain or expand their labour forces. Businesses are expecting wages increases of 2 to 3 percent this year well above inflation—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am sorry to interrupt. The level of noise is now getting to the stage where I am going to be asking somebody to leave the House. Would the Minister complete his answer.Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. This is question time not story time. The—Mr SPEAKER: Order! If the member wants to raise a point of order I will hear it but I am not prepared to put up with that sort of rubbish from a senior Opposition member.Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It does relate to the point of order I raised yesterday. When Ministers read long-winded pre-scripted answers to Government questions there is going to be more interjection from this side of the House.Mr SPEAKER: If the answer goes on for too long and it looks like it is a speech then I will and I do intervene. On this occasion I do not think the answer was particularly long. I hope it does not go for too much longer as I asked the Minister to complete it but at the end of the day I am the adjudicator of the length of answer not the Opposition whip.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I appreciate that you do adjudicate on the appropriateness of the length of an answer but I would hope that we do not get to a situation where the Opposition which has every right to question the Government through the procedure of the House process gets us to a position where it actually cannot get answers.Ron Mark: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. This is a fresh point of order. This point of order relates to your comment to the member Chris Hipkins. Mr Speaker can I ask you to reflect. Yesterday you allowed some very spurious points of order from Mr Brownlee. You gave Mr Brownlee some leeway to interject from a seat that was not his own from a position where he deliberately took the opportunity to take advantage and break up my leader’s speeches. I would ask—[Interruption] Points of order are to be heard in silence. There we go once again. It seems—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I have heard enough from the member because that in itself is a very spurious point of order. I think question time is a very serious time for this House and for democracy. I object to it being termed “story time”.David Bennett: What are the risks to New Zealand’s economic outlook?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: We have consistently said that we must not be complacent that the good growth that we are currently experiencing makes us immune from economic risks. For example we saw a further decline in dairy prices overnight with the global dairy trade index down 10.8 percent. New Zealand does well when our major trading partners do well and at the moment the outlook for two of our major trading partners is not as strong as it has been in recent years. In Australia which has higher unemployment than we do the Reserve Bank there has cut its cash rate to 2.25 percent. Growth forecasts have also lowered in China and there has been more monetary easing there. Meanwhile the euro area remains burdened by debt problems that are unresolved. So although we have a solid and positive outlook for economic growth falling unemployment and growing wages we do need to keep focused on further economic reform to help ensure the growth is sustained.Dr David Clark: Is he aware that of 34 OECD countries 10 now have lower unemployment than during the global financial crisis and a further eight have had a smaller increase than New Zealand; if so does falling into the bottom half of the OECD on jobs equal economic success for this Government?Mr SPEAKER: Either of those two supplementary questions—the Hon Steven Joyce.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I think the second part of the member’s question is wrong. I think we are about the 10th or 11th lowest in the OECD right now out of a country list of 34 so that is definitely not in the bottom half. It is actually incidentally one place better than when the previous Government left office in 2008.David Bennett: How is the Government supporting businesses to get ahead through investment and increased hiring?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The Government is taking a range of steps to assist businesses to get ahead. The Government’s microeconomic reform programme the Business Growth Agenda is supporting businesses to invest and create more jobs. We are opening up access to markets for businesses through the free-trade agreement with Korea as well as of course the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement. The Government is supporting further diversification of the economy with the Callaghan Innovation research and development grants programme. The Government’s fiscal restraint is helping keep interest rates lower for longer. It is great for families with a mortgage but also takes some pressure off the exchange rate. Overall the signs are encouraging. Real business investment has increased by around $8 billion in 4 years and 80000 jobs were added to the economy last year.