Hayes John: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHayes John: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 20 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16902. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]3.JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa)to the Minister of Finance: What recent reports has he received on progress in building a faster-growing economy that supports more jobs and higher incomes for New Zealanders?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance):This morning Statistics New Zealand issued the GDP data for the December quarter of 2013. It showed that the economy continued to grow at above 3 percent annually confirming that New Zealand is on the right track. The 0.9 percent growth in the December quarter took annual growth to 3.1 percent. So provided that we stick with the Government’s economic programme and New Zealand households and businesses continue to rebalance their debt reorganise their affairs and continue to be more productive we will have a faster-growing economy that can provide higher wages and new jobs for those who need them.John Hayes: What were some of the main sources of growth in the latest GDP data?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The economic growth in the year to the end of December was reasonably broad-based. Statistics New Zealand took particular pleasure in seeing that manufacturing which was said to be in crisis made the largest—not just the median or nearly largest but the largest—contribution to GDP growth “increasing by 2.1 percent taking overall manufacturing activity to the highest level since March 2006.” So the manufacturing sector which apparently is in crisis is now at its highest level of economic contribution since March 2006. Interestingly wholesale trade including machinery and equipment investment also grew significantly. In fact investment in plant machinery and equipment generally associated with manufacturing was up 7.5 percent—the highest level ever since the GDP series began. We look forward to more Opposition-nominated crises of this sort.Hon David Parker: Are non-primary manufactured exports still dropping and still below 2008 levels?Hon BILL ENGLISH: So now the Labour Party story is—Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Hon BILL ENGLISH: —the parts of—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I have a point of order from Grant Robertson.Grant Robertson: That was an extremely direct and specific question and the Minister of Finance starting it with an attack on the Opposition is not within the Standing Orders.Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Minister had hardly started his answer before the member was on his feet. [Interruption] Order! I want to hear the answer and I cannot hear the answer if the member is raising a point of order saying that the question has not been adequately addressed.Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. With respect my point of order was that the Minister began his answer—Mr SPEAKER: The member will resume his seat. I have already said that I have not had enough chance to listen to the answer to consider whether that is appropriate. I call the Hon Bill English.Hon Trevor Mallard: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Hon BILL ENGLISH: Well just let me answer—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I will hear from the Hon Trevor Mallard but I will expect it to be a new point of order.Hon Trevor Mallard: It is a new point of order and it relates to your last ruling when you said you would wait to see whether the attack was appropriate. It could not have been appropriate from a straight question.Mr SPEAKER: Order! I did not say that. I said I would wait to hear the answer. The answer has hardly started before a member is on his feet saying it is unsatisfactory. The question has been asked. It is now so long since it was asked because of what I consider wasteful points of order that I am going to ask the questioner to ask the question again then we will hear the answer.Hon David Parker: Are non-primary manufactured exports still declining and still below the level they were at in real terms in 2008?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I cannot confirm those numbers but I can confirm that a fair bit of the growth of manufacturing comes from the further processing of primary production which I thought the Labour Party supported. But now apparently it is the wrong sort of growth and it does not count. [Interruption] The fact that people get up on Monday morning and go to work to process our primary produce apparently is not real jobs.Mr SPEAKER: Order! If I hear an interjection from Grant Robertson again he will be leaving the Chamber.Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Under your rulings and under the rulings of the previous Speaker when members on this side of the House ask a direct question with no politics associated at all we are given a direct answer. That is not what the Minister of Finance did there and that is why I was interjecting.Mr SPEAKER: I am saying to the member that under no circumstances will I accept his interjecting at that level. If he wants to raise a point of order he can stand and do so. But do not stand there barracking across the Chamber. I expect on this occasion that the question has—Dr Russel Norman: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. This is about Standing Order 383 and the “Content of replies”. This was a very specific question. It did not bring the National Party or the Labour Party or the Green Party into it. Standing Order 383 is very clear. It says that the reply “must be concise and confined to the subject-matter of the question asked” and not include all of those other kinds of references. Clearly the Minister of Finance keeps breaching this Standing Order. We are asking you to enforce it.Mr SPEAKER: The member is raising a perfectly legitimate point of order. I think in hindsight that I let that answer go on far longer than it should have.John Hayes: How does New Zealand’s latest quarterly GDP growth compare with growth rates in other developed economies and what are forecasters saying about New Zealand’s growth outlook for the next few years?Hon BILL ENGLISH: New Zealand’s growth rate is better than that of quite a few developed countries but of course the real measure of its success is whether it is providing more jobs for New Zealanders and higher incomes for New Zealanders. The good news is that forecasters are generally expecting that New Zealand’s growth rate will be maintained through 2014. This however is no cause for complacency or for a fiscal lolly scramble. This country has a lot of work to do yet to ensure that every New Zealander who can work can get a job and that all those New Zealanders who have a job are paid in a manner that they regard as appropriate.John Hayes: What other economic indicators are contributing to New Zealand’s stronger economic outlook and supporting more jobs and higher incomes?Hon BILL ENGLISH: There are quite a number of indicators some of which we have discussed before such as business and consumer confidence but one important one is that in the year to March productivity increased by 2.1 percent above the annual rate of 1.6 percent. In the longer run there are increases in productivity which will underpin higher incomes for New Zealanders. The Government will continue to work hard to help create the conditions that enable businesses to invest more and for New Zealanders to get more skills so we can continue to raise productivity because there is so much more potential.Hon David Parker: How has his Government’s corporate cronyism handouts subsidies and paybacks to large multinationals and corporate donors to the National Party—[Interruption] Mr Speaker may I repeat my question. It is in order.Mr SPEAKER: Order! The difficulty is that we have just had a discussion around expecting answers to be concise. Equally there is a Standing Order asking for questions to be concise. I am relatively liberal in interpreting that to allow a political exchange but the reason there is disorder is the tone of the question that is being asked by the member. If he wants to continue with that I am certainly not going to rule it out of order but it is likely that it will engender a response from the Government side. The Hon David Parker—start the question again.Hon David Parker: How has his Government’s corporate cronyism handouts subsidies—Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That is a disreputable reference. It would be no different from my making an allegation that yesterday the Labour Party introduced for example a policy for cash to fund its campaign. Everyone knows that that is what is happening but it is not appropriate to say it. It is not appropriate for him to put that in a question and it most definitely is outside the content of questions requirement of Standing Order 383 as was cited by the Opposition a few moments ago.Mr SPEAKER: The difficulty with the situation is that those words have now been used for some months and did not receive any objection from the Government at the time. [Interruption] Order! I am suggesting to the member that she is wrong. I have heard those words used on a number of occasions. I do not think they bring credit to this House at all but because I have allowed them through in the past I cannot see that we can change the course of action.Hon David Parker: How has his Government’s corporate cronyism handouts subsidies and paybacks to large multinationals and corporate donors to the National Party including by amongst others Judith Collins helped to provide better jobs and higher incomes for New Zealanders?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I simply disagree with the member. It is ironic coming the day after the Labour Party has announced the results of its interaction with the forestry industry where the Labour Party policy hands out tens of millions of dollars of cash to a number of New Zealand’s biggest corporates which probably through some confidential trust created by David Cunliffe will be funding the Labour Party.Hon David Parker: Why is the corporate cronyism he tries to justify a better option than providing tax incentives to the whole of a productive value-added export sector like forest processing which will create better jobs and higher wages?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The Government has no activity that could be described as corporate cronyism. We have made a few pragmatic decisions about one or two significant pressures on the New Zealand economy and I think most New Zealanders have regarded them as a fair go. What is clear though is that the Labour Party has a different view. Industry by industry Labour members seem to be going around designing policy for cash handouts to people who will almost certainly be incentivised to support them in the election.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I do not want to in any way dispute the ruling—well not really the ruling the comments—that you gave in the House earlier on the matters that we were discussing. You would have to go back to 1952 before there was a definitive Speaker’s ruling about the imputing of improper motives to the Government which effectively is what the Hon David Parker did. I wonder whether you might consider that ruling and come back to us to see just whether Speakers’ ruling 50/3 still stands some 50 years later.Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: I will hear from Grant Robertson.Grant Robertson: I think you are going to take up the Leader of the House’s invitation and when you do so perhaps you might like to consider the answer that the Minister of Finance just gave impugning the Labour Party and suggesting that we were somehow making policy for money that we are going to be donated. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I do not need any more assistance. I will certainly have a close look at the matter because I suspect it is going to be something that is raised on more than one occasion as we lead towards the election. But I will in response to Grant Robertson’s point particularly note that when a question is asked that does have imputations etc. it is likely to give an opportunity—Grant Robertson: We didn’t challenge it.Mr SPEAKER: Order! I accept that the member did not challenge it. The point I am making is that it does give significant licence to whoever is answering the question.