Robertson Grant: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 18 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5845. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]8.GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) to the Minister of Finance: Does his plan A for the economy include negative per capita growth rising rates of unemployment credit downgrades for New Zealand banks and the lowest levels of business confidence in 6 years; if so why is he rejecting the call from 75 percent of business leaders in a recent survey for a plan B for the economy?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance): No the Government’s economic plan is based on an economy that is resilient and adaptive to the pressures of the global economy and it is continuing to deliver higher wages increasing employment and a growing economy. If the business leaders did have a plan B we would know because Labour would have plagiarised it by now.Mr SPEAKER: Order!Grant Robertson: How can plan A be working when there are 146000 people unemployed today—11000 more than at this time last year—and the unemployment rate is knocking on 6 percent and forecast to go higher or is higher unemployment really part of plan A?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The plan is working because the economy is quite rapidly making the adjustments it needs to make to the change in the global markets that we deal with. Dairy prices have dropped sharply the exchange rate has quite quickly dropped by almost 20 percent against the US dollar and interest rates are now falling—not rising as we expected them to—and this is going to flow through to stronger export performance particularly in those markets like tourism where demand is strong and continued growth in jobs and investment. The adjustments that one would expect to occur are occurring and the Government should make sure that it does not get in the way of sensible New Zealanders doing the right thing under the pressure that they feel.Grant Robertson: In light of the rosy picture that the Minister has just painted how does he explain a string of business confidence surveys that show the lowest levels of business confidence in 6 years the latest of which being from the Auckland Chamber of Commerce which shows that only 15 percent of its members actually think that things will get better in the next year? How does he explain that if everything—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The question has been asked.Hon BILL ENGLISH: If the member had been listening to my last answer he would have heard that I was not painting a rosy picture; I was painting a picture of an economy adapting to global forces that are impacting on us—the same as business confidence is. It was at a very high level and the world outlook has softened for New Zealand and so business confidence is adjusting to that pretty quickly. But I can tell you that that confidence would certainly erode further if the Government followed that member’s advice and panicked about low dairy prices.Grant Robertson: Can he confirm his statement in this House—which he also repeated at the “Mood of the Boardroom” last week—that the only plan B for the diversification of the economy he has is for it to occur as a result of falling dairy prices?Hon BILL ENGLISH: As has been rehearsed many times in this House the New Zealand economy has been diversifying for some time but I would have to say that if the member does understand the economy he would understand that when prices drop in one sector and effectively go up in another like tourism investment is going to shift from one sector to another. That is not an original idea; that is one I have plagiarised from the economists.Grant Robertson: Having failed to find a plan B for the economy is he now on to plan C which is to break his promise about asset sales and begin to hock off what is left of our State-owned enterprises?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I can assure the member that plan A is not copying and pasting other people’s policies. It is to stick to our policy for an adaptive and resilient economy and of course we will be adjusting to circumstances in exactly the same way that businesses and households today particularly in some of our dairy-intensive provincial areas are having to adapt very quickly to the changing circumstances.Grant Robertson: Has he instructed boards of State-owned enterprises other than Landcorp to investigate selling down capital; if so which ones?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No we have not instructed boards to sell down capital. We have instructed them to show respect for the capital they have which is hard-earned from New Zealanders who pay their taxes their rail fares or their postage and make sure that they are using it very carefully. We have also instructed them that if they have spare capital—that is unutilised land for instance—they should sell it because they are wasting it and that is hard-earned cash. It is hard-earned capital funded by New Zealanders’ cash.Grant Robertson: In light of that answer can the Minister of Finance confirm that he has just told the House that he is breaking the National Party’s promise to not sell any more assets?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No and we disagree with that member’s irresponsible policy that if for instance a Government-owned business has land it no longer needs then it must hold on to it for ever because that is the policy. If it no longer needs land for instance in Auckland we would rather it sells the land in Auckland so we can build houses on it and that is exactly what we are going to do.Rt Hon John Key: Can the Minister of Finance confirm that if Meridian were to sell an asset it held in Australia called Southern Hydro that would be an asset sale?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Yes I can. Having listened to this line of questioning for some time I went back to see whether under the previous Labour Government any assets were sold. I found out much to my surprise that it had sold $600 million of electricity assets in Australia—and apparently that broke its policy.