Carter John: New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Carter John: New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:609;Page:6269] 
JOHN CARTER (NZ National—Northland) 
: 
 Thank you Madam Chairperson. I want to respond to the Minister’s comments. I am pleased that he took a call. I refer to a press statement he made on 10 December 2002. Indeed he also had made previous press statements. In his comments he said—and he is quite correct—that the leaders the mayors are on record as supporting what he proposed. That is quite correct and I have no argument with that. 
Hon Jim Anderton 
: No what we’ve done. 
JOHN CARTER 
: That is a different thing. [ 
Interruption 
] Yes. They supported his proposal and they said publicly that it would be good for Northland and to get on with it. So did I. The Minister harangued me in the House for that. He made a joke and had all his side laughing about John Carter the senior National Party whip coming out in support of it. But I still thought it was great and so did the mayors the regional council chairmen the iwi leaders—the whole lot indeed. 
He said that he had met recently with the Northland Intersectoral Forum and he had; that is quite right. But I wonder whether Mr Anderton would care to ask those leaders now what they thought. I wonder whether he would like them to make a public statement about what they think of him now. Quite honestly I tell that failed Minister in the chair that he would not get that same warm response at all. The mayors and the chairmen of the councils have given up on this Minister because they know that he and his department are a joke. 
The only reason we are having any success at all is that a very good guy called Mike Sims who is charge of some of this stuff from a local point of view does a great job. 
John Key 
: And a very good local member if I might say so. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Absolutely. Personally I would not want to take any praise myself; it is not in my nature to congratulate myself. Despite this Minister and despite the failings of his department which we will talk about when we get to the purpose clause Mike Sims and his team are making progress. I challenge the Minister to get any one mayor or regional council chairman or iwi leader or any other leader in Northland to state publicly that Jim Anderton is doing a great job. 
That is why I have put in an amendment stating that the bill should be called the “Jim Anderton Self-promotion Bill”. [ 
Interruption 
] If that member over there wants to interject he should get back to his seat to do so. The fact is this Minister has failed Northland. He said: “In the implementation stages up to $2 million will be available for the region for major priorities you set for your regional development.” That is great good and excellent. Where is it? What is it doing? What are we getting out of it? Who does it employ? How has it helped Northland? Not a sausage. If the Minister wants to promote himself this is his opportunity to lay out that list. If one has $2 million surely one could buy some success rather than create it! I thought that that $2 million would expand Northland. 
The Minister talks about having 3.5 percent growth although according to his last press statement there was a decline in the last quarter. I would have thought that the Minister would be saying: “I’ve put this money in through my department. I’m the Minister who created this and this is what it’s done. Look at all this unemployment going down and all that sort of stuff. There’s more businesses happening. People are better off. We’re getting more taxes.” Well we in Northland are because the farmers are doing better—or have been; I have to say they are not doing not so well at the moment. But I am worried about industry. Tourism is doing well but not because of this Minister. 
I have a number of examples where small-business people have gone to the Minister’s department to ask for assistance and have failed to get it and that is sad. Although there is a debate to be had about Mr Shirley’s point of view I want to take some time later during this debate to suggest to the Minister ways in which he could make this work but it is not working at the moment.