Shanks Katrina: Address in Reply 
Shanks Katrina: Address in Reply 
[Volume:652;Page:1212] 
KATRINA SHANKS (National) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to get up and speak tonight from this side of the House. It is the first time that I have spoken this term. It is a pleasure to be on the Government benches. What a great place to be! 
First of all I congratulate my colleague Tim Macindoe on his birthday today. I hear that he is 32 again. I congratulate Tim and wish him happy birthday. 
It is great to be standing here as a Government member of Parliament knowing that a million people of New Zealand endorsed this National Government and endorsed John Key to lead this country in some of the hardest times we have seen in a very long time. I think the country can sit back and say that yes we are seeing some action we are seeing some determination we are seeing some focus we are seeing some consultation and we are seeing a Prime Minister deliver a strategy and a plan to manage New Zealand through these hard economic times. That is what we have seen since the second week when he formed a coalition in the fastest time ever in New Zealand’s history. The speed at which he did that and the dedication he showed to pull together a strong team were just the beginning of what this country will see and what John Key can deliver and is currently delivering for this country. 
A lot of the things that John Key comes out with are not rocket science. They are not rocket science; they are common sense being applied to this country. Let us talk about his announcements last week—the tax cuts that he brought in. He brought these tax cuts in to focus on small and medium sized businesses. I know that yesterday one of the members Jim Anderton said John Key has done nothing for small and medium sized businesses and nothing for the primary—rural—sector. In fact farms are small and medium sized businesses. This type of packet is designed to address the rural sector to address the sectors that are struggling and need a little bit of assistance right now. He went out and listened he had consultations with the sector and he has now brought in some very very simple tax changes. They are $48 million worth of tax changes over the next 4 years. 
A lot of them are just simple cash flow things to help businesses out in this very difficult time. Anybody in a small business would know that the hard part right now is cash flow. It is hard for a number of reasons. It is hard because it is hard to get credit for working capital. It is hard because people are not spending the same amount of money. It is hard because many people have stock coming through the pipeline at them and they cannot stop it. Their sales are dropping but they bought stock they booked stock for their shops and their factories 8 months ago. They cannot stop that stock coming through the pipeline. For them it is a real cash flow issue. 
Some of the initiatives are very very simple such as filing a PAYE return monthly instead of fortnightly. Raising that threshold means that some small-business owners can actually focus on doing the business not on all the red tape. I am referring to simple things like raising the GST threshold from $40000 to $60000. If one is a small-business owner or a part-time person working or consulting for oneself to try to get one’s family ahead that measure is great thing. Anybody who is in business will know that GST takes up a fair bit of time—sitting down doing the returns checking the returns then sending them all off. Everyone knows how easy it is to make a small mistake on these returns which results in penalties. So the lifting of the threshold is good for those who have just started out in business have a small business or are mothers who have gone back to work and are working for themselves. They do not need to be GST registered and that gives them breathing space to build up their businesses a little bit. The change in the provisional tax instalments where the threshold is lifted by 5 percent helps businesses to pay less provisional tax going forward thus freeing up their cash flow. A fair bit of work has been done around the fringe benefit tax and a fair bit of work has been done around simplifying some of the legal expenses that can be claimed. 
This is not rocket science. This is not massive change. This is actually just helping businesses. That is what John Key is about—practical solutions that can be delivered quickly to New Zealanders. That is what the people of New Zealand need right now. 
The tax package is not the only part of the economic stimulus. The Government realises it needs to keep people in jobs. That is absolutely crucial if the Government is to keep the economy going round. We need money to go round a bit to oil the economy in these hard times. Jobs are a very very important part of that. The Prime Minister has put together the Job Summit. Once again it is not rocket science. It meets on 27 February in Auckland. Two hundred leaders of industry have been brought in to meet and discuss how jobs can be kept safe for New Zealanders. When we look at the six topics to be talked about we see that they are not flash. They are not exciting; they are the nitty-gritty of keeping businesses afloat and offering jobs. The topics are business investment tax infrastructure and new business; the workplace and labour markets; helping firms survive; workers skills transition and adjustment; the Maori economy and local and regional government; and liquidity and capital. Those are the very basics which businesses can struggle with in hard times. 
Once again this is not rocket science. This is not being done in Wellington in a room with officials telling people how to fix the problem. We are going out into the sectors we are consulting we are listening and we are forming packages accordingly. 
But it is not only that. It is actually more real than that. Anyone can go to the website and feed to the chair of the committee his or her own views on how to support jobs in the next 12 months. It is very very interactive and it very very easy to be involved in the process. We are also running a series of regional workshops throughout New Zealand. A person who has not been picked to be one of those 200 leaders can go to those workshops and have his or her say there. Those views will also be fed into the summit. It is very practical and hands-on. It is not a talkfest; it is a “do-fest.” It is about finding answers to simple questions like how to help provide credit for working capital for businesses that cannot obtain it. What is happening out there? Can they get credit for their working capital or not? These are crucial questions in terms of keeping businesses afloat. John Key has recognised that and is actually doing something solid. He is doing it very quickly; 26 February is only a couple of weeks away. So if people hear that the National Government is not moving very fast they can be assured that it is actually moving very very fast. People will see us delivering some very good results. 
On the back of that I would like to talk about the announcements today: the $216 million that will be spent on education the $142 million that will be spent on transport and the $124 million that will be spent on housing. The great thing about these initiatives is that some of them were in the pipeline and have got consent already but most of them can have their wheels down and be delivered within a month. The housing initiative can be delivered within a month and the education stuff can be delivered within a month because they do not need resource consent. The Government is putting economic stimulus into the economy by injecting money straight in. 
But the good thing about it is that it is not just in one location. It is not all in Auckland Wellington or Christchurch; it is over the whole country. The economic downturn has affected the whole country and we have recognised that. Geographically we have spread out where everything goes and put priorities around it so that the whole country will benefit from these initiatives. 
I am talking about a huge amount of money—$483 million will be injected. That will help out our economy very very quickly. That is the whole idea of this package. We will inject that money in as soon as we can. When we are putting these projects forward we are not saying that we will get funding for them in 6 months. We are applying funding now and that is absolutely fundamental. 
I am excited that I am standing here today as a member of the Government benches. I am proud to be a member of this Parliament. I think it can achieve some great things in very very hard times. I think that all of us as members of Parliament have an obligation to go out there listen to constituents bring the views of those constituents back to Parliament our select committees and our caucuses and work together to keep New Zealand going forward.