Anderton Jim: Appropriation (2002/03 Supplementary Estimates) Bill — Second Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Anderton Jim: Appropriation (2002/03 Supplementary Estimates) Bill — Second Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:609;Page:6374] 
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Minister for Economic Development) 
: 
 Last night in the debate on the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Bill the National Party slated Industry New Zealand its operations its quality of service and particularly me as the Minister in charge of it. Evidently I was described as some kind of joke around the regions. Well in my reading late last night I came across a full-page advertisement in the Wellington  
Dominion Post— 
which is not exactly a Progressive party newsletter I would hasten to say—and in it I saw an advertisement for a company called Fraser Engineering Group. Industry New Zealand was charged last night with accusations that no one has ever benefited from it. Even the subject of Sovereign Yachts was raised for about the 976½-time even though there are 40 or 50 more jobs there than when the firm started—because there were not any then.  
However Fraser Engineering Group named in the  
Dominion Post  
on Wednesday 14 May is located at 18 Peterkin Street Wingate Lower Hutt. So it is a local company headed by a good young couple Martin and Raewyn Simpson and with John Fraser as a partner. 
The company has been going for 50 years and this young couple took over the company a few years back. I can assure members that they are certainly not paid-up supporters of any party I have ever belonged to. They have developed their business and now have premises at Wakefield St in Alicetown Petone. They are specialists in the manufacture of waterway and firefighting equipment. I have been to their factory and had a look because they did not think that Governments ever did anything for anybody and thought that we were all useless. That is what they said at a public meeting I spoke at. I said: “Well look we’ll show you something and see whether we can prove that’s wrong.” 
When asked what was its biggest business triumph last year Fraser Engineering said that it was purchasing and moving four companies on to a custom-designed site and winning contracts worth over $30 million for fire appliances for New Zealand Australia and Fiji. That is not the only thing it does but $30 million of firefighting equipment and appliances is not too bad for a little company in Lower Hutt. The company became an accredited supplier to General Motors internationally and that is not a bad effort either. So there is a company that has been doing well. 
Here is an interesting thing. The next question was: “How can the Government”—this is the Labour-Progressive coalition Government—“specifically assist your industry?”. Last night members would have heard from National and ACT that “there’s no way they should be doing this; they should be keeping out of it.” and “They’re useless anyway even if they do get into it.” What is the answer? What would members pay for the following kind of comment from one of our high-growth intellectually proficient and progressive high-tech companies? The answer in the  
Dominion Post 
 from Fraser Engineering was: “Continue to fund Industry New Zealand so they can continue to provide advice and assistance which we have found to be invaluable.” Did I actually put that advertisement in the newspaper? No I did not. I could not have convinced the  
Dominion Post  
to write that if I had paid it $100 million. But here it is in the advertisement for Fraser Engineering. The next thing the company said when describing what the Government could do specifically to assist its industry was “Keep the Hon Jim Anderton as Minister for Economic Development.” 
Last night I was a joke over there on the Opposition benches but one of our most high-growth high-tech companies took out an advertisement in the paper and said “Please keep Industry New Zealand.” ACT members are in the House today. That party thinks Industry New Zealand is a load of rubbish and should not be in existence. Last night I was slated and rubbished by the National Party yet here is one of our young high-tech engineering companies saying “For goodness’ sake keep Industry New Zealand because it is doing a great job and keep Jim Anderton because he is doing a great job as Minister for Economic Development.” 
The point about all that is to ask members when they last saw an advertisement in the paper that said: “Please put Richard Prebble in as Minister of Rail.” I have looked but I have not seen one. I can imagine a whole lot of New Zealanders saying: “For goodness’ sake don’t get Richard Prebble back as Minister of Rail.” What do members think about John Carter as Minister of Agriculture? He had a lot to say last night about how terrible the north is when that region actually has one of the highest growth rates in New Zealand right now as I speak. 
When I came into office with the Labour-led Government in 1999 the Northland region was one of the basket-case territories of New Zealand. John Carter was there when it was a basket case and he is there now when it is really going well. What is the difference between the time when he was there when the Northland region was a basket case and now? The difference is that now there is a Labour-Progressive Government and when he was there when it was a basket case there was a National Government. What is there about that that we do not understand? Have those members of that Government learnt anything? No they have not. When did I see an advertisement that said: “Please keep Gerry Brownlee as Minister of Education. We need him as Minister of Education. What more could you do for us than put Gerry in as Minister of Education?”. I have not seen an advertisement from the health sector that said: “Could we have Roger Sowry as Minister of Health?”. I have never seen an advertisement like that. I have never seen an advertisement that said: “Please please please can we have Mr Don Brash as our Minister of Finance?”. As for having Bill English as Prime Minister—no I do not think so. 
So when we think about the debates going on in the House about what this Government is or is not doing I say that I cannot honestly remember when I have seen private sector organisations putting in advertisements like that without any solicitation from the Government. And if members want any evidence—and I know there are questions about the Progressive party a new party but we will see at the next election—this Government is a totality of every component of it and if the Government is successful it is successful because everyone in it is working towards that success. That is the reality of it and the Progressive party plays its role. 
The challenge for everyone in Parliament and for the political parties that are represented here is to get good things done for people. Have we helped to get good things done for Fraser Engineering? The answer is yes. Does that mean we have done good things for the people who work at Fraser Engineering? The answer is yes. How many staff did it have when it started? It had about 30. I know that because that is what it had when I first went to see it. How many does it have now? It has about 75. If every company in New Zealand was doubling or tripling its staff in a 3 to 4-year period how about that for some growth? This is in a high-tech engineering area where we have taken contracts off the best engineering companies in the world making fire engines for Australia and the South Pacific and defence equipment for the American company General Motors Defence International. This is what this Government has been about—doing things for people. 
When I made a decision in 1998 to join as a potential coalition partner for the Labour Party the reason I did it was that the people we represented needed people in Government to do things. I look at the ACT party. I had a thought the other day. ACT has been in Parliament since 1996—I think that is when it first came in—and by the time of the next election it will have been a decade in Opposition. ACT had a chance of going into Government when the collapse of the National - New Zealand First Government took place but it chose not to. It chose to stay outside the Government and fire potshots—wet bus tickets of press releases—at the Government while staying in the safety of Opposition. ACT did not come over into the Government try to make some of the hard decisions and try to do something to lift the country. No it chose the safety of Opposition. The people of New Zealand have a sense of that. That is why the ACT party is where it is and why it will stay there. 
I say to the Greens that they have had choices to come into Government influence Government policy and do something about it but no they have chosen to stay over there. They have all sorts of reasons every time. But it is much easier to be in Opposition firing press releases. It is much easier being in Opposition and being holier-than-thou on every single thing that happens. Over here we make things happen. This is where the action is and I am proud to be part of this coalition.