Calder Cam: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCalder Cam: General Debate[Sitting date: 08 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9650. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr CAM CALDER (National): This Government has delivered a GDP that is amongst the highest in the developed world at a time of long-term ongoing financial turmoil. Such a record is possible only because a National-led Government offers a safe pair of informed hands—a safe pair of hands not the desperate clutches from two parties promising cheaper power but seeking power at any cost. Blasé ignorant or blithely unconcerned about their antics—they have already caused massive depreciation of the assets of hard-working New Zealanders risked the drying up of international confidence in financial direct investment in our markets and potentially been the direct cause of New Zealand having to borrow more to finance essential investment in our schools in our hospitals at ultimately greater cost to New Zealand Inc.Far from saving New Zealanders money this crypto-renationalisation of the electricity sector will lead to additional costs for every taxpayer and we have not even factored in the avowed aim of the coalition of the left which is to dramatically increaseliabilities to all under their extended expanded emissions trading scheme which will bring in agriculture. From the party that gave us the Electoral Finance Act perhaps we should not be surprised but this takes the cake for barefaced effrontery. It is cocking a monumental snook saying “pedicabo” to the carefully nurtured long-term consensus between the two main parties on economic policy with its emphasis on the free market and competition.Socialism had its moment in the sun over decades ago but it has withered across the world with its few remaining outliers in Cuba and Tanzania sustained only by the benevolence of others. Yet a desperate Labour Party has announced it will jump into bed with the money printers of a green-red hue and excise a wedge of wealth from the taxpayers and shareholders in the energy companies and somehow supposedly transfer this wealth to businesses and householders by political decree. Central planning did not win much kudos for promoting competition in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and it is unlikely to be any more successful in Aotearoa. More likely the dead hand of the State would deal up far less fizz in energy marketing the touted savings will be found to be largely illusory and the observed gains in energy efficiency and the development of new generational capacity we have enjoyed to date will be found to slow. The statists have made no mention of reining in the increase in costs of local and grid transmission—another reason to expect less from their policy than the political rhetoric promises. Having seriously eroded confidence in and wiped hundreds of millions of dollars off our capital markets how else could this merry posse of political pranksters destabilise New Zealand Inc?New Zealand is a trading nation. In another life the Labour Party acknowledged that. Indeed a Labour Government signed the free-trade agreement with China. This Government has fostered the first mover nature of the relationship assiduously. Trade which in 2007 was running under $2 billion last year reached $6.9 billion an increase of almost 17 percent in the year. That is a huge success story for New Zealand Inc. Prime Minister John Key in his recent talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping building on the bountiful opportunities becoming apparent in a multiple of sectors including agriculture tourism forestry science education and high tech was seeking buy-in for a further development in our relationship: nothing less than New Zealand becoming China’s preferred partner in creating global supply chains to feed its population.Contrast this with a hypothetical Russel Norman interchange with the Chinese President: “Can I have my flag back now please sir?”. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is integral to this. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is nothing less than a wider Asia-Pacific free-trade agreement which had its genesis in the strategic decision of New Zealand and Singapore to negotiate a bilateral free-trade agreement in the 1990s with the bigger picture in mind. Only last month Japan was welcomed to join the US and 11 other countries at the negotiating table. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is about economic change of a manageable useful and ultimately essential nature if the New Zealand economy is to continue to be able to participate fully in the burgeoning and vibrant 21st century Asia-Pacific economy. Many visionaries see the Trans-Pacific Partnership as an essential building block for a future APEC-wide zone of trade and investment integration.The Greens never cease their alarmist carping opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. How could Labour resist the ceaseless importuning of its new bedmate? Labour’s slippery slide to the left will have red warning flags waving furiously among the thoughtful members of New Zealand society. The threat to the health of New Zealand Inc. is real and apparent. Should the unthinkable happen and the populist posturings result down the line in a future Labour-Green Government then Fiji wouldlook increasingly attractive not just for a holiday but as a long-term destination. Economically we would feel right at home.