Bayly AndrewANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): It is a pleasure to be talking in this supplementary estimates debate tonight. I was going to talk on three of the four key strategic initiatives that the Government is pursuing. The first one is mainly about returning to surplus and retiring debt; secondly making this economy much more productive; thirdly delivering better value from public services; and of course the very important one which is supporting the rebuild of Christchurch which has proceeded very well and made great progress. I just want to start with the first one—which I think is absolutely essential—which is about returning to surplus and reducing debt. Of course we are a long long way from 2011 when we recorded a deficit of $18 billion. Last year we recorded a surplus of $414 million and I would note that at the 10-month stage to April this year we recorded another surplus of $300 million. Hopefully we are going to build on that to get an even greater surplus this year for the financial year.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.ANDREW BAYLY: Just before we closed for the dinner session I was just talking about how we have been achieving surpluses and we would expect to continue to do so rising to a massive nearly $7 billion in the year 2019-20. Of course all that means is that you have got more money to spend and this Budget was particularly generous. It has in it well-targeted programmes. We have got the $650 million we are going to put into social investment $2.2 billion into the health sector the nearly $800 million we are putting into science and training and apprenticeship schemes and roughly $2.1 billion for infrastructure. The other thing about running surpluses means you can reduce debt. This is something that we set about trying to bring down to very modest levels particularly when you compare it internationally. So at the moment we are just over 26 percent but the Minister of Finance has got a target to get it to 20 percent by 2021 and that is a great thing to be doing. With growth rates projected of about 3 percent over the next few years this is what is going to generate the money to help pay down debt as well as invest in other schemes and infrastructure that we so dearly want. Of course all of this is leading to increased jobs. We have heard many times in the House how over the last 3 years 175000 jobs have been created in New Zealand and Treasury is expecting another 173000 by 2020. Also this is leading to higher job incomes—a 3.1 percent increase in the year to 2015 against a very low inflation rate—which all means that people are enjoying net increases in their wages which is what we want to do and it is about sharing with everyone in New Zealand the benefits of a growing economy. I just want to now turn to the second part of the big plan for the Government the plan that we are working to and that is around making the economy much more productive and competitive. Running our economy is just as important to achieving this goal. When I say that that is about the Government's entities. So what that is about doing is making sure our own business is much more responsive and what is interesting is that the gross share of Government entities that we are spending money on was about 34 percent when we took over office in 2008; it is now just under 30 percent. Again reducing the size of government but at the same time making it far more accountable and efficient has been a wonderful achievement. I think we need to compliment many of the people in our State services and all the various Government agencies on achieving that. The other big thing is that there has been a massive reduction in the area of ACC and I know that the member opposite—Sue Moroney—is very interested in that. There has been a net $2 billion reduction over time. Also the Hon Steven Joyce is investing very heavily in science and technology and that is correct. That is a very important thing. The focus on building the skills in science technology and engineering is all really really important. We have a target to get to 60 percent of all 24 to 34-year-olds gaining an advanced trade. An interesting thing at the moment and many people do not understand this is we train about 44000 people in apprenticeships. This Budget actually provided some more money as part of a $257 million spend into science and work schemes to see more people get into skills training and apprenticeships. That will take the number of people and apprenticeships in New Zealand to just under 50000. I think that is a point that is well made because I do not believe that many people realise so many people are in apprenticeships in New Zealand. The other thing is we are continuing to enter into free-trade agreements. We are hoping that we are going to get the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement through. Of course what has happened in Europe puts added pressure on making sure that we do enter into good negotiations—which have already commenced—with the EU. Also the complexity now around the exit of Britain from the EU will place added pressure but our Ministers and our officials are up to that. It would be good to be in a position where we can put in place some really robust trade agreements not only with Europe—because it is the third largest trading bloc in the world with over 550 million people involved—but also with England which we have had a long history with. The other thing I just want to talk about is telecommunications. Sometimes it is glossed over but we are making huge strides in this particularly in ultra-fast broadband (UFB). We originally had $1.35 billion allocated to it we have had another $210 million then just recently we have invested another $50 million set aside for dealing with some of the black spots we have around New Zealand. I have seen evidence of this even in my own electorate. I was very happy to be at the closure when the final cabling or UFB was rolled out in Waiuku a small town in my electorate. That was great. I think it was No. 16 out of the regional towns that were involved in the complete roll-out. Of course that opens up huge possibilities for people wanting to work and also to do business but also for general personal enjoyment. These are the types of things that people want and actually demand now. The other one is the Rural Broadband Initiative a very substantial programme of $400 million. The final one which is near completion is the Network for Learning which hooks up all our 2500 schools across New Zealand and provides substantial broadband access to all of those. Finally I just want to talk a little bit about our economy because most people sort of seem to gloss over it. I just want to note that manufacturing is a very important component of our economy. It has notched up well over 43 months I think it is now of consecutive positive growth and outlook. That is measured on a monthly basis of course. But the services sector I think is terribly underestimated in New Zealand. It accounts for nearly 70 percent of our economy. It is a growing part of our economy and it is a really important thing in terms of the access the skills and the talent that New Zealanders have. It is growing substantially particularly in areas like information and communications technology which is now over a billion dollars' worth of exports. It is a dynamic area and obviously one where we have a lot of inherent advantages in New Zealand. I believe it accounts for about 25 percent of all net exports from New Zealand. So services are really important and getting the right framework for those coming back to those trade agreements is really important. The other ones I just want to highlight—we have got the Associate Minister of Tourism in the House tonight—are the huge strides that we have made in tourism. International education is now worth over $3 billion and wine is worth over $1.5 billion. These are all just helping to drive us at a time when other parts of the economy—namely the dairy industry—are going through a period of difficult conditions. But this is the way that helps makes sure that we have got a dynamic robust and competitive economy. Thank you very much.