Foss Craig: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Foss Craig: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:660;Page:8863] 
1. 
CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
 to the  
Minister of Finance 
: What does the latest GDP data show about New Zealand’s recent growth performance? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) 
: 
 Revised GDP data up to the September quarter of 2009 was released just before Christmas. It revealed that the economy had for a number of years been growing more slowly than was previously reported. In fact GDP output in 2009 was barely above the level 4 years before—that is 2005. In the 3 years to September 2008 the economy grew under the revised figures by less than 1 percent per year through the third term of the last Government and before the impact of the global crisis. 
Craig Foss 
: How should the economy have performed over this time? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The years 2005-08 were the best of times internationally and we should have done much better than 0.9 percent growth per year. Inflation was low our terms of trade were high— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I sat back because I thought you might have intervened. The question asked: “How should the economy have performed over this time?” and that is something for which that Minister has no responsibility whatsoever. 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: It is quite clear that the present Minister of Finance had no responsibility for that and I do not think he would want to have it. I can also see Trevor Mallard’s point—trying to avoid responsibility. But the question was about the reports that were received and the obvious supplementary question is what the Minister of Finance having received those reports thinks about them. It follows directly from the primary question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: When a point of order is being considered the House should be silent. The point of order raised by the Hon Trevor Mallard is marginal. I will be carefully listening to make sure that the Minister of Finance does not get into criticising or commenting in particular on the policies of the previous Government for which he has no responsibility. He does have some reporting responsibility for what happened during that period so he can comment on what happened and what maybe should have happened but I do not want to hear criticism of the previous Government’s policies. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: During that period the economy should have grown at the same rate as the economies of other developed countries did but it grew at less than half the growth rate of Western economies. It should have grown at the same rate as Australia’s economy did but it grew at less than one-third the rate of Australia’s. To deliver so little growth through that period of such favourable times was a remarkable underachievement. 
Hon Jim Anderton 
: Can the Minister tell the House whether the GDP growth of New Zealand has caught up to or passed that of Australia over the 15 months under the National-led Government or has it fallen further behind? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: It has not caught up and that is not so much because of the global crisis—everyone has had to suffer from that—as because the New Zealand economy was in such a weak and lopsided position when the global crisis came along. 
Craig Foss 
: To what does he attribute this performance of low GDP growth over recent years? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: In the first case it is important to understand that the revised GDP figures show that an economy that we thought had been performing poorly was actually performing very poorly. For instance at that time Government spending rose by 50 percent over 5 years causing persistently high interest rates and depriving our export sector of the resources it needed in order to thrive. The result is that we have a very anaemic export sector which has been in recession for 5 years. 
Craig Foss 
: What steps is the Government taking to improve New Zealand’s GDP growth? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Prime Minister’s statement last week laid out a comprehensive plan to lift economic performance and to shift economic growth towards savings and exports and for there to be less reliance on borrowing and consumption. In recent years the New Zealand economy has been far too dependent on spending more than we earn and borrowing to fill the difference and we have an export sector that has now been shrinking for the last 5 years.