Young Jonathan: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Young Jonathan: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 17 June 2009. Volume:655;Page:4381. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth) 
: 
 I will save the member opposite from any confusion by introducing myself—I am Jonathan Young. I think it would be a great time right now to remind the people of New Zealand the members of the Opposition who tend to forget and my colleagues on the Government benches that on 8 November 2008 New Zealand chose a different plan forward. They chose a plan for a better New Zealand than that proposed by the previous Labour Government. It is a bitter pill for Labour to swallow no doubt. We hear bombastic skiting about recent polls but right now in the electorate of New Plymouth and perhaps in electorates all around the country the Labour Party is actively asking what it did wrong. That is the question that people in New Plymouth are being asked. 
Two issues struck deep at the heart of New Zealanders and they are issues that still deeply concern them. The first issue concerns being able to afford to live in times— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Never thought I’d hear them say “Bring back Harry!”. 
JONATHAN YOUNG 
: —I say to Mr Mallard that I am sorry but I cannot hear him—that are increasingly becoming difficult because of the international recession. The economy was the No. 1 issue concerning New Zealanders. Following that personal safety was the second issue that New Zealanders were concerned about and they remain concerned about that. One year ago the previous Labour Government presented in its 2008 Budget a surplus of $1 billion. As we have heard within 5 short months that surplus had turned into a $1 billion deficit. By the end of last year the hole had mushroomed to four times the size in as many months. There was a $4 billion deficit and before anything regarding a world recession was hitting our shores we were already in trouble under Labour. We had falling economic growth and rising unemployment. We had higher inflation which Treasury informed us was contributed to by the $4 billion spend-up over Budget last year. We had a rising current account deficit. New Zealand was quickly getting into trouble so when this Government took the benches in November last year it received a hospital pass. Then of course the game got a lot rougher with the global downturn. 
But one thing New Zealanders are feeling up and down this country is that we have not dropped the ball; we have caught the ball by relentlessly concentrating on things that matter to them. We have a safe pair of hands. Right throughout our Government we are staying focused on making sure we deliver where it counts for all New Zealanders. Productivity is the key for our future success. This is a story that we need to understand. We were elected on a platform of unclogging the country’s economic arteries. We were sick economically but Mr English’s Budget is an important step in the right direction. We have seen an increased investment in good-quality productive infrastructure that can boost productivity unlock economic potential and lift growth. 
One of the things that the Opposition has criticised us for in recent days— 
Hon Member 
: Just the one? 
JONATHAN YOUNG 
: Well it has criticised many things of course. But its opposition and criticism have largely come over National’s decision not to continue payments to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund through the fund set up by Michael Cullen. We need to constantly remind the Opposition and New Zealand that the fund was set up to have surpluses invested into it. That means money left over. Given the climbing indebtedness we inherited at the end of last year—going from a $1 billion surplus to a $7.7 billion deficit within 12 months—we ask where the common sense is in continuing to borrow in order to lend to others on the world stock market during a time of the greatest level of uncertainty since 1930. The Cullen fund lost 25 percent of its value in just a few months. We are still in incredibly uncertain times. We could borrow $2 million to lose more than that and then have to pay the principal back plus the interest. Setting up the Cullen fund for saving surpluses made good sense but when the Labour Opposition continues to criticise us for not borrowing in order to save in a shaky market it confirms to all New Zealanders why a change of Government was desperately needed. Labour asks where they went wrong; we have a better legacy to leave our children than that sort of recklessness.