Blue Jackie: Address in Reply 
Blue Jackie: Address in Reply 
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Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) 
: 
 It is a true pleasure to speak in this Address in Reply debate. The Government was elected in the general election with a mandate to get on with the business of making New Zealand a successful place to live work and bring up our children. New Zealand is better placed than most countries. The debt crisis in Europe in countries like Greece demonstrates what happens when you do not act on debt. The National-led Government believes that as a country we must get our debt under control and balance our books. This is crucial to allow us to grow our economy create local jobs and enjoy higher wages. The National-led Government is determined to keep on top of debt keeping it below 30 percent of GDP. We have been and will continue to be responsible managers by restricting debt. We are determined to get back into surplus and we have a plan over the next 3 years to build solid foundations for growth and more jobs. 
We have made a great start. Across the board income tax has more than compensated the vast majority of income earners for the rise in GST meaning they have more money in their pockets to spend. Around three-quarters of earners now pay a top tax rate of no more than 17.5 percent on their income. The average wage has increased 10 percent in the past 3 years and that is taking into account tax and inflation. Superannuation payments have gone up 19 percent over the past 3 years around double the rate of inflation. The married couple rate for superannuation for example has gone up $166 a fortnight in 3 years. We are working hard to lift the long-term performance of the economy create jobs and create an environment that encourages economic growth. 
We are focused on protecting jobs while ensuring a fair wage. I am particularly pleased with the 90-day trial period introduced by our Government. In 2008 we introduced the 90-day trial period for employers with fewer than 20 employees. Research by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research showed that 13000 New Zealanders got jobs through the 90-day trial periods. The Government has now extended that 90-day trial period to all employers to enable New Zealanders to benefit from it and they will I am quite sure. It is good for people returning to the workforce or those without a work history. It is good for youth migrants and women. Quite simply it is a win-win. 
New Zealand is well placed to succeed and create more jobs for New Zealanders but we must back business. After all it is businesses that create jobs. The Minister for Economic Development Steven Joyce recently wrote an excellent opinion piece in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 and I would like to touch on this. He wrote that for New Zealand to be successful we need more jobs and more higher-paying jobs. Jobs provide the incomes that people use to help their families get ahead. Jobs give people the income to pay taxes for the public services like health and education that we value and well-paying jobs are what keep more of our people in New Zealand contributing to our country. And of course keeping families together means our communities are stronger. 
But critically meaningful sustainable jobs will depend on businesses that provide services or products that people need or want. The Minister went on to say in the article that businesses depend on six key things: ideas and innovation to create the business—that is entrepreneurs and ideas people—money to build the business; access to raw materials; skilled people to work in the business; the public infrastructure that businesses depend on such as power broadband and transport; and most important customers who want to buy the product. Essentially if we want more and better jobs for New Zealanders we need to encourage more businesses to be based here. To do that we need to make sure those six key drivers are there and easier for businesses to access. It is all about encouraging an environment that is encouraging to entrepreneurs and ideas people. We need to ensure that we make resources available for businesses to use. We need stronger and more internationally integrated capital markets that provide money for investment. We need to ensure that our people have the right skills. And we need to remember that we have a small domestic market so our businesses will need to access world markets a lot earlier than similar businesses in countries located in larger world populations. 
The Minister wrote in the article that we need to start a “we can” culture and move away from the “we can’t” culture. We need to reframe the argument to “why we should” from “why we shouldn’t”. It is about removing roadblocks and obstacles. The Minister went on to elaborate that this “can’t do” attitude was the prevailing attitude in the 2000s. Over that decade we progressively boxed ourselves in more and more so we depended on fewer and fewer industries based on what the “can’t” group said. At the end of the day the Government of the day was pretty much down to talking about only two of the key ingredients—that is skill training and subsidising entrepreneurs who do not use resources. 
The Minister summed it up by saying that we “need to stop the endless debate about which industry will save us and focus on all industries where New Zealand has a natural advantage. That’s why the Government is implementing and further developing its 120-point action plan that will help build a stronger more competitive economy.” We need to encourage and develop all the opportunities if we are to prosper. The article by the Minister was extremely well written and thoughtful and I encourage all my colleagues to read it. 
Another win-win for New Zealanders is the mixed-ownership model which we told New Zealanders about a year ahead of the election. The Government owns about $220 billion of assets and we are expecting to invest another $34 billion over the next 5 years. Rather than borrow more money to pay for this we are extending the mixed-ownership model to the four State-owned energy companies—that is Mighty River Power Meridian Genesis and Solid Energy. We are reducing the Government’s majority shareholding in Air New Zealand which is already under a mixed-ownership model and has proven to be very successful. The public-private partnership model will bring sharper commercial discipline and better-performing companies as has happened with Air New Zealand. 
We have guaranteed to the New Zealand public that the Government will be the majority shareholder and will maintain a minimum of a 51 percent shareholding stake. There will be priority for Kiwi investors which will allow individual shareholders to hold around 10 percent further ensuring Kiwi control. It frees up between $5 billion and $7 billion to invest directly into the Future Investment Fund for schools and hospitals and other productive assets. The mixed-ownership model will help balance the books by 2014-15 without extra borrowing. And it does put Kiwis at the front of the queue for shares and investments other than finance companies. We are confident that these companies will remain overwhelmingly in New Zealand control. We expect New Zealanders will own at least 85 to 90 percent of these companies. That is because the Government will keep 51 percent majority control. It is a good investment opportunity. New Zealand investors have about $100 billion sitting in term deposits and there are tens of billions of dollars invested by other New Zealand investors such as KiwiSaver the New Zealand Superannuation Fund ACC the Government Superannuation Fund and iwi. 
We will be able to fund new assets such as broadband schools and hospitals without borrowing more. We told New Zealanders about our plan a year ahead. There was no subterfuge. We were upfront and clearly spelt out our plan. It is a smart policy that will strengthen New Zealand’s economy and a stronger economy is the only way we will create jobs boost incomes and provide high-quality public services that New Zealand needs. Thank you.