Williamson Maurice: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliamson Maurice: General Debate[Sitting date: 19 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5949. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (National—Pakuranga): I am delighted to take a call in the general debate today and to focus on just the one issue—that is the economy—and on one particular phase of the economy and it is called cyclical. For those who have not done mathematics they will not know what a sine wave graph looks like but let me explain. A sine wave graph is one that goes up then it goes down and then it goes up. The good news about having been in this Parliament for as many years as I have been here is that you remember that just about every industry you can name has been through those cyclical changes. I can remember vineyards—acres and acres of vineyards—being ripped out because the wine industry was stuffed and now the wine industry is exporting over a billion and just going for it gangbusters. I can remember the kiwifruit industry when there were times when the cycle for the kiwifruit industry was so far in the toilet that everyone was panicking about whether we should even keep a kiwifruit industry. Well now I am told by my colleague from the Bay of Plenty that the kiwifruit industry is booming and going for it gangbusters again. Again there is no other industry I can think of that does not do that. I can tell you that the dairy industry has been through amazing growth and amazing ups and given fantastic returns for those involved and now it is beginning to go through a small—quite small I think—downturn although if you look at the global dairy trade numbers from last night with a 19 percent increase for whole-milk product it is probably only just a slight cyclical change rather than the genuine one. But if you listen to the Opposition those members would have you believe that the economy is in such a state there is a need to revert to a plan B.Well this economy is as resilient as I have ever known it in so many industries—from manufacturing to information and communication technology whose exports have more than doubled in the last 5 years and in every other sector. I tell you one that I do know something about having been the Minister for Building and Construction for 6 years. That industry goes through shocking cycles—shocking cycles. There are times when there is almost no building going on and right now it is booming like no one would believe. In fact the biggest difficulty in the building and construction sector is getting enough of a skilled capable workforce to do the work that is required both in Canterbury and Auckland and elsewhere. So we have got to stop the crocodile tears. We have got to stop the nonsense that the Opposition puts up and—actually I have had a thought. There is one cycle that defies gravity. There is one cycle that I have thought about that defies gravity. Normally Opposition parties when they go into Opposition start to grow and get their vote back. For the first time ever an Opposition party has proved that you can fight against gravity because Labour in three terms of being in Opposition has seen its vote go down.So I have to say that the cyclical theory that I was just talking about applies to the climate it certainly applies to the economy but it actually does not apply to Labour. Why? Because Labour members pick on issues where they are so palpably in the wrong. Let me give you one that Chris Hipkins went to. Chris Hipkins got stuck into the Government today about the amount of land that is being sold to foreigners. We in National are babes in the woods compared with Labour—we are total babes in the woods—because you have got to look at the numbers. In one year alone under a Labour Government there were more hectares sold to foreigners than the cumulative amount sold in our first 5 years in office. I do not get it. It is fine for Labour when it is in office to have signed off on big forests and on farms across the board—and then when National gets in we actually added two more clauses to the Overseas Investment Act. We added two more criteria than Labour—it was a lot easier to do when Labour was in; we made it tougher—and then Labour members have got the cheek to come down to this House and say: “Oh you’re selling off land to foreigners.” Well they should hide their heads in shame because we are at about half the level after our 7 years in office of what Labour sold when it was in Government. So where is the credibility? That is why Labour is polling where it is. It has absolutely no credibility when it runs the line of how evil it is to be selling to foreigners and yet it sold more than twice what the current National Government has done.I am really proud of the way that the Minister of Finance and others have run this economy. It is resilient it is booming and there are many sectors that have never been so well off. Our policy is that we have never had it so good; Labour’s policy is that it has never had it.