Carter David: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Carter David: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:674;Page:20416] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (Acting Minister for Economic Development) 
: 
 It is always a pleasure to follow the Hon Shane Jones because although he speaks with passion and panache one can certainly be sure when one analyses the substance of his contribution that there is very very little in it. 
I take particular delight in having following Labour’s spokesperson on economic development the Hon David Parker—the great Labour Party strategist who appears to have taken them from a solid base of around 30 percent in the polls to about 25 percent and still declining. It is interesting to note that even though he is the spokesman on economic development he did not actually speak to Vote Economic Development; he spoke entirely to Vote Finance a debate we had last week. 
I am very proud of the role the Ministry of Economic Development is playing in this economy. When we became the Government in 2008 the Ministry of Economic Development was described to me as an ATM; it simply doled out money all over the show with no focus on the delivery of results. What we have done over the last 2½ years is very much to focus this agency on developing economic growth. We have a very simple agenda. There are six drivers that are important for the economic growth agenda. We have to support better science and innovation and there is a huge story to tell there about what we have achieved. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: You’ve cut the research and development funding. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: The member yells out that we have cut research and development funding. Again Steve Chadwick is wrong—again she is wrong. In respect of Vote Science and Innovation in the last Budget $170 million was made available to knowledge-intensive companies to grab a grant from the Ministry of Economic Development so that they can undertake research. What about the primary sector? That member said we have cut research but $477 million has been spent on primary sector research and development today. What did Labour do? It talked about a $1 billion project. Do members know how successful it was? Not one company applied to take it up because they had no faith in that Government. So Steve Chadwick is not right: this Government has not cut investment into research and development; we have increased it and increased it substantially. We know the importance of spending money on science and research to get this economy moving. 
The other thing that needs to be remembered in this debate is the mess that the previous Labour Government left at the end of 2008: a legacy of 10 years of deficits which had to be addressed. The only way we can address this is to get the tradable sector of the economy—the export sector—trading properly. What had happened is that that Government had completely unbalanced the economy. It actually had the tradable sector of the economy— 
Hon Shane Jones 
: How? 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Mr Jones ought to know: he sat around the Cabinet table. He had the tradable sector of the economy in recession from late 2004—late 2004. So he can stand here and blame the global financial crisis—no one had heard of it in 2004—yet New Zealand had its tradable sector in recession masked by a massive increase in Government spending which was completely unsustainable. I think that member knows it well. 
When we examined Vote Economic Development in the Commerce Committee I was pleased with the acknowledgment from that select committee that we were addressing the issues of the Christchurch earthquake. I get annoyed every day when we have the likes of Clayton Cosgrove coming into the House day after day trying to play politics with the situation that people are in down in Christchurch. What we need is this Parliament to work together to face the biggest economic challenge we face and that is getting our second-largest city rebuilt. It is not helped by the Hon Clayton Cosgrove taking every opportunity to play cheap politics with this issue. 
The final issue I want to mention is of course the fact that there are 32 days until the Rugby World Cup. This has been a real focus for Vote Economic Development. 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Helen Clark got the cup over here in Aotearoa. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Well Helen Clark got the cup here; that is true. I am interested to see whether she bothers to come back and watch a single game; I bet she does not do so. I just take the opportunity to say to all New Zealanders to make the most of the Rugby World Cup.