Barry Maggie: Appropriation (2012/13 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Barry Maggie: Appropriation (2012/13 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Sitting date: 21 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4584. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MAGGIE BARRY (National—North Shore) 
: 
 It is with great pleasure that I rise for this the third reading of the Appropriation (2012/13 Estimates) Bill. This is a Government that I am very proud to be a part of. It believes that building a more competitive and productive economy is so important it is one of National’s four main priorities this term and a big part of Budget 2012. 
Post-Budget I surveyed my electorate on the North Shore. I asked them about the issues that concern them the most—the local issues and the national issues. I received hundreds of responses the majority of which emphasised the need to get the books back into balance by 2014-15. That is a message that is very clear to the people of the North Shore and to most of us who have electorates. It is something that is totally lost on the Opposition of course. My North Shore constituents were very worried about law and order as well and about benefit reform. They wanted there to be more emphasis on getting people off welfare and into work. 
The majority of the North Shore people whom I surveyed and who responded believe that jobs are vital. It is important to emphasise at this time that we in this Government have created 60000 new jobs and we need to keep to that plan and we need to focus on what is important and on what is planned and sustainable economic growth that will create permanent and worthwhile jobs. One of the best ways to achieve growth is by building a very competitive economy. We understand that very well. It is that competitive economy that allows our businesses to trade successfully with the rest of the world. Our Business Growth Agenda is a key element in building that competitive and productive economy. 
The braying from the Opposition—it is a kind of a little yappy murmur at the moment which will no doubt build up if some of the key players come on in—does highlight its inability and longstanding ignorance to understand exactly what it is that New Zealanders want. They want better and higher-paid jobs. For the benefit of Opposition members—and in the faint hope they just might listen and learn something because they really do need to learn—let us spell it out very very slowly for them. Why is it important to have jobs? Why is it important to have more and better-paid jobs? Jobs give people income to support families instead of the cradle-to-grave mentality that the losers on the other side promote. Jobs also pay taxes to pay for public services. We understand that really well. Of course we need more and higher-paying jobs so that people will choose to live here and choose to stay here. Jobs depend on businesses that are competitive. These are businesses that sell something that people value. 
Of course businesses in turn look at six key things: ideas and innovation and that is an opportunity and we need to create that opportunity; capital to build businesses; resources and that is access to necessary raw materials which are very important for business; skilled people of course to work in those businesses; customers who want to buy the products and that leads to export markets; and of course infrastructure. Businesses depend on electricity broadband and internet. They are all initiatives and all goals that this Government is focusing on. It all makes sense to us because it is common sense. Again it is pretty much unknown and uncharted territory on the other side. If we want more and better jobs for Kiwis we need to encourage more businesses to be based here. That is why the National-led Government is spending a lot of time focused on those six key areas. 
We ask ourselves constantly and we measure it as well whether we are making access to those six key areas any easier. Our Business Growth Agenda will ensure that Ministers and departments are focused on these six very important areas. The finance Minister Bill English and the economic development Minister Steven Joyce are all progressing progress reports on each of the six areas in order to give greater visibility to the Government’s actions and progress. In the past fortnight the Government has released the first two progress reports on our Business Growth Agenda. So we have the  
Building Export Markets 
 progress report and  
Building Innovation 
 hot off the press just released today. 
 I will come to the innovation initiatives in just a moment but I will start with our plan to help build our export markets because it is a particularly important one for my North Shore electorate. At a business breakfast in Takapuna on Friday morning my local exporting companies urged the National Government to keep up the good work. They applauded our commitment to increasing the contribution that exports make to our economy from 30 percent to 40 percent of GDP by 2025. These are targets. They are measurable and we will get through them. 
People on the North Shore exporters who are trying to make a living know that this target is an important part of our plan to build a more competitive and more productive economy. That goal of increasing the ratio of GDP to 40 percent is ambitious and it is difficult. That is probably why the losers on the other side could not even give it a shot because they did not know too much about stuff that is hard and stuff that is ambitious. What is required for that to occur is to have a shift away from producing goods and services for the domestic economy and to move towards our international markets—in particular those fast-growing Asian markets. 
A local Takapuna frozen-fish exporter is a pioneer in the field and has been building markets in China since the late 1980s. Here is Dr Jian Yang coming in to join us. He is somebody who is very very focused on helping this Government achieve the markets that it needs and to develop the markets it needs. The Takapuna exporter whom I am referring to has put in a lot of years of hard graft which is again an unknown to the people who are on the benefit on the other side of the House—that is before they got into Parliament of course. Now they have got a bit of a meal ticket and the older ones just will not let go. They have got no retirement plan of course. 
Our free-trade agreement with China is helping this exporter to actually attract much-needed investment because he wants to expand his business—because guess what? That is good for him and it is good for our economy. 
Another National-led Government agreement we signed on to and joined that makes a huge difference and which was highlighted by my local exporters last Friday was the World Trade Organization Government procurement agreement. This Government procurement agreement means effectively that Kiwi businesses are going to get much better access to an estimated $1.6 trillion worth of overseas Government contracts. It is a lot of money and a big opportunity for us. Under this agreement which is a very worthwhile one—Tim Groser is a very hard-working Minister; he is the kind of guy who gets things done unlike the predecessors on the other side of the fence—countries cannot discriminate against any businesses from another country in their Government procurement processes. It means that our businesses are going to be able to export more products and services to more destinations which is another welcome and very practical development and one that we applaud. 
Frankly the people on the North Shore are much more in touch with the sort of reality that we all live in and as other people who have spoken in this estimates debate have referred to there is a lack of reality on “Planet Labour” and among the other Opposition people. North Shore and Kiwi exporters are helped by other Government initiatives that have been announced as well. New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Tourism New Zealand and Education New Zealand those three important agencies are now being encouraged to work with both the public sector and the private sector to develop a New Zealand story. That is going to help our stakeholders. I have heard from my North Shore electorate just how hard it is for smaller exporters as they struggle to get brand recognition. It is difficult for an individual with a product or a service to break into a market like China. Our reputation as a country is an entry point and the New Zealand story is going to help them. 
Building innovation to get higher economic growth and greater prosperity—New Zealand as a whole just has to keep investing in innovation. It is as simple as that. This is a report that gives a very clear picture— 
Kris Faafoi 
: A very long script. 
MAGGIE BARRY 
: —of the more than 50 policy initiatives that the Government has under way. The concentration span of the people on the other side of the House is not all that it could be but fortunately you know there are more intelligent people on this side who are paying attention because they know only too well that our aim is clear: to improve innovation to improve competition and to improve the commercialisation of smart ideas into research of new products. One of those targets—and I think this where this Government varies from its predecessors—is that we are almost doubling the amount of money businesses spend on research and development from 0.5 percent of GDP to more than 1 percent. The co-funding tools we are doing are excellent as well. It is a lot of money and we are doing the primary-growth partnership—endless initiatives. I would suggest perhaps we should hand this report over. Perhaps I should table this report so that Opposition members will have something to read that they can learn from. 
What would Labour do? It would put costs on business a capital gains tax on all businesses. Well that is going to be great for growth is it not? It will more than double employer KiwiSaver costs—hello? Irrigation taxes—they will knock the farmers. That is a particular sport of the Opposition of course. A minimum wage increase that would cost thousands of jobs an accelerated emissions trading scheme tax on the farming sector—this is all the sort of stuff that is going to stifle growth and stifle business. The cancellation of the 90-day trial period. It has been an enormously successful initiative— 
Hon Kate Wilkinson 
: 13000. 
MAGGIE BARRY 
: —13000 jobs. Thank you Minister. Absolutely. Again all they want to do is rip it down and return us back to the 1970s industrial relations policies because of their union backing. They would wind back National’s ACC changes as well. That would result in higher levies. The losers on the other side of the House will never get it but fortunately this Government does. We have targets and goals and we will work towards them. Thank you.