Kaye Nikki: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKaye Nikki: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2949. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NIKKI KAYE (Minister for ACC):I am very pleased to take a call in this new debate around services for business because what we know on this side of the Chamber is that in order to have decent services for businesses and for many Government departments to be delivering initiatives that create wealth in New Zealand we need a good business environment. That means Resource Management Act reform that means labour reform and that means projects like the International Convention Centre all of which members on the Opposition side of the Chamber opposed. So for them to stand up and lecture us on services for business when they have opposed Resource Management Act reform argued for massive increases in the minimum wage opposed the International Convention Centre opposed major infrastructure projects and advocated for increasing a whole lot of taxes is actually not fair.We know on this side of the Chamber that we have got a range of initiatives—which have been set out in a number of these reports by these ministries—that we are doing. They include as I have already mentioned $326 million around National Science Challenges. They include major infrastructure investment. But the one that I want to deal with was just dealt with by the previous speaker David Clark—that is exports. So again we are getting a lecture from the Opposition around trade and exports. Well let us actually look at the facts. If we look at the facts in terms of increasing exports our exports have increased by 16.73 percent since 2008. Also we have engaged in several major initiatives. We have got the Chinese Taipei agreement which came into force on 1 December 2013. That has seen New Zealand exports grow by 17.9 percent.Then we had a lecture around diversification of exports. Well actually—and I know that Mr Joyce has been saying this in the House a number of times—although primary products have been a major factor in this increase we have seen growth in other sectors. For instance in the IT sector we saw 9.4 percent growth in the 10 years to reach $723 million. That is significant growth in that area and part of that is actually a range of initiatives that we have been involved in. We have been involved in investing a whole lot of money around the skills and training in some of these sectors. That has been not only in our tertiary sector and the investment we have seen there; we have also seen other initiatives in New Zealand around things like the Wynyard Quarter Innovation Precinct. All of that is about supporting that information and communications technology sector to ensure that we have that diversification.We also need free trade deals and no one has a better record than this Government. Whether it is Chinese Taipei or whether it is Korea those are things that have been initiated by our Government but we have also seen coming into force the Chinese free-trade agreement. And just to give you some figures on that under our Government merchandise exports to China have almost quadrupled from $2.5 billion in 2008 to $9.9 billion in 2014. Again I was with the Prime Minister in China. He has been incredibly active in that relationship and part of trade is actually about building those relationships. So you have on that side the party that says no to everything. It says no to Resource Management Act reform it says no to the International Convention Centre it says yes to more taxes and it says yes to more regulation. We are the party of getting things done like the International Convention Centre like pushing investment in innovation and science funding and like more free-trade deals. We are the party that is sending the country in the right direction. That is the party that advocates for the opposite.