Bridges Simon; Carter DavidHon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister for Economic Development): After a speech like that no wonder Labour is starting to cut the Greens' lunch. The statistics were out last week. They are done by Statistics New Zealand. Sometimes they are up sometimes they are down but what they show quite clearly in regional New Zealand all around the country is that we are growing and we are going well as a country. Out of the 15 regions in New Zealand 12 have had really good—actually I would argue strong—GDP growth in the last year. The Bay of Plenty where I hail from—7.7 percent growth. That is remarkable on the back of a productive sector with a huge amount of services work. There is kiwifruit which I know Mr Speaker you know a bit about from past careers. In Auckland there was 6 percent regional GDP growth. Otago had 4.8 percent regional GDP growth. And there were others—actually quite a number of others—at 3-plus percent growth. Whether it is Northland Mr Peters; whether it is Waikato; or whether it is Mr McKelvie Manawatū-Wanganui and that is not just your farming empire Mr McKelvie that has created that growth; or whether it is Canterbury we have had very strong regional growth in this country—a national increase of some 4.1 percent.In fact if you think about the last 5 years in this country despite the global financial crisis despite the global economic conditions despite earthquakes despite droughts and actually despite floods—I was almost going to say pestilence—and despite commodity price fluctuations we have had strongly growing regions in this country and that is a fantastic thing to see. Despite what nature has thrown us as a country despite what global conditions have thrown us we have had strong regions in this country. We should not take that for granted actually.Can I thank New Zealanders all around this country who have got up who have had a go who have had innovation who have been productive in what they have done. They deserve the credit for the growth of this country in recent years but what is also true is that there has been strong economic leadership from the leaders of the Government. I single out in particular Bill English our former Minister of Finance and now the Prime Minister of New Zealand. He has balanced our books. He has ensured with the sectors of New Zealand that we have a more competitive productive economy. Contrast that with overseas. Contrast that with what we have seen in America where the so-called rust belt—actually parts of that have gone backwards regionally speaking. In the UK not entirely but some parts of the North have gone backwards. Here we have got growing regional economies all over New Zealand. We have got a diversifying economy. Agriculture and primary production has been and continues to be a really strong part of our country and our GDP. But of course services have really come up to take their load whether it is tourism whether it is international education or whether it is other areas as well. And ICT being the third biggest export for New Zealand today just shows that actually it is an increasingly sophisticated economy that we have as well—along with niche manufacturing and many other areas. We have had unprecedented infrastructure investment. We are building a more resilient economy and of course all of this—the growing economy all that we are doing the resilience we are building in—means that whether it is Canterbury or whether it is Kaikōura the leadership of New Zealanders—the leadership by Bill English—means that we are able to cope with those things that are thrown at us.And it has been inclusive growth spread geographically throughout New Zealand. Even the bottom three can I say—we take the West Coast Southland and Taranaki three regions that were down a bit on the last figures. They are traditionally our strongest economies hit by commodity prices in the last year but still strong still resilient and diversifying their economies and the Government has plans in those areas. Of course all of this—the regional GDP the growth that we are seeing around New Zealand—is not just for the sake of it. It is not just so that we can talk about the numbers. What it means is more real jobs just like Anne Tolley was talking about with Project 1000 and just like we are seeing with Growing Regional Opportunities through Work (GROW) Kaikohe another Government initiative up in the North. It means higher incomes across New Zealand. Just as we are getting that the resilience and so on there—Mr SPEAKER: The member's time has expired.