Lee Melissa: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lee Melissa: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 15 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4400. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MELISSA LEE (National) 
: 
 I am actually recovering from a comment that the previous speaker Phil Twyford made. I always thought of Mr Phil Twyford as a gentleman and I could not believe that he was attacking somebody with lots of hair especially since he is slightly follicly challenged. Maybe that is what happens in Labour because— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! A point of order has been called and it will be heard in silence. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: If anybody is follicly challenged it is me on our side not Phil Twyford. I take that title. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: It was no point of order but let us get on with the member’s speech. 
MELISSA LEE 
: That was very noble of you Mr Cosgrove. Maybe that is what happens as I said. I always thought of Mr Twyford as a gentleman but that is what happens in Labour. Those members have to have venom within their caucus and actually show it in the House to actually get somewhere. 
It is generally accepted that the other side of the House lacks credibility. Those members focus on sideshows obviously—and we have seen that performance in the House—and often those kinds of sideshows fail miserably. I can remember a particular case of a bus that went around the country and was supposed to have public meetings which nobody turned up to. It was such a sideshow. It was so memorable that nobody remembers what it was about. Perhaps Mr Cunliffe will have a better chance. He has turned up to the House you know to Parliament without his moustache. It has been shaved off and he is clean-shaven with a new look and a new tan. Perhaps he might be the success story of the Labour Party by toppling Mr David Shearer as the leader. Perhaps the House boxes of the Labour members are in fact the telling signs. I do not know whether other members have noticed but the Labour members’ House boxes do not have their normal signage. The signage has all been removed and it seems that perhaps a new label is required because of the imminent new leader—maybe. But those sideshows aside let us talk about— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think it is one of the rules of this House that you are not to be brought into debate. My understanding is that the things were taken off our boxes at your recommendation. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Well the Speaker is not going to be brought into the debate. But neither should the member’s speech be interrupted. 
MELISSA LEE 
: Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Let us not actually ponder about what is happening over on that side of the House. Let us talk about the priorities of this Government. Previously the Hon Chris Tremain talked about the four priorities of this Government. They are responsibly managing the Government’s finances building a more competitive and productive economy delivering a better Public Service and rebuilding Christchurch. 
I want to talk about the Government’s finances. In an economic climate where New Zealand is like one-quarter of 1 percent of the world’s economy I mean we are affected negatively or positively by what is happening around us. Countries that traditionally actually did better than New Zealand are suffering in this economic climate and we can see that in Europe. But in New Zealand we are actually on track to getting back into surplus in 2014-15. That would mean that we will become one of the very few developed economies not increasing public debt in these difficult times. To me that is fantastic management. How are we actually achieving this? Well by better management skills I guess on this side of the House compared with the other side and also by building a more competitive and productive economy. 
Budget 2012 forecast economic growth on average of around 3 percent. I think Chris Tremain talked about our neighbouring countries the growing countries in Asia—for example Indonesia which has 245 million people. It has a market that is 60 times bigger than New Zealand’s and it is growing way faster than New Zealand. We need to actually entice their investment and their tourist numbers into New Zealand to spend their money in New Zealand. I think it is actually very very important. On average we will grow 3 percent in the next 4 years with 154000 new jobs created. That is on top of the 60000 new jobs already created in the past 2 years. National is increasing annual spending on science and innovation by $385 million over the next 4 years to more than $1.3 billion a year by 2015-16. 
Earlier this afternoon we were talking about investment and Crafar farms. Well I have to say that I cannot believe that we have had xenophobic rhetoric coming from the Opposition. Shame on them. Grow up.