Wagner Nicky: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wagner Nicky: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 27 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8993. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NICKY WAGNER (National—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 We live in a very complex and fast-paced world. We juggle technologies new ideas and different philosophies. That is the noisy buzz and detail of our daily lives and actually much of what we debate in Parliament—and certainly question time today was a good example of the irrelevancies from the Opposition. In reality only a few things really matter. Only a few things really change our lives and if we can get them right all the rest is flotsam and jetsam. What we want is healthy families we want educated young people we want safe communities and we want jobs. To make all these things happen we need a secure economic future. In New Zealand under this John Key - led National Government we can tick all those boxes. We are focused on the things that absolutely matter to all New Zealanders. 
In an unstable and insecure world—and we watch on the television and see the financial ructions right across the world—this Government is managing our finances amazingly well and our economy is growing. Our health system is remarkably effective our crime rate is down and the quality of our education right across the country is improving. 
Of course just like everybody else around the world we have had to tighten our belts. This Government made a deliberate decision to protect the most vulnerable families. We have kept all the established entitlements including things like Working for Families and increased superannuation payments as we work towards getting into surplus from 2014 or 2015. We are one of the very few developed countries that has not increased public debt and that puts us in a very strong economic position. 
 Our prudent economic management has made things easier for all New Zealanders because despite the global financial crisis and the high dollar our economy has grown in nine out of the last 10 quarters which is an almost unheard-of achievement in the developed world right now. The latest figures show that we are growing at 3 percent and in my home town of Christchurch we are growing at 7.5 percent. We have never seen that sort of growth anywhere in New Zealand ever before. The New Zealand economy is growing faster than Canada’s economy faster than the US economy much faster than Japan’s economy and much faster than the UK’s economy and it is even trumping the EU whose economy is actually shrinking. Our growth forecasts are steady and they are continuing to be better than most countries going forward. 
New Zealanders are doing OK because we are managing to keep mortgage rates low—the lowest for 45 years. Some of us remember buying our first homes when our mortgage rates were in the 20 percent range. Keeping interest rates low for homeowners and landlords helps everyone keep their household budgets down. The tax cuts across the board mean that most people have greater take-home pay and those who are getting superannuation are also getting the benefits of that take-home pay. 
But more important this Government has a relentless focus on work. We understand how important it is to help people get into work. We know that in the normal course of events jobs come and go but good jobs underpin the health and the wealth of our nation and we are working really hard to make our economy more competitive and more productive so that businesses can add to the 60000 jobs created in the last 2 years. So as we focus on the detail of our business in debates let us make sure we continue to do the really important stuff well because keeping families healthy educating our children keeping our communities safe and ensuring ongoing economic security is actually what it is all about.