Bennett David: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2919. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID BENNETT (Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee):This is a good time to be a New Zealander. This is a good time to support the New Zealand economy. [Interruption]The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): Order! Please take your seat. As I indicated earlier the reason the new process was put before the Business Committee was to try to raise the level of debate. Let us see whether members of the Committee can do that.DAVID BENNETT: This is a good time to be a New Zealander. This is a good time to reflect on our economic achievements. Under this Government we have managed to manage the New Zealand economy in a prudent way that has delivered the right economic benefits for New Zealanders going forward. In the most difficult of economic conditions in times when we could have gone into a worldwide depression this country has not. What we have delivered is a strong economic base for this country to go forward. We have low interest rates.Ron Mark: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. Sorry to the member for interrupting his speech but you did make a statement there that has got me totally confused. When has there ever been a question about the level of debate in this Committee and who does it involve?The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): That is not a point of order.Ron Mark: Well you have made a statement and it should be clarified.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): Do not challenge the ruling I have already given.DAVID BENNETT: As I was saying before this is a country that has low interest rates—some of the lowest in the developed history of this country. It is also a time when we have a country that has strong economic growth at 3.5 percent. That is higher than most other Western countries. This is a good economic environment. Unemployment rates are reducing. We are going below 6 percent and we will be under 5 percent in a few years’ time. These are good times for New Zealanders and they reflect a country that has been well managed in the most difficult of times. It is not an easy economic environment out there. It is not an environment that is easy for any country especially a commodity-producing country. But we are still delivering that economic base to grow our country going forward and it comes from stable Government that has good economic management. That is the strong growth prospect that we will have going forward.Last week I was in Australia. In Australia they are facing high unemployment. It is facing high Government deficits. It is facing lower growth than us and it has higher unemployment than us. People are coming back to New Zealand because they know that this country has delivered the right things going forward. They know also that they do not want a Labour - Greens - New Zealand First Government. They do not want the Labour Party that delivered a recession before the rest of the world. They do not want a Labour Party that was going to put New Zealand into a lifetime of debt at 60 percent of GDP and not reducing. They know that they want a country that can be economically managed and done in a very good way. They do not want a Green Party that is going to sing “Kumbaya” on the beaches and think that everything is just going to come their way. They do not want a New Zealand First Party that is led by some cult figurehead who requires all male members to wear handkerchiefs in the pockets of their suits. No New Zealand First is not the party for those people there.New Zealand has an economic base that is very strong. We need to celebrate that economic base. We need to understand that we have the economic strength to go forward and deliver the policies that New Zealanders will want. This is not a time when we need radical change. This is a time when we work on the base that has been presented and we do the things that New Zealanders want in a constructive fair and prudent manner. It is a time when we can look forward and make those investments in our communities in our social infrastructure and in our physical infrastructure. We can deliver the things that New Zealanders want.It is not a time for the radical economic change that would come from the Opposition parties. It is not a time when we would throw the baby out with the bathwater where we would throw away the economic potential that we have as a country. We are growing. That is something to celebrate and we should be supportive of that. Those low inflation rates deliver low interest rates for New Zealanders so that they can go out there and buy their first home. We are delivering jobs to New Zealanders so that they can have the work to enable them to do that. These are good economic times. These are the best economic times for a Western country. That is something that all New Zealanders understand and they are proud of it. We in this Parliament should be proud of that and we should be working to make the most of it. We should not be trying to denigrate our country. We should not be trying to bring in silly policies that will take us back to the 1950s to the control-based economies that the Opposition wants. We need an open free country an open economy that delivers that has free-trade agreements that enables our New Zealand businesses to invest that enables the infrastructure that is there for all New Zealand companies to grow and succeed that enables those educational opportunities that are there that rebuilds our second-biggest city and that delivers an economic return going forward. Thank you.