Parker David: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Parker David: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 09 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2090. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 Two weeks out from a Budget and we have not had one contribution from the National Government on the economy or explaining why it is that its tax revenue is $1.5 billion down. We hear Paula Bennett the Minister for Social Development talking about welfare reform which is another case of the Government ignoring the big issues. Within 4 years we spend 20 times the unemployment benefit on superannuation. We spend more on superannuation than we spend on the total of Vote Education—that is more than primary secondary preschool tertiary and trade training. For the Minister to lecture us about welfare reform when she ignores what is the big issue shows how irrelevant she is to the big issues in this land. Then we hear her saying at the end of her contribution that unemployment has come down from—I think the figures she was using were 68000 at its peak to 54000. But 1000 people a week are leaving to Australia—1000 people a week. That is 14 weeks of the departures to Australia in the figures that she claims credit for.  
We are not hearing from the Government about the economy because it has nothing positive to talk about. A zero budget—or near to it—which we are contemplating is what happens when your economy is not thriving and that is why National is not talking about that. There are two recent quotes I want to read out.  
Sunday Star-Times 
 29 April: “The Government is fast shredding its credibility as a sound manager of the economy. Each expedient deal it strikes erodes its integrity and its political capital.”  
New Zealand Management  
magazine in March said this— 
Michael Woodhouse 
: What does Labour think? 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: What’s this? 
Michael Woodhouse 
: What does Labour think? 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: We think it is right. It said “Key seems to have a strong personal following. He could probably sell his vision if he had one and if he believed it was truly worth pursuing. The fact that he doesn’t suggests a leadership strategy based more on expedience than inspiration.”  
We have got disappointing books in New Zealand because we have got disappointing growth figures in the economy. Yes New Zealand will limp back to surplus in 2014-15. Virtually anyone in charge of the Treasury benches would have got back to surplus by 2014-15 including Labour. Indeed we produced the most detailed fiscals that have ever been produced by an Opposition party at the time of the last election to show that. The difference between what we would have done and what National is doing is that we would have addressed the underlying problems in the economy. We would have started to cause people to invest in the economy based on the profitability of their business investment rather than on the tax effectiveness of what they were doing. We would have discouraged property speculation. We would have encouraged exports. We would have improved the wealth of New Zealand over time through improved savings—three times the additional savings from what we were proposing to KiwiSaver compared with what National did. Those are not our figures; those are the figures from the Savings Working Group.  
Those are the sorts of things that New Zealand needs to grow our economy. We are not getting them from National. As a consequence the outlook for New Zealand is dire. Our net indebtedness to the world grows every year as a consequence of our exports not covering the cost of our interest and our imports. Every year that current account deficit is bridged by more borrowing from overseas and the sale of our assets. That is the driver of New Zealand’s poor economic outlook: it is our current account deficit. This Government is not rebalancing the economy. That is why the commentators are saying that this Government is bereft of decent leadership on the economy. That is why 1000 people a week are leaving—1000 a week. Keep that up for 2 years and you have lost the equivalent of the population of Dunedin. We need decent Government procurement. We need to do what Australia does. Australia has just had a Budget. Not only does it balance but Australia is increasing its provision for families with children. It is increasing the amount that it can pay to people who are on a benefit because it has growth in its economy.