Clark David: New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeClark David: New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 19 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16811. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North):Thank you—David Bennett: Didn’t have to wait long.Dr DAVID CLARK: I did not have to wait too long as it turned out. The National member Ian McKelvie clearly felt that there was not much to contribute on this bill the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Amendment Bill.We in the Labour Party will be supporting this bill because it seems that the powers in it are sensible—at least worth discussing at the Finance and Expenditure Committee. Of course the Cullen fund was started under a Labour Government and since its inception in 2003 the fund has returned 9.55 percent a year well exceeding static investments in banks and the like. This Government on the other hand has a shocking record on savings. It suspended the payments to that fund. It has borrowed more money than any Government. It has out-borrowed Muldoon and that is a pretty shocking statistic. This is a Government that has borrowed and borrowed and borrowed. As we all know it has the worst economic record of any Government in the last 50 years and that is quite an achievement.Of course on average we know that since World War II Labour Governments have grown the economy faster and more than National Governments. That in itself is not known by every citizen—that National Governments since World War II have on average grown the economy by 2.9 percent. You know that is not bad for second place. But it is only a two-horse race so let us not forget that. Labour Governments since World War II have on average grown the economy by 3.7 percent thereby growing the economy faster. Labour Governments have proven themselves able to make the big strategic decisions. That is why what we are tinkering with here is a Labour initiative. If you want tinkering National is the party for you. It is interested in tactical moves. Labour of course is interested in the big decisions and the strategic decisions that need to be taken when the economy has challenges that need to be faced.Let us look at employer contributions in the KiwiSaver scheme. It was 4 percent when this Government took it over. The Government took it down to 2 percent and then round it went back up again to 3 percent. This is a Government that has no idea where it is going. One minute it is down the next minute it is up. It is suspending this payment it is borrowing money and now we have a little bit of freeing up for the Superannuation Fund. Well this is sensible and Labour will support sensible steps on the odd occasion that this Government is prepared to take them.We are more focused on the big issues and on making sure that New Zealanders face lower power prices. We are thinking of things like our NZ Power policy which will reduce power costs for businesses by about 5 percent per annum. That is significant. Kiwi households will have their power prices lowered by about several hundred dollars per year—by about $300 to $500 per year for New Zealand households. That is significant. This Government is prepared to let things beetle along ticking out of control slowly getting worse and to manage decline. It regards that as OK because it is now arrogant and out of touch.David Bennett: This is the worst speech for 50 years.Dr DAVID CLARK: The Government members are jollying themselves over there. They are kind of cheerful. They are enjoying being on that side of the House but they have got no real ideas. They do not have an idea about how they are going to take this economy forward and how they are going to ensure economic growth in this country. The Government is busy trying to work out who its coalition partners might be—whether it is crazy Colin Craig and Ms Barry I note is nervous about her seat and well she might be. The fund-raising for the National Party is down in the North Shore and the party instrument is unhappy about that. The party is worried about Jamie what’s-his-name the new guy from the ACT Party who wants everyone to consider marrying their family members. These are the partners it has got. It is worried about the problem of trying to get back into Government at any cost. It does not have the ideas to back it up.I have talked about NZ Power. I will talk also about KiwiBuild. Labour is going to partner with industry to build 10000 houses per annum because we recognise that there is a problem that needs fixing. This Government is content to leave it to the market. I am sure that Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga will leap to his feet shortly to say that the market will solve all of these things. It is like Simon Bridges who says that NZ Power is not going to work that the Labour Party plan is too big and too bold and that the market just needs to settle down. It just needs a bit more time to bed in he said after 15 years in place and power prices still going up out of control. There was $4.3 billion worth of price gouging in the early 2000s. Simon Bridges said that it just needs a little more time to bed in. That shows you how out of touch members have become on that side of the House. They are looking after their own interests and the interests of a privileged few and that is coming at the expense of all New Zealanders.National is watching the gap between rich and poor grow and grow and grow. We know that it is at the highest levels—at the highest levels—it has ever been since proper statistics were recorded. We know that hungry kids do not learn properly. So if we have a policy like the Best Start policy that Labour has which is going to make sure that there is a little bit more money in those family households so that kids do have enough to eat in the morning we are going to actually have better outcomes in the longer term. That is the strategic thinking the long-term thinking the kind of change a Labour Government will bring not the tactical short-term penny-pinching that you get from a National Government that gives tax cuts only to the wealthy. We know that of those 2010 tax cuts 40 percent of the value went to the top 10 percent of earners. Just 2 percent went to the bottom 20 percent of earners. So that gap between rich and poor grows and grows and grows and it is those people in the middle who are feeling squeezed the most. They are feeling squeezed because they are watching the cost of living go up power prices out of control and a Government that is happy to leave it to the market. The Government thinks that power prices are about right says Mr Key—it thinks they are about right. It is not prepared to tackle the housing issue—the market will sort it out. Garages are being built—what is wrong with that? Where is the problem? That is the National Government’s answer.Today we have seen another great announcement from the Labour Party which is looking to make real change that will matter and that is to the forestry sector. It is a really comprehensive plan that will give proper tax incentives to build new processing so that we have value-added products not just volume going off in shipping containers. This is a plan that is bold that will make real difference for New Zealanders and real difference for an industry. We have leading-edge innovation. We have a Labour Party committed to research and development. New Zealand has amongst the lowest levels of investment in research and development of the world and that is a disgrace—overseen again by this Government. We want public science backing the development of wood-plastic composites. We want building standards. We want procurement strategies. All of these things are outlined in the Wood First policy announced by David Cunliffe today. These are the big changes not the kind of tinkering that you will find in this bill.We have big plans and that is the same with our savings policies. This superannuation policy allowing the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation to delegate a bit of responsibility here and there is positive but it is not the kind of change like universal KiwiSaver that Labour would introduce. We know that where they have had it in Australia they have now got $1.7 trillion—$1.7 trillion—in retirement savings and when a business is looking to invest it has got support coming out of its ears if it has got a good idea. In New Zealand if you are wanting to start a business and you have got a good idea I am afraid that it is a case of handing around the baseball cap for $20 notes from the family. That is the difference. That is the vision of this Government here. It is quite happy with that status quo—without savings without the kind of economic structures and without the long-term thinking that will see New Zealand grow the pie.That is why the history tells us that National grows the economy slower than Labour. That is what the history tells us. That is what the history since World War II tells us—black and white statistics clear as day. National is after the tactical short-term penny-pinching. We will grow the economy in the interests of all New Zealanders. We will share the gains. We will not grow inequalities like National does. We will produce value-adding in the forestry sector. We will lower power prices so that all businesses can get ahead and so that families have lower power bills. We will build houses. We will make sure that they are warm. We will partner with industry to build houses and we will make sure there are warm safe houses for all New Zealanders. We will share the spoils across all people in this country not just the wealthy few.Labour has a plan. We have long-term vision and strategic thinking not the short-term tactical stuff that this arrogant out-of-touch Government has produced. We will ensure that any economic recovery benefits everybody not just the privileged few. And that is the difference between the two main parties sitting here in this particular Parliament. The Government is prepared to watch the cost of living continue to go up. It is not prepared to make the big calls. It is prepared to do a bit of corporate welfare to Rio Tinto a bit of a casino deal over here—this kind of thing—and to intervene in the market for broadband. It will intervene here or there where it thinks its interests are at stake. It will do something for a golf game to get a big donation to charity and there is more on that to come I am quite sure. Labour has the big ideas the long-term view in the interests of New Zealanders. National is making short-term decisions and it is hurting New Zealand.