Burton Mark: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Burton Mark: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:615;Page:10893] 
Hon MARK BURTON (Minister of Defence) 
: 
 I have a question for the House. Why will Don Brash not debate with Michael Cullen on the economy? Why the sideshows? Even a cursory glance will give the answer to that question. Even a quick look shows the success that keeps Dr Brash well and truly away from the economy. The Government is on track to meet its goal of lifting New Zealand into the top half of the OECD. Last year our growth rate topped the OECD. We had 13 consecutive quarters of positive growth and that is why Don Brash does not want to debate the economy. The member was supposed to come here with some expertise and some credibility but he does not want to debate the economy with anyone. 
Gross domestic product (GDP) has increased 3.9 percent in 12 months. We have seen the lowest level of unemployment in a generation in the last 4 years. There are 176000 New Zealanders in jobs that did not exist before—the highest participation rates ever in the New Zealand workforce. That is why Don Brash does not want to debate the economy with Michael Cullen. Every region in New Zealand is sharing in that growth. We have seen the sort of economic activity and excitement in the regions of New Zealand that has not been there for a generation. It has happened because we are a Government that is determined and committed to working in creative and innovative ways with creative and innovative New Zealanders because we know that in doing that together we are a world-beating country. 
I say to members opposite that in the end New Zealanders understand that sort of progress. They understand that we cannot be dragged backwards as a nation by divisive and destructive policies or politicians. New Zealanders will simply reject that because they are just too sensible to buy into it. 
The Government has built the foundations for change and improvement. We can see the results emerging and as Minister of Tourism nowhere can we see that more than in the tourism sector. We see growth for potential economic return in this sector as huge. As a Government we have got alongside the industry and worked with it. 
Despite everything that was happening in the world and everything that one would think would undermine the opportunity for positive tourism growth 2003 was the best year ever for New Zealand. We topped 2100000 visitors. That was a 3 percent growth in actual numbers—an all-time high—in a year that saw the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus and the war in Iraq. That performance is virtually unparalleled anywhere in the world. 
Most important visitor expenditure increased at twice the rate of the numbers coming in and that growth is projected to continue for the next 5 to 7 years. That is the projection that Tourism Research Council New Zealand offers. So most important we have the numbers and steady growth but the growth in yield means that the commitment to high quality and high yield—the sort of tourism that gives New Zealand not only economic benefit but the opportunity to manage tourism growth in a way that is good for New Zealand’s economy good for jobs and good for growth—is also managed in such a way that we can protect preserve and even enhance the environments. It is the physical natural environments and the cultural qualities that we value and should want to protect; and indeed that is what the very sorts of visitors whom we are increasingly targeting want to come and share in and experience with us. 
This does not happen by accident or pure chance. It happens because we have a Government that is working constructively and collaboratively with an industry. A little over 4 years ago I had the privilege of being appointed as Minister of Tourism. I walked into a portfolio characterised by a legacy of disunity and distrust left by the outgoing National Government. That is the only polite way of describing the relationship between the Government and the industry. That was the McCully legacy in tourism. It is not surprising that a relationship in that condition was not nurturing the sort of growth nor the quality that can now be seen. 
So my first job as Minister of Tourism was to get alongside as so many of my colleagues have done with their respective portfolios and sectors to build the relationships and trust and to work collaboratively with the tourism industry. From that in the first year we saw the creation of the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010. We did that together—the Government and the industry—and together we are as a result attracting the high-yield high-value visitors I talked about before. 
I meet regularly with the stakeholders in this industry. I work closely with agencies like Tourism New Zealand on trade missions both here and overseas. I have attended the Trenz conference and the tourism conference here. I have worked alongside really innovative Kiwi business people who go to places like Kiwi Link a trade fair in Los Angeles last year working with 50 or so key business people alongside key players in the US market. The outcome of that as we have done it all over the world is that our trading partners see a Government and an industry that have a collaboration that they can trust rely on and can have confidence in. 
We are seeing the benefit of that as a country. We are seeing the contribution that tourism makes. It is now almost equal to the dairy industry. I do not think many members in this House understand yet just how significant this industry is. It is second only to dairy and I predict that within 2 years it will be the single biggest contributor of export income to New Zealand. Over $15 billion is generated for the New Zealand economy by domestic and international tourism. It is a colossal contribution. Nine percent of gross domestic product (GDP) or one in 11 jobs in the New Zealand economy—directly and indirectly—are generated by this industry. Yet the outgoing Government the supposedly business-friendly National Party had trashed that relationship. 
That seems to be those members’ style and their way—whether it is with business tourism or any other sector of New Zealand society they are divisive and they are destructive. That is not how to build good business relationships any more than it would build any other sort of relationship. This Government is committed to building a constructive New Zealand. It is committed to working with New Zealanders of every walk of life so that the benefits of economic growth and developments are shared equally among our people and shared fairly so that the benefits of growth and development go to all parts of our country. That is the sort of nation that the Labour-Progressive Government is committed to achieving not division or destruction of social relationships. 
Members opposite will be able to raise these nasty little issues with monotonous regularity because they are the issues that desperate Opposition politicians raise. They are the nasty little issues and sores that get picked at by Opposition members. Let me tell those members they will be doing that for a long time to come because the Opposition is where they will remain. 
Tourism is committed as an industry and a sector to playing its part. This Government will work with that industry because we know that out of that sort of working relationship and partnership we can contribute to the growth of our nation for the benefit of all New Zealanders—of all creeds and colours and of all walks of life. That is why I am proud to be part of the Helen Clark Labour-Progressive Government.